Deep Energy Retrofits in GSA Buildings

This report details the outcomes of a March 2013 charrette convened by the General Services Administration (GSA), Department of Energy (DOE), Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP), and Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI). The event focused on improving Energy Savings Performance Contracts (ESPCs) to achieve 'deep energy retrofits'—defined as projects achieving over 50% reduction in energy use—within the GSA building portfolio.

• GSA has significantly increased the volume and efficiency of its ESPC projects. The number of executed ESPCs rose from an average of 3 per year to 30 in 2013, with projects now active across all 11 GSA Regions.
• The National Deep Energy Retrofit (NDER) program has demonstrated a substantial increase in energy savings compared to previous ESPC efforts. While previous projects averaged around 18% savings, NDER projects at the preliminary audit stage show an average of 39%, with some individual projects exceeding 60%.
• To identify the best candidates for deep retrofits, GSA is utilizing remote auditing tools. By mid-2013, GSA aimed to have 100 buildings—representing half of its 'covered facilities'—in the FirstFuel virtual assessment tool to help identify the 200 highest-energy-intensity buildings.
• The charrette identified several strategies to 'raise the bar' for deep retrofits, including the use of integrative design charrettes to bundle energy conservation measures (ECMs), expanding revenue streams to include tenant operations and O&M savings, and engaging the top 10 agency tenants on behavior and fit-out strategies.
• There is a recommended shift toward Measurement and Verification (M&V) Option C for whole-building solutions to better account for interactive bundled measures, particularly envelope improvements. Proposed constraints for Option C include limiting its use to three years before reverting to Option D.
• The ESPC process is currently viewed as too slow, with design and contracting cycles often lasting 18–24 months. Recommendations to streamline include compressing the preliminary audit (PA) phase to 30 days and simplifying PA deliverables to a presentation and a succinct report of approximately 20 pages.

APA

RMI (2013). Deep Energy Retrofits in GSA Buildings. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_2013-10_GSAReportCharette.pdf

Chicago

RMI. Deep Energy Retrofits in GSA Buildings. 2013. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_2013-10_GSAReportCharette.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=Deep Energy Retrofits in GSA Buildings |date=4 June 2013 |url=https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_2013-10_GSAReportCharette.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2013deep, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{Deep Energy Retrofits in GSA Buildings}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2013}, month = jun, url = {https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_2013-10_GSAReportCharette.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }