GSA, with approximately 330 million square feet of space under its custody and control, assumes various risks as a property owner and manager. To better identify and manage the risks relating to the environmental safety and health of its properties, GSA developed a new performance measure, the Environmental Risk Index (ERI).
The ERI was created as a measure of the “safety and health” of GSA workplaces. GSA had to define what safe and healthy workplaces meant in the context of its operations and goals. With expertise provided from its environmental managers, the development group was able to balance the diverse environmental risk issues confronting GSA and establish the 13 categories within the ERI.
The ERI establishes a measure of risk for individual buildings based on a series of multiple-choice questions from 13 categories, covering areas such as asbestos, indoor air quality, and storage tanks. Each question has a numeric value attached to its corresponding answers, which are based on predetermined weights, resulting in a risk measure for that category.
The ERI provides GSA with a measure that can:
- Be readily explained to GSA leadership and members of Congress
- Show how appropriated funds would improve the environmental performance of a particular building or of GSA buildings as a whole
- Integrate environmental and safety practices into the GSA business
- Reduce operations and property disposal costs
- Increase customer satisfaction by providing safer and more healthful workplaces
- Increase marketability of assets and property value
- Further GSA’s environmental and safety leadership by meeting regulatory requirements and its social commitment
At the Regional and building levels of analysis, the ERI data can quickly elucidate characteristics of specific properties that pose the greatest environmental risk while providing a tool that measures and tracks this risk over time. GSA may also use the ERI data to find common themes and areas of opportunity in the Regional program. Prioritizing environmental risk mitigation can be done by risk area on a building, regional, or national basis or among the set of risks at a given property. The ERI also facilitates integration of environmental considerations into the asset planning process.
More specifically, the ERI and the cyclical Physical Condition Surveys (PCS) have been integrated into each building’s Asset Business Plan, the core-planning document for GSA properties. Using the information from the Asset Business Plan to prioritize repair or reinvestment work, asset managers can make better investment decisions. Thus, the ERI supports a more comprehensive assessment of a property or properties that leads to a more encompassing investment decision.
For more information, contact Ms. Debra Yap at (202) 501-4373 or via e-mail at debra.yap@gsa.gov
