Collaboration by Federal, Local Government and Private Sector in Washington DC Leads to the First Energy Saving “Green Button Connect” Implementation in the Nation

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DC Department of General Services

Jun 03, 2014, 10:15 ET


Washington, DC (PRWEB) June 03, 2014 -- Dan Tangherlini, Administrator of the General Services Administration (GSA) today announced that the agency will use Green Button technology to save energy and shrink costs across the federal government. GSA launched this initiative in partnership with industry leaders following a 2013 Presidential memorandum directing federal agencies to strengthen efforts to use renewable energy and manage energy usage more efficiently and effectively.

In support of the President's goal to cut energy waste in buildings, the District of Columbia’s Department of General Services (DGS) and the DC-based consulting firm, New City Energy, worked closely with Pepco Holdings Inc. and Schneider Electric to implement the first Green Button Connect data service in the nation, serving 400 municipal buildings in the District. This program is available for use District-wide, including Federal and private facilities.

“The DC Government and DGS are proud to be a leading part of this national initiative to unlock and leverage more comprehensive energy data to enable better building performance and save taxpayer dollars,” said Brian J. Hanlon, Director of the Department of General Services.

Green Button is an industry-led effort that allows electricity customers to download their household or building energy-use data in a user-friendly format, enabling individuals, companies and facility managers to track and adjust their energy usage. For more information on Green Button, visit http://www.greenbuttondata.org/.

Under DGS leadership, the District is on the forefront of US Cities engaging a cleaner energy supply and has launched a series of landmark programs to dramatically cut costs and carbon across its 27 million square foot real estate portfolio. Highlights of this include: unique portfolio-wide data-driven efforts relying on high-resolution, near real-time data feeds from Pepco; maintaining 100% clean energy purchasing through wind RECs since 2012; the direct purchase of 46MW of off site-wind starting in 2015; and a massive procurement of 10MW of rooftop solar underway now that will be among the largest urban solar PV deployments ever in the US or around the globe.

THE DEPARTMENT OF GENERAL SERVICES:
The mission of the Department of General Services (DGS) is to elevate the quality of life for the District with superior construction, first-rate maintenance and expert real estate management. By building and maintaining safe and green state-of-the-art facilities which foster economic growth and elevate educational environments, our trusted and skillful employees create modern and vibrant communities across all of the District of Columbia.

James Roman Partlow IV, DC Department of General Services, http://www.dgs.dc.gov, +1 (202) 431-3373, [email protected]