Feds serve as green tech ‘test bed'

Federal Times (Kauffman) - The Defense Department and General Services Administration, which control three-fourths of the government's office space, say they want to use those facilities to test the latest green technologies. "We hope to be a test bed for new technologies and take advantage of our long-standing role as an early adopter and help to create a market," said Dorothy Robyn, deputy undersecretary of Defense for installations and environment.

Likewise, GSA Administrator Martha Johnson wants to reduce her agency's carbon footprint to zero — not just in the facilities GSA builds and manages, but in all of the goods and services agencies purchase through GSA. That will require GSA to test new energy sources for powering buildings, new technologies for measuring and reducing energy consumption and new green materials for office products and cleaning supplies.

Efforts by GSA and the Pentagon to expand the use of new energy-saving technologies come as the Obama administration is calling on all agencies to shrink their carbon footprints and become better stewards of the environment. Agencies must cut their energy consumption 30 percent by 2015 as compared to 2003, increase their use of renewable energy to 7.5 percent annually by 2013, and cut their greenhouse gas emissions by an average 26 percent by 2020. Both agencies point to several projects in the works that will serve as test beds for emerging technologies that could help agencies do that.  Read More