Little-known agency that dramatically reduces the federal government’s energy and CO2 emissions. Tools you may as well use

The federal government is the most important consumer of energy within the country, partially resulting from its vast portfolio of over 350,000 buildings totaling over 3 billion square feet within the United States and all over the world. Just a little-known, 51-year-old federal agency called Federal Energy Management Programmeor FEMP, goals to assist reduce the energy consumption and carbon footprint of all these buildings.

FEMP serves as an internal consultant to roughly 30 federal agencies, providing expertise, strategic advice, technical assistance and, upon request, funding to assist agencies manage their buildings. Anna J. SiefkenDeputy Director of FEMP, explained in a exclusive interview on the Electric Ladies Podcast. FEMP is now a part of the Office of Infrastructure within the Department of Energy, one among the various latest “offices” created by the Biden administration.

FEMP’s extensive collection of tools, training and best practices can also be available to the general public to assist reduce the carbon footprint of all buildings and houses.

Since its introduction in 1975, the FEMP has contributed to the Carbon footprint by 50%, in line with the FEMP website. President Biden’s Executive Order 14057 set a goal for federal buildings to be carbon neutral by 2045 and reduced by 50% from 2005 levels by 2032. It also established the Federal Building Performance Standard, which “sets a goal that by fiscal year 30, 30% of agency federal buildings will have zero Scope 1 emissions from on-site fossil fuel use,” Siefken said. The plan to attain these goals is known as the Federal Sustainability Plan, and it is usually designed to spur growth in America’s clean energy industry and job creation, in line with the plan.

Here’s how FEMP works and the way the general public can profit and learn from it (from our discussion):

What does FEMP do? The FEMP website describes the project as follows: “FEMP works with its stakeholders to enable federal agencies to achieve energy-related goals, find affordable solutions, promote public-private partnerships, and provide national energy leadership by identifying government best practices.” The strategies must even be replicable.

· FEMP provides policy, planning, technical support and funding: “We work with the federal government’s entire building portfolio, as you mentioned, about 350,000 buildings, including 600,000 cars and trucks in the fleet, all of which are geared toward decarbonization,” Siefken explained. “We do this through policy and planning,” analyzing energy mandates and developing strategies with agencies “to identify the short- and long-term opportunities and how they can make the case for themselves to save money and achieve these higher goals.” They also provide technical support in implementing, optimizing and prioritizing the strategies, in addition to maintenance and financing when appropriate.

· 40,000 to 50,000 hours of coaching per 12 months and 63 tools on their website: “People make all of this possible, and that’s true of our trainings, which are between 40,000 and 50,000 hours a year,” she said. They’re held each online and in person, including a big in-person event “where we bring together thousands of federal procurement officials and they learn all the same things we would learn at a commercial building or industry climate conference,” she said.

FEMP’s tools may be found under “Federal Energy Management Tools.” “I found 63 tools available, everything from a climate-smart building initiative planning tool to a climate mitigation planning tool, building lifecycle cost calculators, energy increase rate calculators, facility energy decision systems, existing building commissioning decision tools, and a technical resilience navigator. I mean, it’s just a treasure trove and you can find all of that on our website,” Siefken said.

· Changing the way in which people make these decisions, “training the coaches”: “We talk about the importance of decarbonization and what that means and how to get there. ‘What decision-making tools can someone in their position have so they can make those decisions?'” A key a part of their training, Siefken stressed, is changing the way in which those decisions are made. “Everyone, whether they’re in business, making a decision about their budget, or working for the federal government, thinks, ‘How can I save money? How can I make things more efficient?'” and deals with repairs. “So we help them train the trainer, so to speak, so that we build a pool of people who can implement these different energy-saving measures at federal agencies in these buildings.”

· They work with the private sector through performance contracting: “A performance contract is like a public-private partnership,” Siefken explained. It’s a structure that enables agencies to make use of pre-vetted energy service firms (also generally known as ESCOs) to supply engineering services across the country. The company is paid partially by the price savings that result from its work. It’s “basically third-party funding of that energy-saving measure to extend it over a longer period of time, so the company has an incentive to do energy-saving measures that are best suited for that agency or that building or that campus because they’ll pay for themselves in energy savings over many years. In fact, sometimes even over 20 or 25 (years).”

· Ensuring that communities, including previously disadvantaged ones, profit from FEMP initiatives: A FEMP grant program called “Assisting Federal Facilities with Energy Conservation Technologies,” also generally known as INFLUENCEsupported how their initiatives help the local economy. They have “awarded 31 projects in 18 states to 11 agencies,” with a concentrate on how the community advantages.” Siefken said, “Because once you place an influx of funds right into a constructing, take into consideration whenever you’re working on a constructing and also you’re attempting to do energy conservation measures. There’s the provision chain, there’s the employees that do the work, there’s the folks that make the selections, there’s the architects, the engineers, there’s a complete lot of economic activity that happens around each of those grants.”

“We all know that energy has historically been generated and produced in ways that have had disproportionate impacts on communities that have had no say,” Siefken emphasized. “So the entire Office of Infrastructure has really focused on how we can use some of the funding we provide to correct some of those wrongs.”

Listen to the total interview with Anna J. Siefken on the Electric Ladies Podcast Here.