GSA Design Standards Target Energy Waste, Fossil Fuels
The updated standards establish mandatory design and construction standards and performance criteria for 300,000 federal buildings. August 22, 2024
By Dan Hounsell, Senior Editor
As climate change continues to impact communities and facilities, the push goes on for increased sustainability standards for institutional and commercial facilities that will increase energy efficiency and cut greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming.
The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) released updated standards for federal buildings. P100 Facilities Standards for the Public Buildings Service establish mandatory design and construction standards and performance criteria for 300,000 federal buildings nationwide.
P100 requires that facilities adopt advanced energy-conservation strategies and eliminate on-site fossil fuel use. The standards call for grid-interactive, efficient buildings, leverage innovative technologies through GSA’s Green Proving Ground, require the use of low-embodied carbon materials and direct potable water reuse. The standards establish benchmarks for:
- electrification — new standards for building equipment and systems to be powered by clean energy sources
- embodied carbon — requirement to use low-embodied-carbon materials, including salvaged, reused, regenerative and biomimetic options
- energy efficiency — enhanced building envelope performance to minimize energy loss and improve overall efficiency
- grid-interactive efficient buildings — new measures to support a more resilient, responsive grid
- water reuse — mandating that buildings have a 15 percent reuse rate for potable water
- construction decarbonization — new low-carbon methods for constructing federal buildings including clean energy operations, material salvage, and offsite assemblage
- labor practices — new standards protecting workers from unfair or unsafe labor practices, ensuring supply chains are free from child and forced labor and that workers are protected from the impacts of extreme heat.
Dan Hounsell is senior editor for the facilities market. He has more than 30 years of experience writing about facilities maintenance, engineering and management.
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