White House Flexes Purchasing Power to Curb Climate Emissions
A big piece of the White House’s plan to lower government carbon emissions is drawing on an unlikely source: the federal checkbook. GSA has set a goal of transitioning all its buildings to 100% renewable electricity by 2025, pledged not to use funding under the climate bill to install fossil fuel-based equipment, promised to broaden its use of mapping tools to better understand how its real estate investments affect vulnerable communities, and reached out to the public about the availability of low-carbon construction materials that are made in the US. The administration also recently rolled out a federal building performance standard requiring agencies to electrify 30% of their buildings’ square footage through energy-efficient upgrades to equipment and appliances. A lot of good ideas are expected to sprout from the GSA’s Green Proving Ground program, which identifies promising technologies and installs them in pilot programs throughout the agency’s real estate portfolio, Carnahan said.