Green on the inside

THE GENERAL Services Administration isthe country's largest landlord. It managesmore than 300 million square feet of spacein 8,600 buildings owned or leased by thegovernment. It is also one of the most efficientlandlords: Its cost to operate thosebuildings is 9 percent less on average thanthat of the private sector.GSA began focusing on energy efficiencyabout 30 years ago. Since 1985, it has reducedenergy use by 30 percent per squarefoot and the government's energy bill byabout $60 million a year, said Kevin Kampschroer,director of GSA's Office of FederalHigh-Performance Green Buildings.Information technology is playing an increasinglybig role in conservation efforts,as both a target and a tool, he said. IT typicallymakes up the largest portion of abuilding's energy use and therefore representsa significant potential for savings. ReplacingCRT monitors with more efficientflat screens can shave off as much as 3 percentof an office's energy use, he said.Officials are also using computer technologyin the design and operation of buildingsto increase their efficiency.'There is a significant improvement in thequality of the information' being used inbuilding design, Kampschroer said. 'We'relooking for more information on how thebuilding will perform earlier in the process.'To that end, in fiscal 2007, GSA began requiringthe use of Building InformationModeling in the planning process for allbuildings. BIM covers a range of computer-aideddesign technologies, including 3-Dand 4-D computer modeling of constructionprojects. Time, the fourth dimension,represents the phases of a project. That additionalinformation allows more detailedplanning and better estimates of how abuilding will function.'Critical to successful integration of computermodels into project coordination,simulation and organization is the inclusionof information to generate feedback,'GSA's program materials state. 'As a sharedknowledge resource, BIM can serve as a reliablebasis for decision-making and reducethe need for re-gathering or reformattinginformation.'BIM technology can also analyze energy performance to monitor and improveoperational efficiency during the lifetimeof a building.Before BIM, engineers had only broadsets of data that related to a building'score or periphery, said Charles Matta, directorof GSA's Center for Federal Buildingsand Modernization. Now, they haveaccess to detailed datasets on all componentsof a building, which they can useto create multidimensional models.Before the 2007 BIM mandate, officialsused the technology in nine pilotprojects involving new construction,seismic retrofitting of existing buildings,and renovation of historic buildingsin Washington; New York; Los Angeles;Houston; El Paso, Texas;Portland, Ore.; and at the U.S./Canadianborder. They are now using it inmore than 35 projects.Furthermore, IT is a component ofautomated systems that operate abuilding's lighting, heating, ventilation,air conditioning and other physical systems.Sensors monitor conditions and,by observing occupancy and behavior,determine optimal conditions so energyis not wasted. Sensors and individuallycontrolled light ballasts can reduce thecost of lighting an office by as much as30 percent, and systems that monitoroccupancy and adjust lighting and airconditioning can reduce costs by another3 percent, Kampschroer said.Effectively controlling lighting is a primaryway to save energy. Most buildingswere designed without computermonitors in mind, and lighting levelsare often unnecessarily high, Kampschroersaid. Sensors and controls thatkeep lighting at appropriate levels offerconsiderable savings.A technology that is showing greatpromise is advanced metering, whichGSA is adopting in a handful of majorcities to monitor electricity use in buildings.Administrators can view the resultingdata via the Web to gauge howadjustments are affecting energy consumption. It is a necessary tool in cities inwhich the government pays a lower rate forelectricity if it agrees to curtail energy useduring periods of peak demand.About 60 government buildings in Washington,D.C.; 67 in Texas; and a handful inNew York City use advanced metering. Insummer 2007, Washington avoided severalbrownouts by being able to reduce energyconsumption on exceptionally hot days,Kampschroer said, adding that GSA officialswant all major government buildingsto use the system by 2012.When it comes to retrofitting buildings toincrease energy efficiency, the job is easierwith structures built before 1940, Mattasaid. 'They have better efficiency than buildingsthat were built decades later,' he said.'Availability of energy was limited whenthese historic buildings were built,' said MartinWeiland, a senior mechanical engineer atGSA. They were designed to make the bestuse of the energy available. Windows wereused for light and ventilation, and smallerzones within the building took advantage ofthose features. Massive walls helped stabilizetemperatures.By the 1950s, when air conditioning andsteel frame construction became common,designs changed. Large floor areas andwindows fused shut became the norm.'These are much more energy-intensive facilities,'Weiland said.Nevertheless, automated tools for monitoringand adjusting building controls arestill maturing, he added. Systems are oftenmore sophisticated than users can handle,which means that much of the capabilitygoes to waste.'There is a real need for a crossover field'of IT developers and programmers who understandbuildings' mechanical and lightingsystems, Weiland said.In other respects, the technology is not sophisticatedenough. 'We still have a lot ofproblems with interoperability,' Kampschroersaid. 'We're not at the point whereyou can go out and get a comprehensivebuilding control system. We are still workingwith multiple control systems.'