TESTIMONY OF WALTER A. MEISEN Assistant Commissioner for Construction Management Public Buildings Service General Services Administration Before the Subcommittee on Buildings and Grounds of the Senate Committee on Public Works on November 4, 1975 Chairman Morgan, Committee members and guests. I am Walter Meisen, Assistant Commissioner for the Office of Construction Management, General Services Administration, appearing on behalf of Mr. Dwight Ink, Acting Administrator and Mr. Nicholas Panuzio, Commissioner of Public Buildings Service. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before your subcommittee to discuss S. 2045, S. 2095, and S.1392; and would like to express appreciation for the subcommittee's continuing interest in energy conservation in Federal facilities. I will state at the outset that GSA is deeply involved and committed to the concept of energy conservation in buildings. We are in agreement with the objectives of these three bills. Each of these bills deals with specific opportunities for energy conservation which GSA has either implemented or is in the process of studying. GSA fully supports the principles that all Federal and federally assisted construction should utilize energy conserving design standards when such use has .proven to be cost effective. As you know, GSA has developed performance oriented energy conservation design guidelines which have been extensively used in recent design of GSA buildings and have also gained tion industry. The first edition was published in March 1974, and over 5,000 copies were distributed to architects; engineers; Federal, state and local construction agencies; schools of architecture and other interested persons in the construcThe unique feature incorporated in the guidelines is the concept of a performance oriented energy goal. The energy goals allow the architect complete freedom in designing a building with the exception that the building must meet a specified energy performance standard. Many new and innovative procedures for conserving energy have been developed by allowing the architects this freedom. Based on the comments and suggestions GSA received from other agencies, design professionals and private individuals, the first edition was updated and expanded in its sections on solar energy and the use of computers in the operation of buildings. In addition to the new building design guidelines GSA has also published "Energy Conservation Guidelines for Existing Office Buildings." The guidelines for existing office buildings were developed for energy conservation retrofitting since it is estimated that 85 percent of the buildings in the year 2000 are in existance today. The third in GSA's series of energy conservation guidelines, "Energy Conservation Guidelines for Building Operations," will be available in December of this year. These guidelines are based on the knowledge and expertise we gain in reducing the energy consumption in our buildings by a 30 percent reduction through changes in the operations of the buildings. We are proud of these energy reduction achievements. GSA is well on its way in meeting the proposed objectives set out in Section 4 of S.2045. GSA has, over the years, rigorously applied these guidelines to its own operation. It is important to know that these guidelines were.developed in coordination with many other agencies including FEA, ERDA, professional societies such as the American Institute of Architects and National Society of Professional Engineers, numerous universities throughout the country as well as private owners and developers. These are probably the most widely accepted guidelines in use in this country today. Currently, we are responsible for 10,000 federally owned or leased buildings, with an inventory of 250 million square feet of building space nationwide. A great potential for conserving energy is through the modification of existing facilities, especially since 85 percent of all existing buildings will be in operation at the turn-of-the next century. In this connection the maximum benefit can be but inefficient users of energy. Some facilities will benefit more than others by an energy use analysis. For example, we are already concentrating on those buildings using over 150,000 BTU's/gross square foot/year. It should be understood that modifications will be made only so long as they are cost effectives as well as energy efficient. These considerations are an integral part of our repair and alteration program. For example, a roof replacement may include additional insulation to improve its energy efficiency. In this case most of the programmed cost is not energy related but an upgrading or replacement cost. Through efforts such as this we have completed over $10 million in energy oriented projects in FY 1974 and FY 1975. In the context of an energy economic analysis, for new construction, GSA considers both the initial investment cost as well as the long range energy and operating costs for a new facility. In this effort, we have been working together with the Postal |