and continue to fund abortion for two additional years the bill will again open the door for d c to abuse taxpayer dollars to expand abortion and it completely disregards the views of the majority of americans who do not support public funding for abortion the bill thrust upon hard working taxpayers the values of the washington elite nearly one hundred eighty members of this house both republicans and democrats made a simple and reasonable request maintain the existing pro life policies in appropriations bills and if you don't allow us the opportunity to vote up or down yesterday the rules committee unilaterally acted to deny members and consequently the constituents they represent the opportunity even vote on whether this bill should be used to expand public funding for abortion sucks such actions are an offense to the democratic process to the american taxpayers and to the sanctity of human life i urge my colleagues to oppose the bill and he'll back gentleman yield back his time the gentleman treasury secretary to report back to congress by december of this year on their plans to repay taxpayers the money they have invested in the tarp program the language also requires the treasury to submit to congress the estimates the likely gains and losses from those investments our efforts to shore up the financial system must be accompanied by greater accountability and strict oversight to ensure taxpayer dollars are being spent wisely and effectively american taxpayers have a right to know how their tax dollars are being invested and when they will be repaid second the bill as ninety three million dollars of the budget of the f c c for the first time specifies that four point four million dollars of s e c funding should be used by the office of inspector general creasing their staff one hundred forty investigators lawyers and analysts to investigate and prosecute corporate crime americans want greedy wall street criminals who helped cause this recession be investigated in punished for their crimes bank recent enforcement at the f c c we will send a strong message that if you rob innocent investors of their retirement and college savings you will spend the rest of your life sure in a prison cell with criminals like bernie  of her time of the gentleman from new york is recognize first year on the subcommittee but it's an honor to serve with yourself and such great leaders i want to thank you chairman serrano and i rank remember emerson for their very hard work on this bill in a bipartisan fashion you work together during very difficult times for our economy and of course for this appropriations this bill begins the work of rebuilding the regulatory and oversight framework of the federal government restoring home rule to the district of columbia and safeguarding consumers by reinvigorating the consumer product safety commission by investing in the securities and exchange commission the federal trade commission the consumer product safety commission the i r s and other vi sleeze we can bring back a fair and honest marketplace that is safe for consumers and investors alike we need strong regulators to enforce our nation's financial regulations this will ensure the stable operation of our capital markets helps stabilize the economy and bring an end to this unregulated financial environment during the bush administration which has created affleck in the lives of millions the chairman has also taken great strides in restoring home rule to the residents of the district of columbia as chairman serrano has said we were elected to represent our home districts not elected to represent the district of columbia nor are we members of the d c city council the people of the district of columbia should have the ability to make the same decisions as other communities and cities which make they make these decisions for themselves they should not be subject to the ideological whims of members who wish to advance personal agendas on the back of d c residents these are american and they deserve to be treated fairly just like we'd want our i want to welcome bob thank you david welcome all of you who are today's hearings with particular preachy a xtian to our distinguished witnesses for their testimony the subcommittee will examine plans for green today's world since becoming chair of the sept i have been playing one of my priority goals is to maximize the g s a outside real estate and property portfolio to make the agency the green buildings leader in the country my first hearing focused on my first hearing as chair focused on the greening of washington d c and the national capital region because g s a is the leader in the office building market here the g s a has long engaged in energy conservation efforts well before climate change issues became prominent because the agency has understood the energy value and savings to the taxpayer however with the new administration taking unprecedented leadership in conservation and climate change we are seeking ways to build on the progress we began and one hundred tenth congress with the we began that progress of course with the path breaking energy independence and security act of two thousand and seven i am pleased that among other things the bill authorized have high efficiency light bulb replacements photo voltaic for vision and the creation of an office high performance green buildings for the first time that is required to coordinate with the department of energy which is focusing on green issues in the private sector i am pleased that today we will light of g s a potential impact especially on leasing but also on its own inventory and on the economy and climate change in the nation the president was of the same mind on energy conservation in addition we achieved stimulus funding for g s a or at least the bulk of the funding that was needed for the first building  and in the new department of homeland security headquarters compound to be located on the old st elizabeths west campus the d h as headquarters provides a unique opportunity for the government to build and an entirely green set of office buildings the largest construction and she has a history with a little imagination the potential for energy conservation at  the new headquarters is bounced back down to full green building activities generally cover products and practices that conserve energy and water promote clean indoor air protect natural resources reduce the impact of a bit of a building on a community examples include insulation such as double pane windows that reduce or could serve the heating loads of buildings and positioning buildings in order to reduce the need for cooling or heating the building when building includes reduced flow toilets and low water green building projects natural resources promoting the use of products with recycled content like carpet and wallboard while promoting the use of rapidly renewable products like bamboo flooring and natural knowing him green building projects waterways like the anacostia river and the chesapeake bay but promoting practices that reduce the impact of structures on the environment such as a mitigating the effects of storm water water water runoff using green roofs cistern and perm pavers low paying buildings close to mass transit and including bike racks and storage units with g s a in the throes of redoing its existing inventory or at least part of it in all fifty states the district of columbia and all the territories and with its emphasis in that work on energy conservation a position in the leasing market the subcommittee is especially interested interested in new frontiers not only in green thinking but particularly in green action steps that can be taken now we're interested in greening and conservation practices in the in the work we will be undertaking for example in reusing water and energy and various types of green roofs especially for our existing buildings and the difference and value among various lead designations in energy savings technology and in reducing practices that harm the environment constructing and leasing near waterways with course want to draw on the rapidly developing data that allow us to compare cost to benefit and cost and allow us to know cost reductions that are actually resulting equipped with the largest footprint and the private leasing market in the united states and with one of the most consistent presence presence is in the construction market g s r a must not that these opportunities slip away it has resources at a level it has not had before at one time to do its work our goal is to and vigor rate the federal leadership role in green technologies greening strategies and high energy standards and all new construction and major replacements and the players using its new resources one of kine g s a must now and security act of two zero seven set standards for federal buildings and required them to meet certain conservation goals for example these laws require energy consumption in federal buildings to be rude to reduce by thirty percent in two thousand and fifteen and the use of fossil fuel generated energy reduced from fifty five percent in two thousand and ten to zero in two thousand and thirty again there are very ambitious goals similar zero net energy consumption goal for the commercial sector is also encouraged in these laws and department of energy was also tasked to work with the private sector to identify and develop cost effective technology and technology in order to reach those again those an ambitious goals the office of federal highway performance green buildings with established within g s a and it was to coordinate with the part of the department of energy on those efforts to coordinate green buildings activities within the g s a and to develop standards for federal buildings across the board so so evidently the statutory framework and i could buy congress envisions increase conservation in both not only in the private sector i'm sorry i don't know the public sector but also in the private sector and obviously to carry out these efforts a number of federal agencies need to obviously coordinate now this is in commercial buildings it's also very important to highlight the fact that the the requirements set by the two zero zero seven act go farther actually go much farther than just promoting energy conservation however and i've mentioned this in other hearings that the act sets very strict requirements on federal buildings related to the reduction of energy water and material resource use improving indoor environmental quality and that includes acoustic environments and also considering the indoor indoor and outdoor facts of the building so again it's it's more than just conservation now while steps are being taken the meat conservation goals including the use of l c d lighting systems advanced metering insulation a number of weather zation a bunch of other a number of other technologies the requirements of the act extend well beyond conserving energy and i think some point to note that so i really look forward to hearing from the windsors today about all of those requirements needed for a green building and identifying defying also where g s a is on meeting those requirements of the two thousand and seven act again the very broad requirements now in addition the american recovery and reinvestment act the so called stimulus act passed earlier this year it included five point five billion dollars for g s a federal building fund and designated four point five billion dollars for measures including the bill measures necessary to convert g s a facilities to high performance green buildings now as i've said it's i stated many times before i obviously support i clearly support efforts to reduce energy consumption and to examine the ways in which the federal government can help minimize environmental of the environmental impact of its facilities that is obviously a very meritorious it worthwhile goal i have also stated however before that i believe that such efforts must be first scientifically based and proven technologies must be scientifically proven and based and done in such a way that supports american industries and here's a big one and creates jobs now expressed concern in previews previous hearings at the focus of g s a funding including of the recovery act the stimulus act is on greening federal buildings instead of creating jobs and the two objectives clearly in my view are not indicated before this committee in april that these projects will quoting from him stimulate job growth in the construction and real estate sectors in long term improvement in energy efficiency technologies now we've seen it we read in the news it's common knowledge hey it recovery efforts have not worked the bill has not worked i mean again we were promised that unemployment would be capped at eight percent if the bill passed we are now at nine point five in my state of florida it's ten point two percent we promised a creation of three and a half million jobs when in fact we've lost two million jobs since the bill hasn't acted which is why i think if i was concerned before i think there's more reason to be concerned about making sure we emphasize creating jobs that obviously will something when clearly wrong drastically wrong dramatically wrong with that bill or the implementation of the bill that the creation of the bill i am pleased i am very pleased however to have witnesses here today who may be able to outline for this committee how many jobs have been created through these efforts and i get i'm a strong believer that construction does help create jobs what in this is have been supported and how we can we chairwoman for her leadership and for making sure that we continue to to not only do oversight but that continue to lead on these issues that are greatly important to our nation thank you michel thank you very much  comments that there's a lot or thank you so much and ranking member i appreciate your time here today to appreciate all of our people who have come to testify on a very important subject of green buildings and how we can assist the g s a in the private sector facilities in becoming more energy efficient and cost effective and i'm very hopeful through this hearing that we can gain insight into what programs we currently are seeing that are successful and what programs we see that may need some improvement also i'm very interested in how the g is implementing the cost effective technology acceleration program put forth by the energy independence and security act i've had some particular questions from some companies in my state in oklahoma very specifically climate master in my district that wanted to gain some information about a particular section the energy independence security act that has been implemented rather slowly and i have an interest in how we can use geothermal  heat which i think is both cost in energy efficient to meet some of the energy goes that are implemented in this legislation and i think all of his in this room agree that using efficient technology can lead to greater cost savings as well as significant benefits to our environment and as we decide which in an energy efficient ways to construct and run these buildings or using our taxpayer dollars we should also ask ourselves if we are saving taxpayers and businesses as much money as possible and delivering energy an efficient manner and using the latest in technologies and as we proceed with this hearing and madam chairman i would just like to have the g s a and i may not be here at the time but for the record also met my questions but just i would like to know how we're progressing and geothermal heat to meet some of the goes and the energy independence security act and if we can at some point in time have a list of the buildings that the juice ace considering putting the geothermal heat pump technology and which ones have been selected and how we're working with the industry in these particular sections and that that's really all i wanted to add today thank you madam chairman thank building also co founder with congresswoman judy biggert of the high performance buildings caucus we have advocated not just for green buildings or for high performance buildings high performance buildings that incorporate the holistic systems approach of energy efficiency water savings use of recycled and recyclable materials life cycle analysis and other environmental attributes in a designs that are accessible safe secure resilient and often times historically preserved these high performance builds are not just examples of raw technical ingenuity they're also inherently designed to decrease consumption the overall cost of the building over the course of its lifetime i believe the federal government should lead by example in the way we construct and manage our federal building stock by investing in high performance buildings we not only help bring about much needed economies of scale for these technologies that we also support highly skilled contracts construction workers builders architects maintenance engineers just to name a few by designing and building high performance buildings we reduce energy consumption and our carbon footprint we save both water and raw materials we save demolition and construction debris from going into landfills most importantly high performance building construction creates good paying green jobs that give workers the valuable skills they need to excel in a clean energy economy i would like to give special things to the high performance building congressional ca coalition who at my request produce detailed recommendations for producing high performance that will buildings these recommendations focus on requiring true life cycle analysis for the acquisition of federal buildings requiring total commission excuse me total building commissioning using building information modeling and integrated project delivery i would also like to ask unanimous consent that these recommendations be submitted for the record and to the witnesses before us today want to thank you for taking the time to be here before this committee we look forward to working with you and hearing your testimony curve other countries on greening of our economy and on doing what the federal government the national government can and should be doing over twenty five years ago the province of ontario had a program in which the province surveyed all of its government buildings valuated their energy needs requirements their cost and and the savings that could be achieved and also mounted a program for communities for businesses for home owners and conducted energy audits all throughout the province of ontario and made recommendations to homeowners and business owners and and to  local governments to improve the energy efficiency of their facilities save norma's amounts of money and ontario's a big sprawling province that covers glacier retreated fifteen thousand years ago but every december it stages a comeback so it's very important for ontario and for all of canada to be energy efficient particularly in the wintertime well we we have that responsibility here and purpose of this hearing and subsequent ones would be to measure the effectiveness of the federal government the g s a management of our three hundred  fifty three hundred sixty million square feet of federal civilian office space in those hundred seventy four thousand vehicles that g s a operates annually to see to assure that were the leading not just following leading the way in a g efficiency thank you manager i look forward to the witness just thank you mr chairman and i specially appreciate your leadership throughout your work and this committee and especially on this new transportation bill we are very green committee not just a greenside committee i'm very pleased now to hear from the witnesses in the order frankly in which the camp sure is the acting director of this new office high performance green building in the g s a thank you madam chair ranking member diaz balart chairman oberstar and members of the committee my name is kevin camp sure and as you mentioned i am the acting director of the office of federal high performance green buildings in the u s general services administration thank you for inviting me today to discuss the benefits of green buildings on costs the environment and jobs  its public building service is one of the largest and most diversified public real estate organizations in the world we collaborate with other federal agencies not only as our clients but also as partners in developing implementing and valuating federal green building programs through such initiatives as the energy star program high performing green buildings provide the best value not only for the taxpayer but also through the public through both lifecycle cost benefits and positive effects on human health and performance a recent study of g earliest green federal buildings says energy use is down by over twenty five percent an occupant satisfaction up by the same amount compared with commercial office benchmark data more importantly the top third of those buildings we studied which use an integrated design approach deliver significantly better results with forty five percent less energy consumption fifty three percent lower maintenance costs and thirty nine percent less water use other studies of private green buildings so that operating costs are  eighty nine percent lower building values are seven point five percent higher they have three point five percent less vacancy and yield a six point six total return on investment an enviable thing in today's economy further their initial capital cost is not significantly higher studies in two thousand and four and confirmed again in two thousand and seven document the green building aspects tend to have a lesser impact on cost than the many other myriad decisions that enter into building a new building but sustainable design i not just about cost good sustainable design offers value environmental and societal benefits for example a planted or green roof not only saves cost by lowering the roof temperature and thus reducing the amount of cooling needed it reduces the environmental impact by reducing power usage in the associated air pollution the cooler roof temperature also combats this log forming heat island effect and even lowers the costs for neighboring buildings finally planted roofs absorb storm water reducing water pollution caused by runoff in cities like washington d c which has a combined storm water and sewer system this reduces water pollution both locally and downstream in a test if it be the careful use of materials can reduce energy consumption during the manufacturing process and protect the health of occupants careful construction techniques can reduce the amount of construction waste that reaches landfills by ninety five percent or more reuse of existing structures can reduce can reduce total resource consumption as well as preserve our country's heritage careful siting can make buildings perform better both from environmental and human perspectives proximity to transportation for example reduces pollution and occupants quality of life the key to this is holistic integrated consideration of all the factors that influence building including perhaps the most important one which is the decision whether to build at all much of the focus today has been on sustainable design and without design we don't achieve the goals for example the energy policy act of two requires buildings to be designed to be thirty percent better than the current energy code we need however to have at least as much emphasis on actual building performance beginning in two thousand and ten g s a will require new building leases over ten thousand square feet to have energy star rating which provides a valuable ongoing performance measure but as has been mentioned before energy is not the only component of the state ability the industry needs to expand its performance measures in other areas as well buildings exist in context they are parts of neighborhoods communities and cities there are also tools for businesses and organizations one of the key policy changes of the energy independence and security act of two thousand and seven was to clearly articulate that a high performance green building  bus not just perform well mechanically but must perform to improve the health and enhance the performance of the occupants a key broad measure of environmental impact is greenhouse gas emissions measuring the collective effects  organization's greenhouse gas emissions allows more informed decisions about every aspect that affect the buildings we need to look at the way we buy materials for the building travel to and from the building the way we use the building and how the building is operating when we look at both what the building is doing and what is happening inside the building we can make even better improvements than looking at the building alone the federal government can through its example influence and accelerate the adoption of sustainable building practices and technologies across the country we can help do that through publicizing the quantitative results the increased transparency of recovery act transactions and reporting on results are key to that influence and we are also working with the department of energy to establish broader benchmark tools that will be open to the public and to businesses the jobs created across the design engineering manufacturing construction and operation findus trees will boast a degree in common economy these jobs will provide practical experience and high performance technologies green street construction and building operations g s a is identified over fifty different trades and professions that will participate in the accomplishment of g s a building projects virtually all aspects of construction are changed in some way by sustainable practices and princip and this ranges from such basic things as demolition work where we mention the demolition recycling the reuse and and recapture of materials in the buildings to avoid things going to the landfill and avoid the purchase in the first place all the way to more high technology and obviously green economy components such as photovoltaic solar power systems new lighting systems which were placing in over one hundred buildings building controls in advance or smart meters all of these require people with new training and new skills and contributions to the economy but it is not just in construction that new green jobs are created building operators in the government and private sector and unable to find enough well trained people to run and maintain high performance buildings buildings can easily slip into poor performance without proper maintenance the aggregate result is an unnecessary increase in energy consumption t s a is already in conversation with the building owners and managers association the international facility managers association and others about the shortage of sufficiently trained building operators we believe that t s a is recovery projects can provide jobs along this emerging career pathway that will persist to the future thank you again to this for this unprecedented opportunity all of us at g s who's leading candidate engineer office of building technologies u s department of energy thank you chairwoman holmes norton ranking member diaz balart members of the subcommittee thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the u s department of energy's building technologies program and the normal spot tensional for energy savings in building sector at the department lead the team working through the commercial building initiative to achieve net zero energy commercial buildings our team has been working closely with kevin camps for and his team at g s a on these issues for a number of years as a resident of the district of columbia i'm particularly pleased to be able to provide this information to ms holmes norton in two thousand and eight the nation's hundred fourteen million households and more than seventy four billion square feet of commercial for space accounted for nearly forty percent of u s primary energy consumption as well as seventy three percent of electricity and thirty four percent of direct natural gas consumption giving us energy bills totaling more than four hundred  eighteen billion dollars and thirty one percent of carbon dioxide eighteen percent of nitrogen oxide and fifty five percent of sulfur dioxide emissions additionally construction and renovation has accounted for nine percent of gross and employ eight million people that apartment building technologies program develops technologies techniques and tools as well as minimum performance standards for making residential and commercial buildings more energy efficient productive and affordable the program's goal is to enable net zero energy buildings at low incremental cost by two thousand and twenty for residential buildings and twenty twenty five commercial buildings achieving these program goals could potentially result  consumer savings of nearly three point four trillion dollars by two thousand and fifty we know that buildings the economy beyond the building footprint and electricity use for example flipping on a light switch means fossil nuclear renewable energy power plants must meet that demand buildings also impact land use or supporting infrastructure such as roads bridges street lighting wires and pipes for example consider wasn't water usage while building energy use does not directly impact water the water use for cooling generation plants and electricity production is very large thermoelectric power withdrawals accounted for forty eight percent of total water use thirty nine percent of total freshwater withdrawals for all categories in two thousand as a result of energy savings or a program efforts we estimate we can avoid freshwater withdrawals of almost two point five trillion gallons a year by two thousand and thirty the commercial building initiative was authorized in the energy independence security act of two thousand and seven and launched in august of two thousand and eight that's commercial building initiative or c b i guides and coordinates our public and private partnerships looking to advance the development and market adoption of net zero energy commercial buildings all towards a goal of that zero energy by two thousand and twenty five we are engaged with public with building industry leaders through energy alliances and research partners to move us toward that goal including commercial building energy alliances where we're working with commercial building owners and operators to significantly reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions currently we have alliances for retailers commercial real estate and hospitals in place with more under development we've been working with commercial building national accounts which are large commercial building owners portfolios many similar buildings been working with our technical experts at the national laboratories to construct buildings that can achieve savings of fifty percent or more in new buildings or retrofit savings of at least thirty percent we are also looking to select a building industry group a consortium to help us disseminate that information on the new technologies and the opportunities to the commercial building community the building the department's building technologies program is using up to three hundred forty three million dollars in recovery act funds to expand and accelerate research and development activities including advanced building systems research projects focusing on system integration and control about new and existing buildings residential building design and development expanding work to an increase homeowner energy savings through retrofit and new home designs the commercial building initiative where projects are accelerating and expanding partnerships for exemplary energy performance with major companies that own  build manage or operate large portfolios of buildings the building and appliance market transformation work will be working to also take that out into a deeper penetration the solid state lighting research and development area will be rapidly advancing energy efficient solid state lighting development and manufacturing in conclusion i want to thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today and i'm happy to answer any questions creation and expansion of good green jobs a top prize already especially for economic revitalization and sustained economic growth green jobs can benefit the american worker by offering good wages pathways to long term career advancement and prosperity at the department of labor working to support green jobs through investments in quality labor market information about green jobs investments in training or employment services to support the job growth in green industries and encouraging registered apprenticeship in green industries such as construction and building retro the recovery act provided five hundred million dollars to prepare workers to pursue careers in energy efficiency and renewable energy industries on june twenty fourth secretary sebelius announced five grant competitions for green jobs training for the competitions are designed to serve workers in need of training through various national state and community entities in outlands the fifth competition will fund state workforce agencies to collect analyze and disseminate labor market information about careers in green industries the deadlines for each of these competitions are staggered throughout the fall department of labor is working in other ways to promote green jobs we're partnering with other federal agencies to support the creation of jobs to develop pipelines of skilled workers in the energy efficiency and renewable renewable energy industries the department's employment training administration plans to promote training in green industries including green construction through its regular programming programs such as youth build women an apprenticeship and nontraditional occupations and the job corps department of labor is also prioritizing green jobs in our fiscal year two twenty ten budget request we proposed the creation of a fifty million dollar green jobs innovation fund to help workers access and and participate in green career pathways the department's bureau of labor statistics in consultation with other federal agencies is working to define green jobs to capture the full range of labor market information in this rapidly evolving area that apartment funded a report by the occupational information network called own net to investigate the impact of the green economy on occupational requirements in current jobs into it identify new and emerging occupations the study identified seventeen occupations in the green construction sectors such as welders and insulation workers or the demand for such workers would increase because of green investments but skills and tasks would remain largely the same study also identified another nine thousand occupations in green construction such as plumbers roofers sheet metal workers resulting in they would result in significant change in their work and work requirements for these existing occupations e t a is also recently added green building practices to the existing residential construction competency model to include home energy audits and waste management we're coordinating many of these efforts with our federal partners to ensure dislocated workers for example are connected with jobs in that waste is minimized for example department is partnering with department of housing and urban development on public outing retrofitting and with the partment of education and training for work department has begun initial talks with the general services administration to help in the greening of our federal buildings by supporting apprenticeship and pre apprenticeship programs in this effort department is looking at good sustainable jobs the bureau of labor statistics data show that construction and extraction operations and occupations pay a median hourly rate of eighteen dollars and twenty four cents an hour compared with fifteen dollars fifty cents an hour for all occupations the increased demand for green construction retrofitting work couple with the demand for greed and building materials is anticipated to speed the increase for manufacturing workers as well in conclusion the department will continue to work with the broad range of green building stakeholders to ensure that the benefits of green jobs are widely share columbia which i hope he will reference in his remarks to herschel chairman norton ranking member dazzle our chairman oberstar and as well as all the other members of the subcommittee on economic development public buildings and transportation and infrastructure committee thank you for this opportunity to speak before you testify on the multiple reasons and benefits of greenbelt and my name is jim helsel and i'm the two thousand and nine treasurer of the national association of realtors i've been a realtor specializing in the commercial sector for more than thirty four years early on my partner with r s r realtors a full service real estate company in harrisburg pennsylvania i testified today on behalf of one point two million realtors we're involved in all aspects of the real estate industry in two thousand and two and two thousand and three i served as chairman of any or as real property operations committee i oversaw the development creation of an error is washington d c headquarters which is a which also became the first privately owned newly constructed leed certified building and the first doing the lead served silver designation in our nation's capital and they are uniquely qualified and honored to offer testimony on the importance of green buildings in addition to certify  green building and they are is taking a number of other important steps to raise public awareness about the benefits of green buildings in the marketplace for example and we are stablished a green designation program to offer advanced training and certification for real estate professionals we've also vance to important green building issues including the greening of local multiple listing service is by including data fields in the m l s for them with information about real properties green attributes we're responding to consumer demand for more information about building efficiency we have also partnered with the federal agencies to promote green buildings and they are in the department of energy work together on a joint energy savers brochure to provide consumers with the facts about reducing energy use and saving money we support by example of green investment public buildings these investments will demonstrate new technologies and learning that result in lower cost options in the long run and they are bullies voluntary incentive based approaches such as tax credits will spatter spur consumer demand for energy efficiency moreover there is also a need for information and education and we look forward to working with the committee to build on these approaches in the future and here i had any errors headquarters was the first privately owned five billion as i mentioned earlier in the district of columbia located a block from the u s capitol the building was the first occupied in october two thousand and four and was awarded a silver lead rating by the u s green building council and the arab league's the best way to promote change in our society he's to lead by example the building is our effort to do just that as chairman of the committee responsible for the development of the building i knew we had a unique opportunity to demonstrate realtors believe in green principles for that reason we set a goal become lead certified well the building is leed certification worthy goal in itself it is the steps needed for certification that are creating a positive impact on the environment we began by cleaning up a brownfield slightly long history of commercial use and abandoned gas station previously occupied the site and we clean the site of contamination with leaking fuel tanks and high performance glass wrapped a building wisely uses the daylight to signify i'm sorry here significantly reduce energy uses to fifty percent of the buildings energy now comes from renewable energy sources the landscape of the building uses native and adaptive plant species to reduce irrigation demands low falls at low flow faucets laboratory motion sensors waterless urinals have all helped achieve a thirty percent reduction compared to the building of st cloud to billions of similar size the building is located near metro rail stations and transit bus lines that have allowed us to achieve a high rate of transit use seventy percent of urban occupants ride public transportation to work in addition showers have been installed encourage biking to work all these accomplishments a highlight in the building this part of an education campaign of its sustainable features just as any are built a green structure to lead by example so now many years policy supports a voluntary incentive based approach to energy efficiency we believe this will help momentum in the private sector to adopt green trend this provides a win win by allowing for vigorous economic growth while improving the environment the role of the federal government to encourage green development should also lead by example through the development of green buildings federal buildings the public sector can create best green practices that will transfer to the private sector during this time when the current real estate market is fragile and just beginning to show signs of recovery additional onerous cost in the form of mandates could barack obama covering her to the spread of green development realtors leave the federal government can do more to promote sustainable development by keeping the market free and fluid mandates we encourage the federal government to offer incentives such as tax credits realtors are shown the building green can be both proactive and profitable and the profitable process our experience has shown that current programs have allowed have been allowed to thrive shift and mold to meet specific conservation needs in geographic areas and they are support a national green building program that is flexible and market driven encourages continued growth and sustainable construction that protects options for consumers in all markets as well as preserve protect and promote the health of our environment we stand ready to work with congress on the best way to implement green principles a balance needs in the before any votes come forward mr cantor as you can imagine this office isn't particularly interested in your new office of high performance green building so much so that we saw to it that it was the first groundbreaking energy bill now you couldn't be coming online at a mosque vicious attack never in the history of the general services administration as it had so much money at one time to do good it's got twenty two buildings here in the district alone all across united states of course out begin here there in my ranking members state there in every state of the union there in the and all four territories i know they've been carefully chosen now we've heard your discussion of what your office does now we need to know given the fact that you have this opportunity  with so many resorts precisely what you are doing what kind of technologies are being required and in the new construction for example what kinds of strategies are being used we need to know if they're being used in all twenty two buildings here and all across the united states and we need to know we understand it depends upon what's happening in the building we're trying to get an idea we're trying to get some examples of the involvement if there is involvement of your office with the repair renovation and construction unprecedented now underway so  us some of those examples and let us know how your office is involved if it is directly involved in the actual use of the stimulus funds the district but the congress has appropriated for the work of this committee thank you we are in deed directly and pretty intimately involved in the allocation of resources the selection of projects as well as the consideration of what goes into those projects i think one of the more interesting things that we have done since the passage of the american recovery and reinvestment is to create a series of standardized specifications for various technologies to be included in buildings we've been working with the department of energy and several of the national laboratories under the department of energy to develop those most particularly i'll highlight what we're doing with roofs where every roof that was in serious need of replacement in the next two years we examined for four different possible technologies integrated photovoltaic membrane crystal and panels of foetal the take energy production cool roof technology generally and planted roofs and all of them have standardized specifications that we worked out with the department of energy as well as  with our legal counsel and these are being used in every contract across the country both here in the district as well as all across the country and in lighting we have worked with department of energy the pacific northwest national laboratory the national  electrical manufacturers association to develop a series of seven different technical specifications for different lighting systems and what we're trying to get across is the idea that that lighting technology in the last ten years has changed dramatically the typical approach that you hear about from sort of joe's garage manufacture and light bulb replacement company is that all you do is you go in and you replace lamp and you take out a thirty two white lamp and put in a twenty eight watt lamp and you save something but but what's happened is that in many of our office buildings you have lighting conditions that were designed in standards that were developed before the personal computer was even invented we need to completely rethink the way lighting is done in the buildings we need to split the systems have just a little bit of light in the ceiling recognize that actually what's happened in our buildings is that we have too much light office buildings in this country have four hundred times more electric light today than they did in one thousand nine hundred and our eyes haven't gotten four hundred times worse we need to man we need to really harvest the daylight that is there i remember vividly the chairwoman coming into one hearing and dramatically opening the windows behind the chair and saying you know we really could use a little bit more of the light and of course seeing the c n n camera crew at the other end winces their cameras no longer could focus on the members but  but that is very very possible in today's environment and what we're finding is that even today compared to the retrofits we did in the ninety's we can reduce consumption of energy by half from those even good standards back then as well as improve the working environment for the people there reducing the amount of glare on the screens recognizing that most of us spend most of the day working on devices that produce their own light so we need to add nearly so much and then working carefully with the chief information officers of those organizations to make sure that they're using the appropriate technology to reduce the energy consumption in the in the management of the devices on people's desks so those are a few of the examples of the combination of technology the other thing i did want to mention is that we are systematically instituting a long term measurement process not just we're working for example to populate with every photovoltaic installation that we have the department of energy's database which is measuring the long term production and reliability of photovoltaics so that we know what technology works what technology works a little bit better as we go forward and we'll be using several different technologies this is particularly important for them and at the same time we start every project with going back and looking with a highly qualified engineering team again one of our standard technical specification at every piece of equipment in the building that could and should be commissioned and again following the rules that are laid out in the energy independence and security act and retro commissioning and using that as the basis for going forward and not only designing changes to the building systems but also measuring as we go forward because we want to make sure that those savings  relationship of these offices to research and that may indicate what my biases and i'm a i am always have been a strong supporter of the work we're doing here but i have my doubts about the impact on to have the even if we got everyone in the country to do with this supposed to because of the the the instinct of national populations to believe in abbottabad progress and not supposed to make sacrifices therefore in my own thinking about  greening and climate change i am far more interested in technology drive a hybrid car where i was so long in getting a plug in car even that seems like we should be beyond  mediately based simply on a technological the logical change that has been with grass for very long time that we just have only begun to use and certainly to any significant degree in this country so i think we've got a press people as hard as we can to do all the things we are doing i was raised to turn off lights the rest of it but to have a kind of cosm impact we better be in the hands if we're serious about climate change you've got to have a view of how bad it is how it shot up so quickly and then to look and say what is really available to of planet here so could i ask you about how you know whether or not mr camshaft from work who works for example in the commercial office area aren't spending federal dollars doing the same work on bin laden are heeding the titular given the advanced science and the advanced techniques and frankly the in van and costly i think we already are avoiding duplications mr camp sure and my office have been coordinating for several years even before the independent security act asked us specifically to coordinate and to do work together particularly the recovery act funding we've been supporting his work specifically because of our expertise our labs and our other consultants by providing technical support he mentioned lighting we were able to produce specifications for the office sector taking the knowledge we already had from our research and giving it to them directly and understanding what their needs g s a is also been very supportive in the work that we've been doing they are as we've already heard leader in this area and they've helped us in the establishing our energy alliances where in the commercial sector kevin and his team have been very supportive in helping us get this practices since they know what works well what can we get out into the private sector what what information can we get also those alliances are a way for us to learn what research needs to be done what are there technologies in the market today that can meet those needs if not then one of the other things i did want to mention is that when the national laboratories and the department of energy are looking for locations in which to do research in actual operating buildings c s a typically will work with them to supply those buildings and thus we make the use of actual operating buildings we just actually completed with lawrence berkeley national lab study on different kinds of filter materials for air conditioning for cooling systems in the building in a building that we  cottage way so they do the research and we provide the place in which do the research and then figure out a laboratory and we are yes the guinea pigs you might sound like that and did it seems to me the g s a or that  virtually no research and you guys have enjoyed this both the energy labs and then banned the science perhaps more so than any civilian agency and for that matter i would hope the defense department which has more money rolling around than anybody would be useful to us all i want to ask mr you all day about these green jobs because i'm mixed up about green jobs i want to make sure this doesn't become a racket  who are already doing this work it occurs to me that much of the work is not an fact there's not in fact or should not in fact take a lot of training when we use the word green jobs it sounds very mysterious because it covers a multitude of either sins or skills that are not spelled out so i'm interested in the levels of jobs that we are calling green jobs  because they would go all the way up the skill all the way up to the electrician and the engineer so we do start at the lowest level and make me understand the skill level that is necessary whether it's so terribly much the training it would take and what i need which i cannot know by the lowest level and then to the best of your ability go on from there to where you think you hit a threshold where considerable training is necessary and the then what are you talking about training on the job training school training and the rest thank you thank you ma'am term and the you know the study that i cited in  testimony the occupational information that works did identify many occupations that we currently known are very familiar with and and there are in some sense have what's been referred to is a green patina that is there are aspects of the occupation that and knowledge that are changing because of energy efficiency emphases in renewable energies so for example you could have workers who worked in the auto industry and worked in the in assemblers that might have been doing working in another field and it's the nature of the product that makes it a green job as opposed to the actual skills but we're also learning like in construction that there are just certain competen management as opposed to a worker issue but then the worker has to be given the knowledge and be able to be sensitive to the fact that they have to pay attention to these interest to these  sion tasks that is the energy auditing that's required and then the remediation in the installation of weather is asian products in weatherizing residential neighborhoods might be considered at the very level of a career ladder in this we recently spoke with community action programs who are doing a lot of the weather is a sion work and the training and certification can be a matter of three or four weeks for energy auditors and then in that work area and then you would one would read as is anybody that certifies any of these people all the time now say they can do green job training when we get into some of the areas we've been discussing that obviously you're talking about some specialties people already have skills but me think a little more knowledge and information i just want to make sure that everyone understands that a lot of this work i think the  this work is not very advanced that well but it's correct some of it is not and it's it's as i said putting a green patina on on existing occupations but others like environmental  technicians and stuff are very growing occupations there are two year two year community college programs and certificates and they're very important there's augmentations to engineers and  water called the technicians and so forth and so and we want to encourage people to pursue those growth occupations and we have course the particularly interested and then with funding for jobs can be done now and it was so oddly shaped that no one would have thought frankly that what would ever replace it would be a building because it its shape did not invite a building but you have since this building has been up i remember i went to the to the opening of the building at least almost ten years in two thousand and four members for some time you may be able to talk with talk to us about savings you have already seen when they began to kick and i understand for example there's been some water reduction as an example but there may be others if you speak about this green first green building in the nation's capital sure thank you much on the first i would say that when we when we set out to find a new home for the national association of realtors we did so with a number of criteria one was we want to be fairly close to the cap what we wanted the legislature to see that we were serious about doing what we wanted to do which was being nation's capital that occurred when people were still not sure how much they wanted to build after nine eleven frankly and we started this process right after nine eleven when the going into service in two thousand for it was significantly after that because after a lot of work we also wanted to go to an area where we thought we could help the neighborhood and as you've said better than i could that neighborhood needed some work done on it and i think i think it was with frankly with a little bit of help from  people like you in the district and from the from the district lobby itself and from the realtors who saw the advantage of taking a site that maybe some people did not want to touch by virtue of some things like brownfield we thought we could we could not only help the environment we can only help the neighborhood in geographically but we could do something that frankly the realtors would be proud of as well and said look what we've done for it for our country is at least environmental issues and things like that so there were a number of things that went into that i will be honest with you when we started the process we didn't start t process thinking we would go with a lead certified building but it was shortly after we got on site purchased the land and began to do work that we decide that was the right thing to do and we made that decision at that point to your question that relates to savings i think i said my testimony that we save someone the neighborhood of about thirty percent thirty to thirty one percent water savings a year we gather water off the roof and off the flat surfaces of the property which we keep in underground tanks and we use that for  watering plants and things like that both on the rooftop terraces as well as on the surface of the of the land around the building we also do things like waterless urinals we have flow restrictor zone a lot of things we've done a lot of things like to be able to just lighting based on what people need in their workstation areas and that building is set up more workstation than it is in private offices although there are both so we've censored you sense of light sensors in the building and you will find that the lights in those buildings rise or fall in terms of brightness based on the ambient light that comes in from the outside which has been a great savings from the electoral standpoint you don't see the difference you don't notice a difference when you're sitting in your cubicle but it occurs on a daily basis whether it's cloudy weather slightly on the east or west side of the building we've done things like that have been helpful as well i would say if you said to me what's the overall savings we gain on an annual basis probably somewhere between twelve and fifteen percent over the operational cost of what it would standpoint i'm comfortable saying twelve to fifteen percent on a nice basis and that figures in as well the thirty percent water so it's kind of blended rate if you will so these systems are paying themselves they are our estimates where when we built the building that most of the systems would repay themselves in either three to five years or five to seven years that's not totally true of everything but it's a good average for what we did and payback is so demonstrative  hadn't heard of this and i'm not in an office building where this kind of self adjustment here based on the lighting you know we just got my capitol where if you step into a  light you have in the rest of it now so i'm going to ask you when you were doing lighting have you any knowledge of this system and stalled and and two thousand  r and when you were doing the twenty two buildings here in the buildings across the united states with over lighting are you using these light sensors and the for example that were just described by mr hell show who was one of the first lead building yes we are in fact it's part of our standard specifications that we use variable ballasts that are within for every light fixture light luminaire in the ceiling that was within fifteen feet of the exterior window that they have an adjustable ballasts that performs exactly as to on their own self adjusting self adjusting and furthermore we even have one installation that were using as part of our standard specifications when we can where the lighting is tied to individual occupancy you just described walking into a room in the room lights go on what we're here talking about is the individual desk being tied into the control system so that if i'm not sitting at my desk the lights automatically go off no matter what's going on person by person and then furthermore we allow the individual person to override what the control say if they happen to be doing work with i need more light they can turn it on or as frequently happens in my office i overwrite the controls and they go off to look at those and make sure that she gets she gets a response we greatly appreciate that thank you it's going to take care of the house housecleaning part first i'm going to go back to frankly a very basic issue  and i keep harping on this but it's pretty evident why i keep harping on it as i don't have to tell you all where we are in the economy you know congress this congress and the administration charged another seven hundred eighty billion dollars on our children and our grandchildren this is money that we don't have and with with interest rates at over a trillion dollars  to create jobs and that was the explicit reason for the bill that i was a member on top of that a trillion dollars for tarp that wasn't part of half a trillion dollars for the ambush that was on top of the billions and billions of dollars to keep the auto industry from going into bankruptcy which didn't work because they went to bankruptcy anyways and we know that despite all that unemployment is now at nine point five percent not at the eight percent that we were told it would be kept that  americans and hundreds of thousands or millions of americans are are working part time jobs or less hours because there are no full time jobs available so i'm not apologetic about going back to this one issue which is jobs now two questions on that i heard both in written testimony and testament today that according that the bureau of labor statistics is now working to the find green jobs so here's a question that kind of jumps out at you without even a definition of green jobs how are labor how does g s a and other agencies even measuring the number of jobs created by this funding if we don't even have a measurement what those are and how to find them  how how is labor able to determine the type of training needed for these green jobs when we don't even have a definition of what those green jobs are y balart the when i said the department of labor's bureau of labor statistics is is working to define green jobs they have requested in their twenty ten appropriation  funds to be able to systematically identify and count over time on a quarterly basis green jobs both the industries and then occupations and the number of people working in those occupations that that have that overtime across the country be able to identify by geography where these are and what the concentrations in distribution of those jobs are but in terms of doing for example the job training that we have put out we have a working definition of green jobs they were using that people are using we we had a discussion just a moment ago you heard about certain occupations craft and and trade occupations that are developing green aspects to him but also that there are applications of current jobs in new industries like for example if we are hooking up smart grid systems around the country west texas in the dakotas and elsewhere the line installation and stuff are contributing to a more inexpensive inefficient energy production by hooking to win turbans and the li but much of the work that's being done is line installers and repairs that have been existed before so what we will do over time is decide whether in fact and how to define these as green jobs or not and how many to count but in practice what the recovery act has done is incented more of that activity and for now we need more workers to train in those areas me ask you how to do it do you have an idea of how many jobs just jobs you know green and otherwise have been created with the funds from the recovery act in your areas and and how many are projected and this is something that the chairman has always been very emphatic about making sure that we can track those well we don't have we don't have estimates of green jobs the administration's jobs but the administration early on for the recovery act estimated that three and a half million jobs would be created or retained by the last quarter of two thousand and ten no i understand that and they also said that that unemployment would be capped at eight percent we're way beyond that i mean you know well we had lost two million jobs since the bill passed and unemployment is now way above the eight percent but that's not my question my question is do we know how many jobs in your ear as of with the stimulus money have actually been created well we have we are going to count report we just got our first report from our department of labor expenditures the first report i think for almost all of the government is july fifteenth and so all the states have reported as of yesterday their first expenditures on that and so you have that start doing that on a monthly basis  starting this month great thank you thank you so much administration the whole point of the stimulus on second priority of course was energy conservation going to jobs let me ask you and tell you m albeit only three million dollars placed into the stimulus package for pretty apprentice an apprentice program and  there was no action even though some there some of this work has begun that he was able to tell me had been taken i began to rattle off common sense things to do without knowing what to do meanwhile at the last big hearing that the chairman had here on stimulus jobs with g s a now the federal highways administration now has more money twenty million dollars that's not a lot either but it's got a two prong approach going it solicited proposals it's office of civil rights has jurisdiction and let's be clear why this industry the construction was one is no longer i'm pleased to say the most segregated industry in united states not because they set out to be that way but because they had a father son nephew way of doing jobs and people who weren't nephews is mainly women and people of color simply were not in the industry at all courts took action federal government along with the appreciable systematic addition of minorities and women to this workforce meanwhile the workforce is aging out before the collapse of the economy there were actual shortages of good m and for example in most of the trades so i was heartbroken to hear that the g s a had and so slow they know my priority on this issue they also know i work very hard to get them the biggest project in the stimulus package that and i ask country thank you first of all our memorandum of understanding between ourselves in the department of labor has been completely executed the beginning of this month is that you're what i'm sorry we have a memorandum of understanding between ourselves in the department of labor which identifies who's doing what within our programs to identify both apprenticeship and pre apprenticeship programs make sure people are properly certified to do them and how best to apply the funds across the  country we are currently identifying projects and locations on the spending plan that we submitted earlier where registered apprenticeship programs already exist we expect a complete report on that by the end of next week for every project that we identify on the list the construction contractors will be required to maintain the apprenticeship program throughout the duration of the construction of those buildings we've already developed contract language and provisions to and certain those contracts modeled on those that have already been successful in the national capital region of g s a and we are meeting with the department of transportation on the thirty first of july to find ways of optimizing our resources and contract vehicles to more effectively implemented friendship programs both in g s a and if we can have some kind of cross fertilization between the two agencies we have hired a consultant to help identify sta and community based organizations that currently offer pre apprenticeship programs including on the job training and classroom training and work life training that consists in developing new prison friendship programs in areas that are deemed most needy  across the country and are located where we have recovery act funded projects and we expect the initial report on how we're going to design that bike in the end of next week that's sort of the nutshell version of where we are today and we'll be happy to provide further detail of you desire country when people go out on these jobs and see that they are not people trained to do the job it makes sense for work eat before you to have consulted with labor  but i don't see how that could have kept the g s a from looking at its own given the small amount of money and the need to spend it with the summer coming which is the prime building season which you have now wasted half of while you consult well let me tell you if i don't know why the department of transportation has been able to get up and running so much more quickly but it may be because a civil rights people were in charge and they understood why this money isn't there in a first place because there are millions of americans who aren't trained to do this work even at the lowest levels because pre apprenticeship is necessary in order to get them even a foot hole in the apprentice the national capital region program is irrelevant it is a certified apprentice program i'm grateful for it but it it's a program merely to make sure that if you are an apprentice on a federal job here you are a certified apprentice t key jackleg apprentice programs from occurring in the national capital region it has absolutely nothing to do with the three million dollars which is training funds even looking at that program shows me that the agency has not paid attention to the purpose of the funds and it is very very disappointing to me it was not easy to get the these funds i'm not going to go on longer except this hour he spoke with a high level we are thinking about going and we're thinking about going there because there's a critical mass why would you want to do it in the first place if you're only doing us a tiny bit of federal work is a critical mass of work to be done here in the world to make sure you weren't duplicating what you were doing there are you this has to be done by yes consultants but this is a pittance of money and let me tell you how disappointed i am and what i'm going to about it  i would like the appropriate officials to meet personally with me and committee staff and my staff in my office no later than next week next week i won't set the date i have no idea what is the best they'd even put me but whatever date that is that is the best date for g s a to come in there has got to be something on the ground to talk about on on the job training most of the money should go into pre apprentice programs that program has the door locked with making sure they can clear the decks of people who don't even understand that an apprentice program to be successful in it you've got to be able to get up and be to work at seven in the morning and work in this heat of this day and you've got to be able to go to work when it's very call a lot of it has to do with training an entirely new workforce of people who've not been exposed and so the extent that we're sitting around  trying to see how many boxes the check off before we begin to suspend what amounts to two cents that's all we got and we're now into the middle of july and we're not even started in one place even though this area right here is rich with opportunities yeah they've got to be spread all over staff told me there was even some consideration of his three million dollars dabbing it here than around the country x ray if you only have a three million dollars you've got to you've got to look at where it can be most then officially spent given the congressional intent and and the amount of money so the aca like you can do fifty states and the district of columbia before territory with three million dollars the so pitiful that i'm angry frankly and you ought to know i would be angry i've called you personally i want the meeting in my office i want your preliminary thinking talk with the department of transportation find out how they were able to do it so quickly and don't come in as a blank check about which that all office you are now talking about come in with some ideas of your own and we will work with you there's gonna be a program of some kind let me be clear what's the day what's the data today the sixteenth of july guess what all this stuff first there's got to be some apprenticeship work being done with that three million dollars to get question but it takes time for the jobs to roll out and there's a lot of pressure to get the jobs out but it doesn't take a lot of time to put a training program in place that does not require anything but the preparation for people on the job training i am profoundly disappointed and will not stand there another moment not another moment in my office next buildings i wanted to again thank the members of the different departments and representative from the realtors for being here and i want to start off with  question for mr camp sure unfortunately some high performance building systems can cease working as they've been designed over time largely because they don't receive proper building management operations or maintenance and you've touched on this point during your testimony we've talked about this before do you have any estimate of what percentage of civility managers within i don't have a good percentage because there isn't a standardized nationwide certification program that really deals with this technology one of the things that g s a has done in this area is we have worked with penn state university to develop a program for g s a employees and in the last couple of years we have trained nearly seven hundred people in various aspects of high performing buildings but we do recognize that this is a  industry wide phenomenon we have been i mentioned in my statement the building owners and managers association the international facility managers association there are also private firms like the heinz development company who have internal training programs who have indicated their willingness to work with us on on some kind of more significant certification program but i think that this is an area that the industry as a whole is lacking and that's one of the reasons that for example in the energy independence and security act there is a requirement to recommission buildings every four years because we found that in four years as you mentioned buildings get out of tune as it were one of the things that we're doing to ensure that doesn't happen with this  president opportunity is to make sure that as we put in the smart meters we have constant monitoring systems going on so at the very minimum we can find out with early warning systems when things are going out of tune and apply some greater expertise in there but i think it's an area where we could incorporate community colleges we could really look at a longer term program that would yield a not just green jobs but also a career path that doesn't exist today because there's all kinds of levels of work in buildings from changing filters which require the charwoman says very little training to actually retuning and making sure that the control systems and buildings are tuned which in many cases requires significant programming and engineering experience to understand what you're doing and to make sure that it continues to work so the if i understand this correctly the seven hundred you mentioned our facility managers that have had at least some level of training that the g s a has sponsored internally yes and of how many facility managers are there nationwide trying to get an idea how many people have been through this kind of training that is the significant majority of the people who are g s a employees but we should recognize that about ninety six percent of this work is actually done through contract and we're at the moment we are changing our contract specifications to increase the requirements for training and certification of training but that hasn't gone into place yet that a thing that we need to be doing more of and we recognize that and we're trying to again work with the institutions to figure out what the best requirements are that are both vailable and achievable but also effective and  tell me what kind of timeline the agency is on to get those kind of mechanisms in place if i could i would get back to you with that when i have the accurate information i don't have that with me if terms of the operational expertise and training for buildings as we're improving their performance  the next question i had was for mr crowley you mention the high performance green building consortium under the commercial buildings initiative that deal we deal with the private sector effort to advance technologies but i understand the u a e has yet to recognize the participating groups can you give us an update on the status of those partnership programs yes there was a solicitation from the department out six weeks ago and that closed on tuesday of this week we will be looking to make a selection in the next few weeks mechanism working with the department and we'll be working with them to set a program and work over the over the next few months as a contract to put in place recognize consortia will also sure i'd like you to share with us what has been your experience with using energy saving performance contracts and how can we increase or use within the government sector we've heard some success stories about those being used here and overseas in terms of the government entities being able to basically know upfront cost be able to have these companies come in retrofit buildings in the the part of the cost savings is from the energy use is passed on to the government energy part goes to the companies that are doing the work and want to see what kind of opportunities there are to use this mechanism to begin to retrofit our buildings thank you energy savings performance contracts and their sort of twin with utilities the utility energy savings contracts have been used in g s a for more than a decade we currently have fifty two active energy savings performance contracts and utility energy savings contracts across the country with a total investment amount to over two hundred million dollars and an annual million b t u s saved of one million million firms under the super us p c contract and at the same time g s a and those are for large large jobs and g s a through a schedules program is establishing those kind of features in some of the energy performance  features into the schedules that we already had for energy contracts that will deal with the smaller jobs that other agencies may have we are currently negotiating energy savings performance contracts that are in conjunction with recovery expending where we have decided where the best use of the federal dollars is and then firms are being solicited to do additional work with private financing so that we get the best total energy conservation in the building the key to all of this is solid negotiation with good technical backup we use technical backup from the department of energy as well as privately contracted directly with e s a to ensure that we've got the best engine earing reports on hand and for recovery act projects we are doing an independent as i mentioned before an independent commission into the building first which gives us even better baseline information before we end to go into negotiations with the energy services cunt companies we've also dealt directly with the association of energy services companies to try and encourage them to propose not just the short easy low hanging fruit or a secretary who says the food on the ground but rather to really get the proposals that stretch the limits of capabilities that are available in technology but also will give us the most durable benefits over time and is this being done in terms of vetting these firms and getting involved is that being done centrally here or is that being done throughout the the various g s a regions in the country the individual contracts are negotiated in the various regions around the country however the contracts are reviewed in the national office before award for two overriding reasons first of all we want to make sure that the engineering is adequate and we've gotten the best possible deal for the government and number two to make sure that the asset value is actually being increased by the performance of these contracts and that we have the appropriate measurement criteria as we go forward and one other point is that what the prequalification of all of the firms was done nationally by the department of energy and the p c program so every firm we deal with has already pre qualified and has a negotiated contract so we're in essence issuing task orders under a master time contract thank you the next question is really to  all the participants related to what i believe the fundamental problem with how we manage the construction and maintenance of our of our federal building stock is you don't know if you actually approve budget for acquisition and a totally separate budget for yearly operations from the responsibilities of these budgets are in two separate organizational elements within different leadership and reporting responsibilities this means that any invested in innovation that increases first or acquisition costs while substantially reducing long term cost aeration is not considered this is a fundamental by ca to me i believe it creates a mis if you have any thoughts on how this can be better coordinated we'll start as mr camp sure and we'll go from you to and then to your left but this this really is a no short answer question and i wish i knew the answer to it because then i'd be advocating it right here and now i suspect it's going to require a combination of the executive branch and the legislative branch working together to figure out a different way to handle the dichotomy that you that you point out one of the things that has happened that i think improves the situation it actually came from this committee into the energy independence and security act with the lengthening of the time over which we can make life cycle cost analysis from twenty five to forty years and that enables us to make a better sense of decision especially for those pieces of technology that have a longer life span as well as for those components of buildings like the envelope the windows the roof and so on that last longer but increase capital and as  fallon mentioned geothermal ground source heat pump systems which have a significantly higher capital cost but certainly pay off in lower operating costs and lower energy consumption over time i'm not exactly sure in a nutshell what the right answer is but it is some way of linking the two budget activities and i think another key is changing the measurement systems for the people who are in charge of projects today we measure only the budget and the schedule of the capital you are inherently not going to measure the long term effects of the building and we have to have that feedback loop of the long term effects to make sure that in fact decisions that are made during the course of the project are those that will yield the greatest overall benefit and not the greatest short term or initial cost benefit one of the things that we proposed to bridge that gap in the budget this year india face budget was a line item in the budget that would allow us to apply it without regard to the original budget cost to say a project that started without a geothermal system for example and say net actually this makes a lot of sense it should have been designed in originally it wasn't it wasn't in the original budget let's add it in and this gave us sort of a flexible funding mechanism that could be applied to projects regardless of the initial budget to improve the long term benefits and that's in this year appropriation request thank you thank you the dichotomy you're talking about for the federal sector is also there as well for the private sector we see a lot of organizations that don't have or have that same problem where the operation budget is separate from the capital budget it's very difficult for them to make decisions the ones that are most successful have combined those thinking of  a national grocery store chain where they the people responsible for construction a new stores and they were building many new stores every year also responsible for the operation maintenance of those stores so decisions they made in construction they knew would make an impact they were also responsible for reporting to the c f o and their chairman on operating cost and with very low margins and in the grocery sector and in fact an energy impact was taken very seriously because it affected their bottom line so like mr cancer i don't think there is a simple answer but the ones that are looking at a  comprehensive bottom line aspect when they make a capital dollars today what are the long term operating aspects of that and can they improve that are really the ones of being more effective thank you guess i would take kind of a yes i agree and no i'm not sure i agree with mr camp here on this issue i think there is a dichotomy i absolutely agree with him there i will tell you what we do in the real estate business and we're really talking about managing real property right now as i understand it we look at both our operating budget and we look at our capital budget and we decide what we can do with the capital budget based on what the operating budget is allowing us to do based on how much money we make frankly in a building private industry would say that works well if you watch dog you're building as well if you don't watch dogs or buildings well it doesn't work so well so the dichotomy the mr camp who speaks of is absolutely correct and unfortunately it falls between several different agencies within the federal government makes it very difficult to try and work those things out but there are other groups who could also i think enter into be rather self serving when i say this is a good called the institute of real estate management which provides the preeminent designation for property management united states called the c p m designation and i didn't hear mr camp just suggested they were helping a do that job or that they contact them that's not an unfair comment or meant to disagree with mr camp sure i just think there are other groups who who in the private industry do this on a daily basis and typically i find private industry manages zero i would be interested in getting more information about that program and also seeing if there's ways that the government can learn from what you're doing in the private sector will make sure you get it right thank you very much thank about leaders ought to be trying to catch up with g s a and that's what the subcommittee is going to be looking to see and the standard you are setting has to look at the office building sector all over the country for example is it not true that office building sector is more responsible for our footprint or carbon footprint than any other part of it is the largest part of the commercial building sector i'm saying commercial building opposed to  residential building opposed to cars which creates the biggest carbon footprint currently it's about residential sector and commercial sector about equal just around twenty percent and we have the largest and the commercial buildings yes and now that means we have an enormous capacity because we are now tipping into more leasing than i mentioned earlier that beginning in two thousand and ten we will require every building that we move into greater than ten thousand square feet to have an energy star rating within the most recent year of operation so that again that when  thousand and ten that we construct that we lease that we lease this every building over ten thousand square feet that we lease there are a few exceptions that are specific in the law that were and we have been out publicizing that relatively new requirement however since about two thousand and that means that those buildings would have to have what an energy star rating which means that they would have to submit information to the department of energy be certified by a  professional engineer and it means that they would be in the top twenty five percent of the efficient buildings that are available in the private sector  that's the a significant change because in this country unlike many developed countries the standard is not to sub meter electrical cost to the tenant here it's sort of lumped in  the overall rent rate in most of europe a strangely a new zealand canada japan the tenants actually pay directly for the electrical costs and there's a different kind of relationship that you develop but the tenant is the result of that what the energy star rating does is it starts to put us on a similar kind of footing where both we and the tenant are motivated to make changes it's all i said also note to that  that if you compare g s a current inventory even before the effects of the recovery act our inventory operates at about twenty six percent less energy consumption than the commercial comparables and this is in large part due to the longstanding emphasis on energy conservation certainly since the late seventy's that has been in law and has affected our decisions and also here a owner that moved ahead of the breakthrough energy bill that me asked and i know about i know that you or your office deals perhaps primarily with the private sector not only homes but office buildings with a house you have you had a relationship with the department of energy programs do you know about those programs i have not personally had i know the national association has put together some pamphlets and some training pieces of material that are good for the consumer in fact i mentioned somewhere inside of my testimony i mentioned them where we've i actually work with the department of energy to help educate the public on how they can reduce energy costs and things like that so that's my extend i can tell you now is related to what we're doing in the department of energy mr crawley would you would you indicate what what kind of relationship you're of direct activity we've been working with a number of organizations who are energy alliances currently the commercial real estate energy alliance of which g s a and mr campaigners office are involved and involves over forty organizations the leading owners of commercial real estate in the country came together to help us determine what it was what research need to be done but also conservation the federal government had a lot to do with that as a matter of fact because about leasing here but to what extent is there a consciousness that they're sitting on top of some real money in the private sector if they are not investing in an energy efficient systems now take a side of the recession where people can invest anything and but is there a consciousness so that you see a rapid movement on the part of building owners and to saving themselves some money let us say sense the terrible rise and energy costs here we are seeing that the leaders in the market are making changes in their buildings or beginning to see energy as a real cost center that they can take advantage of to improve their bottom line and even in the recession they're seeing it as an opportunity to save money and cut costs but of household they don't have quite the funds and they can't go to the banks today to invest and to make the initial investment so what do they do well what you just said is true but i will tell you much  point now more than ever the private industry is looking at how we can save dollars everywhere and they will look at the cost savings in the benefits of doing something now when times are tough for more losing tenants when we can't refinance and do things like that we're taking extra time and effort to find where we can save dollars and energy is the first place we look so you have to do it sometimes low tech first because this does take some initial investment and you're correct but but i would say that the imp hourly wage rate because i think there people need to understand more about these green jobs in your testimony page four point to may two thousand cents as opposed to fifteen dollars and fifty seven cents for all occupations it's german pay you're talking about is that you say green to do research for the green construction jobs may be well paying but apprentice today at our german today would that normally mean that those who are doing the training would incorporate some green training based on the way in which the country is moving that's correct the the building in trade and all the apprenticeship programs now or are currently building in the latest aspects of green construction into those friendship to to get to scold the messenger was responsible of the figure which is mr garin whom i personally called not new so i do want to indicate for the record that was the garron sorry mr capture has no role although i'd like you to come because you do see this meeting next week because you had to think beyond the obvious it was mr garin that i personally called which is why frankly i'm angry i personally can personally call the agency once in a blue moon or i'll call the staff and say would you make sure people know the matter of these jobs and it's  because many of the jobs because we happen to be the capital city they couldn't avoid if they were going to do we build a station if they were going to build  and in the federal sector they can avoid my jurisdiction of course is a lot of it's happening here i don't have a lot of other issues with what's being done here i have every indication the department of homeland security in fact recognizes a special responsibility building in low income the lowest income section of the of the city and i'm pleased with what the h s is doing there but i'm not pleased that there may be another mid size city like this city like baltimore for example which isn't getting attention even though that is another federal sector and that's why i'm very concerned where this is like six months ago that this  it i'm sorry to be here actually guess they were here last week and i don't know why in the world in my haste i didn't mention this and i apologize that i didn't but i called before last week to indicate my serious concern about having to go all the way to the speaker to say whatever you do don't put any money out here and then have people in the cities i know you'd be a lot of money but i've got to be able to say women and minorities and other people who have not been trained this is the beginning of what we're trying to do to give you a foothold in the construction industry that millions of unemployed  i understand what my concern is those are people already prepared to take the jobs so they have got to be hard instantly and i want them to be hired they've been out of work longer than any any any any people there so here we came up with this notion that the reason we don't see many of you is we've had a generation of people not trained but we do have a british air programs going we have them at the department of labor labor and yes even in the funds we have and in the funds the highways part of the bill have we been thoughtful enough to understand that we had an obligation and i'm going to see that it's met beginning october first if they have been sitting on their hands and haven't thought about a week or help them to think i can express anough anger that when the chair of the subcommittee calls that doesn't make a bit of difference get ever since i came the congress department the transportation is the only truly spanking new building here in the district of columbia not be a lead rating i couldn't believe it some massive building on him street so i'm going to ask you why it is lead and how can i know therefore that everything being built in the united states with federal funds by g s a will be leading clued in the department of homeland security headquarters did what i'm saying before we established the requirement that buildings that we lease that were constructed specifically part of the federal government to meet the lead silver standard after that in two thousand is there any so you couldn't make it e the buildings but you had long experience and energy conservation seems to me it could have it ought to be pretty close to it is it or is it not the d o t building my understanding from the people who constructed the building is that it is close to a lead certification what has not happened is the documentation necessary to know exactly what that is if they want to start my understanding is that it is close to a lead certification but we do not have the documentation to know for sure what we are doing on the other hand in leasing and especially with agencies here i mean we have for example the e p a buildings in crystal city the two buildings there are both lead gold we have in fact more lead certifications of various levels in buildings than we lease the buildings that we own to date say that again we have more buildings that are  least that are lead certified at various levels than buildings that we own because there are no will because in many respects they can operate a little bit more quickly than federal construction can but they both have the same requirements right now which is for lease it can surely silver what would we do somebody from building managers got to know how much what conserve energy is in that building and i'm sure there are some some things in this building and i'd like within thirty days to know what the energy conservation features of the l p d o t building are and i'd like to know whether or not you could go back and see if the building could be leed certified based on what based on your prior experience your already understood you yes a to go in the building i need to know how energy efficient this brand new building that we are going through which is a headquarters building can't move out of the district and we're going to be in there for in perpetuity just like you are in the justice department i need to know how close it comes to being a lead building and what it's basic the states the teachers plan staffing levels the current plan staffing levels and where in fact classifying and recruiting even as we speak are to have approximately seven or eight people in addition to myself focused on the government wide responsibilities and four buildings yes i don't know how to judge that when one hundred people in the office now three did you have had you worked in this field before yes i actually prior to this job was working as with the energy programs of g s a as well as the environment programs as well as the research within g s a which is a modest applied research focused on those things that are not within the ambit of the department of energy or anyone else doing major research before that i was the research director of g s a and worked on  development of the basic research into how buildings affect human performance for that i worked in the office of portfolio management to sort of the basic asset management functions of the agency appreciate the agency particularly because this is all occurred before it has a new head confirmed has has put into the office  have been a requirement since two thousand beginning with buildings in two thousand and three that they be leed certified and today the requirement is lead silver mentioning  the requirement today is that the minimum requirement is lead silver and every contract has an expressed goal of achieving leave gold what's the difference in savings to the government  know roughly speaking maybe mr crowley as well roughly speaking based on that study that i mentioned earlier we can expect savings for gold and platinum readings to be roughly double those for certified which is the lowest level  so much more costly that you wouldn't almost automatically do them let's face it apart for the energy i mean sorry there partner let's assume that we could have  we want to go platinum knowing that that will be outstripped in our lifetime and that the savings are already  factor or not considering the fact that considering the savings in the payback a platinum building you can certainly measure the additional cost there is a at the silver level you can with good integrated design achieve the benchmark goals within a typical building budget it's a question of applying those resources effectively and using the kind of integration of systems and technologies and sightings and building is when you say effectively i mean what do you mean i mean i can i can  doing that that's at a height such a high level of expertise a skill level that difficult integrated design is is something that the profession got away from in the fift sixty's seventy's eighty's and even ninety's and what you had by and large delivered in this country were buildings that were designed in stovepipes mechanical engineers would typically say it doesn't matter you can design the building anyway you want we will build you a mechanical plant that will cool the building and of course we ended up creating sick building syndrome by that kind of thinking so what's really needed here is a reaffirmation of things that let's say michelangelo knew that everything relates to everything else and the decisions you make on the envelope on the way the building faces on how you move in and out of the building have a long term effect on how healthy the building is but also how well it performs and that form of integrated design is something that is coming back into play but we don't see it all the time and you can look around the country and not see it in private sector buildings that are building and you can see it there i mean so it is still the minority way buildings are put up well when you when you have an opportune to put the buildings for the department of homeland security is there any is there any case to be made for anything other than flat it is a balancing act of cost and performance at the you would have to have everything working together in the building to the maximum extent that there that's kind of ordinary everything has to be one building i'm so mill year with that is flat well actually we have we have one building in our inventory which is an existing building that was retrofitted under the existing building program it's actually the first platinum building in the country it's an f b i field office in chicago and the other one is the gen sime office building in cambridge massachusetts and just i'm going to give you the genzyme one because i've physically been through it and it comes to mind there i'm building compared to a typical spec office building in cambridge massachusetts was about a almost thirty percent premium it was worth it to the company because they are a niche developer of of pharmaceuticals for and their niche is that they develop the pharmaceuticals for illnesses that have a relatively small population so you're talking about a drug with a lot of of benefit but maybe only ten thousand people so that's their niche they have a very strong human focus and so they did a lot of things there's a there's a very large atrium in that goes all the way down through the middle of the building that cascades light through the building so you have one hundred percent of the building is stale it in a standard commercial office building that would be considered floor space that was an opportunity that was lost so you have a significant cost premium associated with that they have operable windows throughout the building that are tied into the control system in a double facade since it's in cambridge massachusetts again double the cost for this is facade significantly greater performance it does pay out in the total lifecycle cost of the building but this is really pushing all of that technology pretty much to the extreme there and that's the kind of example as we are going forward we have on st elizabeths we are pushing the developers and the designers of that site to give us the maximum amount within the budget and we're looking to improve  considerably from even the original concept and there are a lot of creative things that are already being done with the site with water management on the site with low impact development around it with the way that the roof is treated and the way the water is handled on the roof there and a variety of other things and i'm sure we'd be happy to give you more details on where we are today but we're also pushing them to deliver the maximum that the budget will allow very appreciated gold next down from platinum yes is going to be a goal building i would hope so that's the goal for the building the developer of the  that the that the stimulus was being considered it was a huge gathering i don't even recall the purpose of women from across the country before  in the congress and we don't have any indication that women will get any of these jobs and i was glad i was there because i indicated that there would be certainly a small amount in my package a larger amount and the department your departments package and that the administration was fully aware that women and minorities had been left out of the growth of the sector in your testimony you mention a specific program aimed at women because it minorities have been that dowd women are real afterthought  focus it on apprenticeships and to try and ensure with the grantees i believe we have five or six grantees that women are able to get the training get free a premiership into a premiership programs in principally in the building trades but also the the set we had seven hundred fifty million dollars of competitive grants for both green training and health care and high growth occupations and secretary solis is very interested in making sure that populations that are left out of high growth occupations get a shot and that includes women in nontraditional occupations so we put out the the solicitations for grant applications and made emphasis on  populations that have been left out traditionally including minorities including school dropouts veterans populations that are under served in some of these and women as well  where we questioned g s a about what was surprised us then that there were energy inefficient products on the g s a schedules what is the status of those products being removed from the schedules we know that occasionally someone an agency may have no choice but which are my products so i'm assuming that these products where there might indeed be a choice where are we on that please so that agencies have the choice of making the taxpayer spend more money for in the cases where there is an avail e energy efficient selection for them there have been new guidelines recently issued by the department of energy on the purchase of addressing that very issue that you raise the choice and when you should make it and when you should not when should you ever make it if there is unless you or your infrastructure required to make it that that's the idea it's only where you cannot use the materials but what we have done internally is we have first of all highlighted the electronic version of all the schedules so all of the energy efficient products appear with a separate kind of designation within the schedules they're segregated they're the ones that pop up first when you look for them and second of all we've instituted in the online ordering system within g warning so that if somebody inadvertently orders something for which there is a more energy efficient project it says you know you shouldn't be ordering this did you know that there is a lot oh excellent and so on govern i can so what i mean that's what you expect us to hassle to do thank you yes and the third thing i want to mention is that we are working with the department of energy and e p a so that our database schedule items has a direct feed from their database of approved items so that when we get the energy star designation we know that it's the most up to date designation of those and in fact we're meeting with department of energy next week to keep that process project going and when and then when that happens you know that you can be assured that it isn't some supplier alleging that it's an energy star device but it actually is and we know it from the source that platinum but you mentioned something called net zero energy building and i don't understand what that means energy building is a building that produces on site as much energy as it needs over the course of a that is the wave of the future people make your own bring your own isn't that i'm sorry go ahead there are very few buildings and they're pretty expensive right now but somebody is paying for them and thinks it's cost effective but it's a kind of pilot an experimental pilot or experimental buildings found a donor thinks it's worthwhile over the life of the building where big surprises to me is that our science which is usually so advanced well beyond what we're able to do seems not to have even even i find strange not to have been where might have expected to be some time ago so i know this is a futuristic but i'm the way to go i can i am i can see you know way to be serious about climate change going the the only serious answer to shortcutting problems of the planet before it disappears i have only a couple more questions i need to ask about the same time i'm trying to green the capitol region because it's a footprint the district of columbia one of the city is doing a lot on its own we have ninety eight million square feet and the national capital region money but with how we play off of one another about to begin to figure out the appropriate solution to that we are looking at all of our projects to increase the ability to do storm water management and in fact we  have four hundred thousand square feet planted roofs within the district of columbia already and over a million square feet in the washington metropolitan region we're working with the district of columbia on  aspects of building technology so that we make sure that we share the information that we develop in building technology with the district of columbia and vice versa  and i'm sure there are others that just well i know and i'd like to ask that that with council governments there be some coordination to take advantage of the progressive jurisdiction where the national capital region is is situated let me say to you mr hampshire i ask you to look at this and get back to me in thirty days that the federal government is the biggest ratepayer for water and the district of columbia the district of columbia has just passed a bill some actually some months ago that is just the way the country ought to be going saying that if you have an impervious service surface so that your runoff flows into the anacostia river alternately into the chesapeake bay and waters there's going to be a surface charge now for most homeowners this is not this is not anything they can do anything about and much contribute to this is aimed at big folks like the federal government and office buildings a lot of things you can do around your right i say parking lot besides repave it for example just to catch the water for example but we believe just based on the cards that the district of columbia have begun and the rebate schedule in all hasn't come out yet that the federal government would would and i would have at least a million dollars boarder paid for him impervious surfaces parking lots were the runs out of federal buildings in the like here is an area that they haven't been much reason to look at before but i ask you to be in touch with those and i'm sure there are people at g s a who already are aware of this and thirty days to give me some idea of how you believe the federal government could keep from being the biggest  r into this charge for impervious services we have to do so now in the two thousand on conference report for the financial services appropriation where the g s a preparation is found i included a proposal to study the measurable benefits associated with green roofs and the g s a g s o a owned and least inventory and we used the national capital region because of the huge footprint here could you give us the status because i can't remember off the top of my head if i could get back to you i'd appreciate it in thirty days if you would mr cantor i get back to the final question i'm interested in these energy performance contracts would you describe what energy performance contract is and whether or not g s a has what the average about that the that that for contract yes we do we have at the moment fifty two active energy savings performance contracts either directly with private firms or with utilities as well as fourteen that have been completed already and have been paid off i'm sorry i was out of time sorry would you repeat that i'd be happy to we have currently active fifty two energy savings performance contracts we have fourteen where they're no longer active because the work's been done and the investment has been paid off and where are they located the united states across the united states several of them are here in this area are you describing have you describe  i'm sorry i jumped into the statistics of the energy performance contract is a contract for a long period of time in which private capital is brought to bear to increase the energy performance and the payment to the firm that invests the private capital is made out of the difference between the energy bill before the capital investment in the energy bill afterwards so the savings from reduced energy consumption payback the capital investment as well as the operating costs of the building  generally available across the united states they are available to cross the united states we principally use the department of energy super t s p c program as well we are increasing the g s a schedules to have those kind of features there are also private sector energy savings performance contracts in some areas of the country but it's less prevalent outside the government than it is in the private sector and more prevalent  offered by utility firms where the public utilities commission has provided capability with the utilities to do so i'm trying to figure out why we wouldn't have them and our buildings in the regions but we do have them we do have them across the country and we're currently negotiating several even as we speak we are also so wherever there is a possibility to have an energy performance plan developed before the recovery act and we have honestly shifted our emphasis on making sure that the recovery expenditures go quickly but we are also looking at the possibility for making sure that in a building let's say where we are doing the building to not only the looking at the possibility of using an energy savings performance contract or doing other systems work in the building so that we'll get more for that building even we are able to get from the  generalist most members of congress are not having knowledge about even this area that i have been conversing with ever since coming to