When the General Services Administration — the U.S. agency that manages
nearly 375 million square feet of federal office space — opened their renovated
headquarters at 1800 F Street NW in Washington, D.C. in the fall of 2013, less
than half of the building's employees showed up. It was the intended result of an
initiative that began with an Executive Order mandating that federal agencies
shed unused office space, cut costs, and, in response to the Telework Enhancement
Act of 2010, find a way to move government employees to more flexible styles of
work.
As the government's leader in real estate management, GSA committed
itself to setting a new workplace standard for all federal agencies. To date, by
consolidating six D.C.-area leases into one 800,000 square foot building, running
an extensive series of measurements to determine how much (and what kind
of ) space they really need, and implementing their Smart Building and Smart
Occupancy technology strategies they have:
• Achieved a 2:1 worker-to-workspace ratio in an effort to create a more mobile
work environment, supporting 4,400 employees with only 2,200 desks
• Saved $24 million (nearly 50 percent) in annual lease costs by consolidating six
leases into one. On top of that, they've saved another $7–8 million by sharing all
service costs (security and supplies, for example)
• Reduced carbon and energy consumption by 50 percent, saved 16 million
kilowatts of energy annually, and avoided 16 metric tons of CO
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Executive Summary
