Seeking Information on Innovative Building Technologies -- Fiscal Year 2015 Green Proving Ground Program

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) is issuing this Request for Information (RFI) to gather responses from private sector entities, educational institutions, non-profit organizations, and other interested parties on emerging and innovative building technologies in support of its Green Proving Ground (GPG) program. The GPG program leverages GSA's real estate portfolio as a "proving ground" to evaluate emerging building technologies that promise to improve the environmental performance of GSA's portfolio while reducing operational costs. More specifically, the GPG program aims to identify technologies with the greatest potential to support the goals outlined in the President's June 2013 Climate Action Plan, as well as those that help meet GSA's mandated sustainability goals, particularly goals contained in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 and Executive Order 13514 of October 5, 2009, "Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance." The GPG program assesses the performance of innovative technologies in the real world context of operating buildings. Notable findings from GPG program projects will support the evolution of performance specifications for the GSA portfolio and may inform decision making within GSA, other Federal agencies, and the real estate industry in deploying the technologies studied. Throughout this document, - technology refers broadly to integrated systems based on any combination of hardware (equipment) and software (processing), materials engineering processes and resource management devices, methods, tools, or models based on scientific or engineering principles. Technologies appropriate for measurement and validation (M&V) performance studies must be sufficiently mature that all required laboratory or other proof-of-concept work has been completed. Commercial technologies already broadly in use and readily available in the marketplace are not appropriate candidates for the GPG M&V performance studies. Overview of Fiscal Year 2015 GPG Program Goals: GSA is requesting information about innovative, transformational green building technologies that: (1) have the potential to improve the environmental performance or lower the operating costs, or both, of the Federal real estate portfolio, (2) have promising early-stage performance results, and (3) have the potential to provide, through a real-world M&V performance study, evidence-based information needed to support decision-making on deployment. How to Submit Responses: Private sector entities, educational institutions, non-profit organizations, and other interested parties wishing to be considered for GSA's Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 GPG program, including those respondents that submitted information in response to previous years' program requests, should respond to this RFI by completing the Web-based questionnaire at the link provided below. Only submissions initiated through this website will be reviewed. The Web-based questionnaire can be found at: http://survey.clicktools.com/go?iv=2cewt3bwd7ypb Additional information may be subsequently requested during the GPG program planning process. This announcement will remain open until 11:59 PM EST on Friday, November 7, 2014. Questions about this announcement should be directed to gpg+2015@gsa.gov. Information Session: The GPG program team will host two Web-based information sessions to discuss the program and clarify the RFI questionnaire at 1:00 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, September 30, and Thursday, October 30, 2014. You can register for the sessions at: http://goo.gl/XSzCfn. Once registration is complete, the sessions can be accessed at: https://gsameeting.adobeconnect.com/gpg-2015. Fiscal Year 2015 GPG Program Process: The GPG program will review and consider submitted technologies for M&V performance studies as part of the FY 2015 program. To be selected, the respondent must provide compelling responses to the RFI questionnaire, the technology must advance the GPG program's mission, and the respondent must agree to donate the technology unconditionally to GSA in sufficient quantity to test and evaluate its performance. GSA will not issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) as a follow-up to this RFI. Using the collected information, GSA may invite a subset of respondents to participate in the FY 2015 GPG program. Responses to the RFI will be evaluated by the GPG program team according to the program goals described above through a multi-stage review process. Based on the evaluation of the submissions, each respondent will be notified whether or not GSA will request the submission of a follow-up presentation. Respondents who are invited to submit additional information will be asked to provide a brief written presentation to GSA. After considering the follow-up material, if any, and the submissions, a subset of respondents may be asked to participate in additional discussions with GSA. GSA reserves the right to select for inclusion in the program any, all, or none of the submissions received. There is no commitment by GSA to make any contract awards, and GSA will not be responsible for any costs or expenses incurred by the respondents. GSA will not provide debriefs for those respondents not selected for inclusion in the program. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute an RFP. Responses to this RFI are not offers and will not be accepted by the Government to form an agreement or binding contract of any nature. Information received may be used to assist GSA in planning the scope of the 2015 M&V technology performance studies and may be shared with other Federal agencies. Respondents are advised not to include any confidential business information in the responses as the Government does not guarantee confidentiality of the information received. Although GSA asks that no confidential business information be submitted, it is GSA's practice to protect the provided information and make it available on a need-to-know basis only to Government personnel and contractors who will be using this information on behalf of the Government. However, GSA cannot guarantee that information, during transmission or while stored in its system or otherwise in GSA's custody or control or in the custody or control of another Federal agency, or their contractors, will be free from access by others, and the Government and its contractors will have no liability whatsoever for disclosure of such information. Background: GSA's mission is to deliver the best value in real estate, acquisition, and technology services to government and the American people. GSA supports over 1.1 million Federal workers by managing more than 9,000 federally owned or leased properties (377.9 million square feet of workspace). In addition, the agency manages more than $60 billion of Government purchasing. The mission of the GPG program is to, on a limited and carefully controlled basis, identify, test, and evaluate innovative building technologies to improve the performance of Federal buildings across the country. TERMS AND CONDITIONS: 52.215-3 Request for Information or Solicitation for Planning Purposes (Oct 1997) (a) The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this solicitation or to otherwise pay for the information solicited except as an allowable cost under other contracts as provided in subsection 31.205-18, Bid and proposal costs, of the Federal Acquisition Regulation. (b) Although "proposal" and "offeror" are used in this Request for Information, your response will be treated as information only. It shall not be used as a proposal. (c) This solicitation is issued for the purpose of gathering information on new sustainable building technologies. Primary Point of Contact for the GPG program: Kevin Powell GPG FY 2015 Selection Manager gpg+2015@gsa.gov