Environment & Energy Stewardship
GSA’s Heating Plant is committed to the health of our environment, and to meeting all Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and District of Columbia regulations and requirements. GSA’s energy management program continues to drive actions to satisfy the mandates of the Federal Energy Policy Action of 2005, the Energy Independence & Security Act of 2007 and Executive Order 13423 for energy efficiency, renewable energy and sustainability.
GSA has continuous emissions monitoring systems (CEMS) at its plant to monitor pollutant emissions. This enables GSA to constantly monitor and adjust the combustion process in order to lower the emission of pollutants. In addition, the heating plant uses natural gas instead of coal since natural gas is the cleanest fossil fuel available. GSA also uses cogeneration with waste heat recovery which lowers the regional carbon footprint. To conserve both water and energy, the plant returns condensate from customer buildings through condensate return lines. The water treatment process utilizes advanced technology to condition feed water for boilers and chillers and engineer high quality steam and chilled water for our customers.
A major water conservation project was implemented in 2013. GSA’s installation of a reverse-osmosis water treatment system has allowed for the recycling and treating of water for use in the boilers. This has resulted in savings of approximately 100 million gallons of water, since the installation of the units in 2013 and 2014.
U.S. General Services Administration