September 19, 2005—The US General Services Administration (GSA) announced recently that teams from the Veterans Affairs (VA) and Treasury departments, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and GSA have won awards or received honorable mention in GSA’s Real Property Award Program.
The program, open to all federal employees, was created in 1997 to promote innovative practices and policies that would improve management of the federal government’s real property assets and workplaces.
The 2005 independent jury, which included a Canadian government real-estate representative and three commercial real estate/workplace experts, selected the following winners from 17 submissions, representing 12 federal departments and agencies:
Innovative Best Practice or Policy Category Winners:
- GSA’s Office of Citizen Services and Communications and Energy Center of Expertise for Energy 2004, the federal government’s First Certified Green Meeting/Trade Show, which used emission offsets and other “greening” measures.
- The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Health Administration, for an Enhanced-Use Lease with Catholic Charities, which generated funds to finance improvements to the Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital in Hines, IL.
Adopted Best Practice Winner:
- The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC), for adapting a National Capital Planning Commission state-of-the-art design-and-construction technology in the FDIC Phase II Security Initiatives.
Honorable Mention :
- Department of the Treasury’s Hoteling project, in which Treasury’s Inspector General for Tax Administration used telecommuting as part of a workspace design that accommodates more people in a smaller space and also reduces costs.
- GSA’s Denver Federal Center Service Center’s initiative, Replace Automobiles with Electric Vehicles, which helps create a sustainable facility.
The 2005 best practice and policy submissions will appear in a POLICYSITE Special Edition, an Office of Real Property newsletter, scheduled to be posted in September.
