The US General Services Administration has marked another major milestone in its implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. To transform federal buildings into higher performing, greener buildings, the agency announced that it awarded construction projects to more than 500 companies creating jobs in all 50 states, two territories, and the District of Columbia by investing $4 billion in Recovery Act funds.
Since the passage of the Recovery Act, GSA has infused funding into 391 projects. The agency made its Recovery Act funds go further through lower-than-anticipated competitive bids; funding $173 million of additional work to equip US federal buildings with cost-saving, energy-conserving, sustainable features at no additional cost to the taxpayer.
"By delivering on-time and under-budget on these green retrofit projects, we're not only making more cost-saving building improvements than anticipated, but creating new opportunities for more than 500 companies nationwide," said Vice President Joe Biden.
Answering the President's call to stimulate the economy and put people back to work, GSA streamlined operations to quickly award contracts and begin construction on hundreds of green projects nationwide. GSA anticipates that all new construction and major modernization of buildings will achieve at least a LEED Silver certification from the US Green Building Council for GSA's use of cutting-edge and sustainable design and technology.
"GSA's aggressive Recovery Act obligations put people back to work across the country and leverage our buying power to invest in green jobs, energy efficient technologies, and both traditional construction and emerging green markets," said Martha Johnson, Administrator of General Services. "By creating a greener, higher performing federal buildings portfolio, GSA's Recovery Act investments will save taxpayer dollars in energy efficiencies and build a more sustainable economy."
Work is ongoing at hundreds of GSA Recovery Act projects across the country, including the construction of a new energy-efficient courthouse in Austin, Texas, the installation of a solar roof on the Veterans Affairs building in downtown Philadelphia, and the conversion of a former World War II munitions plant in St. Louis into a high-performance, green building.
GSA was appropriated more than $5.5 billion under the Recovery Act to convert federal facilities into high-performance green buildings and construct energy-efficient federal buildings, courthouses, and land ports of entry. In addition to creating jobs, these projects will deliver lasting progress toward building a more sustainable national infrastructure while reducing the federal government's consumption of energy and water, and increasing the use of clean and renewable sources of energy.