GSA Finds Teleworking Green, Real Property Benefits Unclear

Editor’s Note: This edition of Managing Change contains articles with opposing positions on the value of Federal employee teleworking in reducing requirements for real property. This article is one of two presented and facts contained herein are presented without bias or comparison.

Teleworking and sustainability are key initiatives for the General Services Administration. Both are intended to help GSA comply with environmental guidelines. One GSA executive believes that whether or not those initiatives also help in the rightsizing of the Federal real property inventory is still a matter of opinion.

William “Bart” Bush, Assistant Regional Administrator for the GSA’s Public Buildings Service, National Capital Region described his organization’s ongoing efforts at the March 11th monthly membership meeting of the Federal Real Property Association.

In the National Capital region, GSA owns or leases one-fifth of the available commercial office space, Bush said – some 53.6 million square feet, and $20 billion in lease contracts. In any given year, his organization is in the market for five million square feet of space, he added.

Teleworking and sustainability in operations will help GSA comply with two Federal requirements: Executive Order 13423: Strengthening Federal Environment, Energy and Transportation Management; and the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. By allowing staff member to work from home, Bush said, substantial fuel savings can be realized by individuals, with a related reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

According to Bush, GSA has set a goal that, by 2010, 50 percent of its staff will telework at least one day per week, whether working from home or at one of the 14 GSA Telework Centers available in outlying areas. GSA employees are encouraged to work from home. Employees have the option of using government-provided laptop computers to make teleworking easier.

The private sector has been ahead of government when it comes to “green” initiatives and sustainable operations, Bush acknowledged. “Hopefully, the new requirements won’t be a huge hurdle.”

Bush noted that last year the Federal government reduced its overall energy requirements by eight percent over the base year, with three percent of energy purchased from renewable resources.

Bush stopped short, however, of drawing a direct connection between increased teleworking opportunities and the rightsizing of the Federal inventory. In Congressional testimony last summer, US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Director John Dudas drew that connection, noting that a single teleworking initiative allowed USPTO to eliminate lease requirements for three floors of an office building in Crystal City, with the resulting saving applied directly to the organization’s operating budget.

Answering for himself, rather than as a GSA representative, Bush said that teleworking should be measured in terms of worker productivity and its appeal as a benefit to the new generation of future Federal employees. Space improvement is also a consideration, he added, in that “you have to think intelligently about fixed offices versus an open landscape environment.”

“I don’t believe telework should be measured by how much space I can give back,” Bush said. While it may be possible to realize economies of scale through teleworking by moving from a fixed office system to an open environment of cubicles, in the end “you still need the desk.” Bush acknowledged that “this may not be the way the new workforce thinks,” but stressed that “you have to focus on workforce productivity” when measuring the success of teleworking programs.

In terms of sustainability, Bush noted that since 2003, GSA’s policy has been to have every new construction and build-to-suit project built to a Silver rating of compliance with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) specifications. Among only ten LEED buildings nationwide, GSA’s National Capital Region has two LEED certified buildings – both awarded a Gold rating.

Potomac Yards, a 400,000 square foot facility in Arlington, VA is a leased space that is home to the Environmental Protection Agency. It has the distinction of being the first LEED-certified commercial building in the state of Virginia. Similarly, Gold LEED status was given to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s Satellite Operations Center, in suburban Maryland’s Suitland Federal Center. The NOAA facility has 100,000 square feet of LEED-certified roofing.