What is GPG?
The Green Proving Ground program (GPG) leverages GSA’s real estate portfolio to evaluate innovative sustainable building technologies. Evaluations, performed in association with independent researchers, are used to support the development of GSA performance specifications and inform decision making within GSA, other federal agencies, and the real estate industry. The program aims to drive innovation in environmental performance in federal buildings and help lead market transformation through deployment of new technologies.
GPG posts a request for new technologies annually and subjects those selected to rigorous real-world measurement and verification, the results of which are available as reports from the researchers involved and as Findings from the Green Proving Ground program itself. The program is currently evaluating 16 technologies from a pool of approximately 140 projects across GSA’s national real estate portfolio. Many of the technologies are being installed as part of building modernization projects, funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Technologies that are short-listed for enhanced measurement and verification are chosen because they demonstrate the greatest potential, agency wide, to meet GSA’s sustainability goals.
The following technologies were chosen in FY 2011:
- Chilled Beams
- Commercial Ground Source Heat Pump
- Condensing Boilers
- Magnetic Bearing Compressor
- Plug Load Control
- Variable Refrigerant Flow
- Variable-speed Chiller Plant Control
- Wireless Sensor Networks