Federal buildings to get $1B sustainability upgrade from climate law

Nearly $1 billion from the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act will go toward climate-friendly upgrades for federal buildings, the Biden administration said on Tuesday. 

According to a press release from the General Services Administration (GSA), $975 million will go toward electrification or energy efficiency upgrades to make the buildings more climate-friendly.

About 20 percent of the buildings in the GSA’s portfolio will be impacted. Twenty-eight of them will become carbon neutral and 100 more will become all electric. 

The effort — which is also expected to incorporate additional private funding — is expected to avoid 2.3 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions over the course of the equipment’s lifetime, which is equal to the emissions of about 290,000 American homes over the course of one year. 

It is part of a larger push by the Biden administration to cut planet-warming emissions from both federal buildings and the nation as a whole. The administration has previously indicated that it would seek to get to carbon neutrality for federal buildings by 2045. 

“Today’s historic announcement shows how the federal government can catalyze climate action by setting a leading example,” said a written statement from John Podesta, senior advisor to the president for clean energy innovation and implementation.

One building getting significant upgrades is the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C., one of the largest buildings under the GSA’s purview, which will get $13.5 million for retrofits.

The efforts at the building — which include installing heat pumps as the building’s main source of heat and installing 57,000 LED light bulbs — are estimated to cut its energy use by 40 percent.