The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), announced a new request for information (RFI) focused on enabling energy efficiency and decarbonization in commercial buildings, contributing to a more efficient electric infrastructure and improving resiliency and occupant health. This latest RFI comes shortly after the GSA selected 17 emerging technologies to install and evaluate in federal buildings.

The GSA is the country’s largest landlord overseeing more than 300,000 federal buildings nationwide. The agency is investing $30 million of Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funds to enhance the sustainability of federal buildings. This investment will facilitate the testing of innovative technologies through the GSA’s Center for Emerging Building Technologies. The Center consists of three interconnected programs: the Green Proving Ground (GPG), the Applied Innovation Learning Lab, and Pilot to Portfolio. By testing new building technologies in federal buildings, these programs help the GSA make smarter investments and enable and encourage wider market adoption of clean energy innovations.

“Public-private partnerships, exemplified by the Green Proving Ground program, can expedite the adoption of emerging technologies, bolstering the U.S. economy, enhancing competitiveness, and generating jobs,” said GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan. “With 42% of emissions coming from the built environment, Inflation Reduction Act funding will be instrumental in achieving our net-zero emission goals for federal buildings.”

The new RFI seeks to identify emerging and sustainable technologies in the following categories:

• Deep Energy Retrofits
• All-Electric Buildings and All-Electric Vehicle Fleets
• Healthy and Resilient Buildings
• Low-Embodied Carbon Building Materials
• Net-Zero Operations
• Packages of Emerging and Sustainable Technology Solutions

Submissions must be technologies and solutions that are technically and commercially ready for evaluation in occupied, operational buildings. The government will pilot selected technologies in one of the GSA’s programs described above (for federally owned facilities), the DOE’s Demonstrating Efficient Solutions in Buildings program (for privately owned facilities), or a combination of these programs.

The RFI is open for submissions until Sept. 13. Parties interested in submitting an application can review the request on sam.gov at Solicitation #FY25RFI080124. Please direct inquiries regarding the RFI to [email protected].

Since 2011, the GPG program has evaluated 107 technologies, 23 of which have been deployed across more than a third of the GSA’s federally owned portfolio. Each year, these GPG technologies avoid the emission of 116,000 tons of carbon dioxide and save the government $28 million.

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