GSA rejoins CBE consortium

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) was one of CBE’s founding members, and recently rejoined CBE after a short hiatus. GSA focuses on creating great work environments, providing  workspaces, security, furniture, equipment, supplies, and communications. GSA currently employs 15,000 people and accounts for nearly $65 billion in goods and services contracts. GSA has been a valuable supporter of CBE, and was instrumental in the development of the CBE Occupant Survey beginning over 15 years ago. GSA’s Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings is conducting research at three recently completed new construction and major modernization projects to: (1) study the impacts of natural daylighting on human health and identify health outcomes linked to light exposure. This could have far reaching impact on sustainable lighting design as a means to achieve energy goals and enhance health and well-being, improve work effectiveness, and reduce long-term health problems; and (2) examine the integrated project delivery (IPD) process and link high performance outcomes with decisions made during the design and construction processes. This will be useful as GSA’s project teams support future projects, influence improvements to the government procurement process, and offer lessons learned for implementing integrated processes and performance contracting.