Sustainable Facilities Tool (SFTool)

GSA received the 2024 Leadership Award for Organizational Excellence from the Green Building Council last week! This honor recognizes the efforts GSA has made for using green building and sustainable practices to improve quality of life for those around them. The SFTool team is proud to be a part of GSA’s commitment to sustainable practices within federal spaces. https://bit.ly/48Yj8GQ

Did you know that the Federal Buildings Personnel Training Act Competency Model (FBPTA) recently added some new updates? These updates include additional competencies that reflect the increasing importance of ventilation, in addition to a new qualification review process and new training reviews. We are seeking feedback on these updates to ensure the framework is comprehensive and reflects the needs of all stakeholders. Your feedback is essential to the success of the FBPTA program! The Federal Buildings Personnel Training Act of 2010 requires that all federal personnel providing building operations and maintenance services demonstrate competencies necessary to effectively operate government facilities.? The act required the creation and periodic update of competencies, recommended curriculum and continuing education for federal building personnel. The public comment period for the update of the Federal Buildings Personnel Training Act Competency Model is open now through November 24, 2024. To review more of the updates and leave your comments, please visit https://bit.ly/3Z28knH

GSA and EPA won a 2024 Sustainable Acquisition Excellence Award from the Chief Acquisition Officers Council! This award comes on the wings of several new initiatives both agencies have been collaborating on to prioritize the purchase of sustainable products and services including products without added PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) and to support Executive Order 14057 on Catalyzing American Clean Energy Industries and Jobs through Federal Sustainability and the Federal Sustainability Plan. Notably, GSA’s SFTool team was recognized for launching a new “PFAS Addressed” filter on SFTool Product Search. Federal purchasers use this flagship sustainability website to identify sustainable products. The new filter allows purchasers to easily browse for products certified to PFAS restricted labels. Additionally, the Acquisition Excellence Award recognized GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service and the Green Procurement Compilation for highlighting EPA’s recommended purchasing programs that address PFAS. Check out our procure page to learn more about both of these features, here: https://lnkd.in/gpW_hhyH Congratulations to the GSA team - Rebecca Stevens, Michael Bloom, Melissa Minor, and Steven Baker!

Looking for a centralized page that helps you share SFTool with your colleagues? Look no further! The Teach SFTool page includes many different resources integral to learning more about the site’s many features, including: An introduction to SFTool, Helpful Tools, and downloadable content like SFTool’s two-page information flyer, a standard briefing deck and more! We also provide a few video walkthroughs that talk through some of SFTool’s selected features and our Building Decarbonization module. Please check it out here: https://bit.ly/3FqbVBg

Need tools to help with everyday tasks? SFTool is an ideal place to learn concepts, but we also feature a Helpful Tools page that highlights the SFTool resources you can use to simplify your work. This page conveniently lists all of the available tools on the website and organizes them into four main categories for you:? Understanding Federal Requirements, Project Planning & Development, Procurement, and Operations & Maintenance. Check it out here: https://bit.ly/3NtBLIB

Keeping up with our Green Procurement Compilation page updates? #ICYM SFTool recently released a newsletter (9/19) that covers all of our major Green Procurement Compilation updates over the past few months. This includes the new FAQs page, added FAR requirements, updated product categorization and more! Please read all about it in our latest newsletter here: https://bit.ly/4dLcl3Y To sign up for our newsletter and get more updates like this, please visit SFTool.gov (https://bit.ly/3A01fu0) and scroll to the footer of the page and fill out your information in the sign-up section.

SFTool Product Search recently updated some of the search filter categories found on the left-hand side of our search page. “Federal Programs” has been updated to “Statutory Purchasing Program Requirements.”?“EPA Recommended Specifications, Standards, and Ecolabels” section has been changed to “Required EPA Purchasing Programs” and now includes both the EPEAT and WaterSense Certified ecolabels.? Finally,?“Additional High-Performance Filters” is now called “Disclosures and Transparencies.” Take a look at the new organization and updates here: https://bit.ly/3BAoxr6

SFTool has released a guide that covers how SFTool can assist you in planning and designing projects to achieve high performance and sustainability goals. This guide assists with:? 1) Managing Design Requirements 2) Designing to Achieve Performance Goals 3) Selecting Products and Materials and more! https://bit.ly/3N2iNsC

Interested in participating in a focus group discussion to improve GSA’s Green Procurement Compilation? On October 22nd, we plan to host a focus group discussion to better understand how our user base interacts with the Green Procurement Compilation landing page and its subpages. If you’re interested in participating please submit your information here: https://bit.ly/47ws3yi

The SFTool website (https://sftool.gov/) switched to Login.gov to authenticate users on Thursday night (9/12). If you want to keep any of your existing SFTool account information (FEDSAT, Total Workplace Scorecards, & GPC Lists), please be sure to merge your old account with a Login.gov account beginning 9/13. The merge feature will appear once you have created your new login.gov account.