Using a combination of high tech, low tech and no tech, government is rapidly reducing its energy footprint, while ushering in a new era of workplace flexibility.

What is great about “The Greening of Government” is it breaks down barriers and everyone can participate.

So, right now government IT managers are talking with facilities/building managers about power usage effectiveness (PUE) and how to reduce utility costs.

Also, these IT managers — many who were “server huggers” in the past—are now embracing server and storage virtualization technologies rapidly. Next, they are setting their sights on virtualizing their desktop environment.

In the procurement and acquisition arena, government and industry are working together to make sure that business and consumers can feel confident in the multitude of Green certifications that are out there.

At the same time, government acquisition, building and technology experts are forging partnerships with the private sector to build and renovate high performance green buildings with a net-zero footprint goal in mind.

Yes, Green is busting out all over government.

Leading A Green Recovery

GSA is investing $4.4 billion in ARRA funds to transform 391 federal buildings into higher performing, greener buildings and plans an additional $1 billion in investment before the end of FY2010.

As GSA’s Senior Sustainability Officer and Recovery Officer, Stephen Leeds has been on the frontlines helping GSA make these awards.

“Modernizing these buildings, making them energy efficient and working towards a clean energy economy are primary goals for us,” Leeds told On The FrontLines in a recent interview.

“It’s going to require greater technology to operate these buildings. It’s not just building the shell anymore, and saying we have a pretty energy efficient building. It’s also how do you help folks operate and maintain those buildings smarter? How do you help educate the work force on sustainability?”

Implementing Best Practices

One of government’s biggest challenges is taming the thirst of power hungry Data Centers. Or better yet developing methods to construct Data Centers to be partial providers of energy rather be total consumers of energy.

“In most Data Centers, if you look at the IT, the cooling and the electrical supply, they are not optimized as a system,” DOE Technology Manager Paul Scheihing told On The FrontLines.

Scheihing maintains you can get tremendous efficiency gains using existing technology. “On top of that, the optimization of IT is the first place to look at energy because every unit of energy used inefficiently is another unit I’ll need to cool or power it. First optimize your IT and then optimize your infrastructure and have both work together.”

At DOE, Scheihing’s job is to provide energy efficiency resources to make both private and public sector centers more efficient. He also has been instrumental in the development the DC Pro software tool used to assess Data Center efficiency.

His DOE colleague, Will Lintner has the task of helping agencies use the tool to make their Data Centers more efficient.

Both are strong advocates of using virtualization technologies to reduce energy consumption.

Lintner, the project manager for the federal sector for DOE’s Laboratories for the 21st Century Program, also predicts that IT optimization strategies will continue to spread throughout the agencies.

“The virtualization of the Data Center will spread down to the desktop. Power management of PCs at the desktop is really going to become a big trend throughout federal government.”

Leveraging Cloud, Cyber and Green

In Golden, Colorado, Chuck Powers is preparing to move into the brand new Research Support Facility (RSF) Data Center at the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL). The facility is so energy efficient that it consumes only the amount of energy generated by renewable power on and near the building.

The new Data Center will employ the best ideas a structured Green collaboration can offer. It is a model for how to design a high performance Green building and shows how much times have truly changed.

Powers was adamant when he told On The FrontLines no longer will he build up infrastructure to support a project that might have a large peak load requirement.

“We want to leverage Cloud Computing economies scale so that if we have a project that has a large peak load requirement for two weeks we don’t end up with infrastructure for three years. We are looking at Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS) to help us.”

Powers, like others in government, is trying to work through the cybersecurity issues. He is patiently awaiting the full implementation of FedRAMP to help him with Cloud security and he is trying to create a model to help process moderate level sensitive data.

“Both government and industry are trying to address the problems to put on controls required for sensitive information,” noted Powers. “The reason all this is important is leveraging Cloud capabilities is a big part of our whole sustainable IT strategy.”

GSA’s Leeds summarized it this way. “When you step back, there is a holistic aspect to this that really fits together from the high performance green buildings, energy efficiency and behavior modification to where everyone helps.”

What we are seeing in the ongoing Greening of Government is a blending of innovative approaches and innovative technologies and a large dose of good old-fashioned “common sense”. This mesh is going to change the federal workplace and workforce and usher in a new era of sustainability and workplace flexibility.

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Challenge Yourself

Don’t sit on the sidelines, participate and challenge yourself and your organization to be more energy efficient. That's what GSA Administrator Martha Johnson is doing when with the goal of a net-zero environmental footprint for GSA, which she calls "GSA's moonshot".  

Diagnosis Green

DOE's Paul Scheihing and Will Linter provide agencies with Data Center assessment tools and help guide them to use funding more effectively in meeting their energy management objectives. 

Green Chronicles

Helping chronicle energy efficiency and renewable energy is longtime EERE Network News editor Kevin Eber. Read what Eber says is trending Green in the near future. 

The Lean Green Data Center Machine

Chuck Powers, IT Operations Director at NREL RSF shows how the new Data Center is consuming and providing energy as a part of the lab’s new net-zero sustainable green building. 

Green Proving Ground—Interview with GSA’s Kevin Kampschroer

In an On The FrontLines interview, the High Performance Buildings director describes why the renovation of the GSA HQ in DC will be a test bed for net-zero design and workplace flexibility. 

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