Keywords: science, energy, government, technology, sustainability, market
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For this episode of BRITElights, we had the pleasure of hosting Jetta Wong, Senior Advisor on Climate at the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA). Pulling from her extensive experience working in and around the federal government in DC, she delves into the government’s role in clean energy adoption and technology commercialization, highlighting GSA’s significance as a major buyer of goods with a focus on sustainability.
They discussed the necessity of partnerships between agencies, entrepreneurs, and utilities to accelerate the clean energy transition and create strong American-made sustainable supply chains. This episode showcases how GSA plays a crucial role in managing federal properties with sustainable practices, such as using low embodied carbon materials and testing new technologies to enhance sustainability efforts. They highlighted initiatives such as the Green Proving Ground Program, focusing on validating new technologies, and leveraging funding like the Inflation Reduction Act to progress towards greener infrastructure development.
Guest host Mike Stacy, BRITE Board Chair and Zero Emissions Vehicle Lead at KPMG, explored electrification trends and complexities and economic aspects, echoing Jetta’s sentiment on the importance of public-private partnerships for driving innovation.
Connect with Jetta | Learn more about the GSA | Connect with Mike
Transcript:
00:26
Rick Stockburger
Welcome to the next episode of BRITElights. We are so excited to be in the middle of infrastructure month and to have a co-host here, Mike Stacy, who’s the zero-emissions vehicle lead from KPMG. Mike, welcome back to BRITElights for your second episode.
00:41
Mike Stacey
Thanks, Rick. Excited to be here for round two?
00:45
Rick Stockburger
Yeah, no, it’s going to be great. And we’re so excited to have Jetta Wong with us today. And first off, what are you excited to hear from Jetta about?
00:55
Mike Stacey
I think, number one, what she’s doing is pretty mean in terms of thinking about buildings and thinking about all the various things the GSA does and what they buy. And I really want to talk a little bit about energy and that piece of it. It’s an incredibly complex topic, as we know. And I think kind of the scope of what GSA does is so really interested to hear from her in terms of how she thinks about that, how they think about some of the net zero goals, but also some of the economic pieces to this.
01:34
Rick Stockburger
Very cool. And so I’m also excited to hear a little bit of a deep dive from you, like what’s KPMG’s perspective on this space, and what is your perspective on this space? So tell us more.
01:44
Mike Stacey
Yeah, absolutely. I think the key thing here is electrification is upon us in bigger ways and new ways than ever before. And this means both transportation and buildings and other things. And as we think about broadly, again, this energy transition, there’s a number of things that go into this. But the complexities of this, navigating the complexities of this are the key to success. Things have been tried in the past before. Some things were successful, some things have not been successful. But as we get into how the government thinks about this, they have a huge opportunity to be a leader. The private sector is needing example at times. They need incentives, as we know.
02:36
Mike Stacey
I think kind of the scope of how the federal government operates and kind of how they buy things, how they think about things can set a real precedent for the private sector. That precedent is needed right now. There’s a lot of things going on in this world of energy transition. Again, electrification is difficult. So really breaking that down and seeing that example, those templates, those processes the data that the government uses. I think now more than ever is really important.
03:10
Rick Stockburger
Yeah, no. And I’m so excited. When were talking about this episode and kind of dreaming about all the folks that we could have on this show, Jetta really stood out to me, and I’ve been really grateful to get to know her over the last couple of years. But she’s been a leader in this space for many years. And honestly, one of the best thinkers, and more importantly to me, obviously, is the best doers in this space. So I’m excited to have somebody in government that’s getting it done and getting good work done. So without further ado, I would love to welcome Jetta Wong, the senior advisor on climate at GSA, to this episode of BRITElights.
03:51
Jetta Wong
Hello, Rick. Hello, Mike. It is wonderful to see you. Thank you so much for having me.
03:56
Mike Stacey
Yeah, great to have you, Jetta.
03:58
Rick Stockburger
Well, we are super excited to have you. And as we’ve gotten to know each other over the last couple of years, I’ve been so impressed with the work that you’ve been know. Sometimes I like to start these things with just what’s not. Everybody knows what it is, but what is the definition or example of what is the like? I just wanted to start there real quick. I’m going to pull the answer off the website, and then I want you to tell me what it really is. So GSA manages federal property and provides contracting options for government agencies. That’s what it says.
04:29
Jetta Wong
That’s pretty good. Okay, well, why don’t I give you that from the perspective of what I work on, which is, of course, on the climate side. So, first of all, the federal government is the largest buyer of goods and services in the whole world. That’s over $630,000,000,000 of those goods and services every single year. And so when it comes to GSA, we, as the website says, we’re the procurement arm of the federal government. And so that means we buy those products. That includes everything from having one of the largest fleets of vehicles in the country. It also means that we are the landlord for the federal government. We have one of the largest office portfolios in the country. And then it also means that we buy all the electricity and the power for the buy.
05:30
Jetta Wong
Well, first of all, the federal government is the largest buyer of energy in the country. The Department of Defense buys for itself, and then we basically buy for everyone else. So those are kind of some of the things that I work on here at GSA. It gives you a better perspective of what we do on a day to day basis.
05:47
Rick Stockburger
Yeah. Wow. So small portfolio, just doing some stuff and things. That’s amazing. It’s so important, too, just to think of the depth and the breadth of the work that you do and how you are setting really some major trends in the space for the private sector and what they’re trying to accomplish. But I want to go back in the way back time machine Jetta. Like, how did you get excited about this space? When did you start working in government? Tell me about your origin story for how you got to this position that is trying to figure out how to be a good steward of our environment with one of the largest purchasers in the world.
06:36
Jetta Wong
Well, I could go way back. Hiking trips in Canada and canoeing and fishing with my dad, but I won’t bore all of you with that. I think really where my career started was here in Washington, DC. I started out at a nonprofit organization, and I was working know policies. We’re here in DC, so I’m working on tax credits and renewable portfolio standards and grant programs, all trying to kind of get the Congress or the administration to help facilitate more clean energy development in the United States. But it really wasn’t until I started working for the US House of Representatives, where I was a professional staffer for the House Science, Space and technology committee, did I really start to kind of hone in on what my role would be in the transition to a clean energy economy.
07:35
Jetta Wong
And I was really privileged, quite honestly, to work for the committee at this really critical time, because on a daily basis, I would have scientists coming in, maybe in the morning, I’d get to meet with a Nobel Prize winner, and they would tell me, really? No. Amazing people.
07:53
Rick Stockburger
Who’s the coolest one? I’m sorry, do you have a favorite?
07:56
Jetta Wong
Well, I do have to admit, one of my first bosses was Steve Chu, who’s a Nobel Prize winner, also the former director of Berkeley National Laboratory, and of course, a former secretary of energy. So very exciting. But I would meet with these amazing scientists and they would tell me about some new whiz bang technology, a new ceramic material that could withstand very extreme temperatures and how it was a breakthrough in science. And then maybe in the afternoon, I get to meet with a new utility CEO, and they would tell me very directly, we have this cost issue. It’s too expensive for consumers. We have a reliability problem, and therefore we are deploying this new technology on the grid.
08:43
Jetta Wong
And I quickly realized there was a big difference between what the scientist was saying and what the utility CEO was willing to deploy on their grid. And that’s actually what brought me to originally the Department of Energy, where I had the opportunity to work on a number of initiatives, including starting the Office of Technology Transitions with then Secretary Moniz, who was a great leader for the commercialization of technology.
09:11
Rick Stockburger
And, may I be clear, has the best hair in Washington, DC, hands down.
09:15
Jetta Wong
I would agree. I’m trying to get there, quite honestly.
09:21
Rick Stockburger
No, that’s so cool. And I love the spread right. Between scientists and then the utility CEO. Because where we work and focus on BRITE is like there’s a whole area in the middle where people are commercializing that science, right? They’re trying to take that science and turn it into a product that is reliable and affordable and sustainable and trying to get that to a customer as an end result. Your job at Ott sounds like you fell right into the kind of middle of that, right?
09:54
Jetta Wong
Well, yeah. And what’s really amazing in the federal government is that we have been doing terrific science for a very long time. We’ve always been a scientific leader. And what we are now doing, even more than we had in the past, is we’re figuring out how to take that science from a science project to a product in the market. And that’s what the department of energy is doing, and that’s what we get to do at GSA as well.
10:19
Rick Stockburger
Yeah. So that’s awesome. So we’ve brought to you’re a GSA now. You’ve done some amazing things. So I want to start in kind of my portion of this interview. I know we’ve kind of already started, but we’re really hitting the basics with my general question of what excites you and what scares you about this space when it comes to climate and how the government can kind of intervene in those outcomes. What’s the most exciting thing to you right now that’s going on in the space?
10:50
Jetta Wong
Well, there’s a lot of exciting things, but my role here at GSA is really exciting because of what were talking about earlier. The purchasing power of the federal government can change markets. And if you take away anything from this conversation around GSA, there are three things that we think about when we’re thinking about markets. The first one is that I’m super excited about is how do we make new markets for new technologies, like what we’re doing with low embodied carbon construction materials. The second thing that we do here at GSA is we help reduce risk, which I’m sure for a lot of your companies at BRITE is really important because the market is big and scary. But if you start to reduce risk incrementally, you can have a really big impact on the market.
11:41
Jetta Wong
And so one of the things that we do is we help reduce risk by developing, testing and deploying technologies in our buildings to demonstrate that they perform just as good and sometimes even better than traditional technologies. And then the third thing that we do when we try to create markets, which I’m really excited about, is we make the markets more transparent. We provide tools, we provide standards, we provide information that can help clarify what’s going in the market and explain why sustainable products can be just as good and even better sometimes than what’s going on already.
12:17
Rick Stockburger
Yeah, well, that’s awesome. And obviously right at the heart of the work that we do at BRITE here, with mitigating risk for investors and customers and all that. So we’re excited to do that on a much smaller scale than GSA, but hopefully an important one from that role. So on the other side of it, I’m going to say, you can’t answer, if we don’t solve climate change, the world’s going to end, which is a fair answer. But what scares you about this space? What scares you about what’s going on in the climate space right now? So I’m trying to set these guardrails right. Excitement, so much good stuff happening. What do we got to be worried about?
12:56
Jetta Wong
I think what scares me, but is obviously an opportunity, is that we’re not moving fast enough. The reason why I started working on climate change to begin with, it’s the reason why I went to the Department of Energy, it’s the reason why I’m here at GSA is that we can’t wait. We are facing last year in 2023, major climate disasters, weather related disasters that we need to address. And so it’s scary because we’re not moving fast enough, but it’s exciting because we have a great opportunity to do even more.
13:36
Rick Stockburger
Yeah.
13:37
Jetta Wong
What scares you? I’m curious.
13:42
Rick Stockburger
I used to have a government job. I used to have a government job. I was in the army for about eight years. And so the short answer is, after that, not a lot. But the long answer to the what scares me question, it’s along the same lines. But I think the biggest thing that scares me, if we’re not going to talk about the very real existential crisis of climate change, is that we’re not going to americanize the supply chains fast enough or friend supply chains from that standpoint.
14:16
Rick Stockburger
And so I think there’s such a huge opportunity, and I’m so grateful for the IRA and the BIl and the Chips act for the kind of american made standards in the supply chain, because I think if that’s something that we don’t take advantage of and we don’t get manufacturing back to the United States and specifically back to the middle of the country, we’re going to have all kinds of crisis continuing throughout this process. So not only do I think we can solve climate change, but I think we can do it with employing Americans and friends of our country to make amazing products that are sustainable and help the world be a better place. So what scares me is if we don’t do that. So that’s where I’m at. Yeah.
14:58
Mike Stacey
Jetta, I wanted to talk a little bit about economics, and as a past entrepreneur, I think this was one of the challenges that I faced introducing a new technology into the market and into some of the government channels. But how do you prioritize, or if you prioritize, some of the climate and carbon goals for the government with some of the economics of where technologies are at? Any thoughts there in terms of those two elements?
15:32
Jetta Wong
Yeah, I think that’s a really good point. And as an entrepreneur, you should be focused on all of those priorities. And thank you for the work that you do. It’s not easy to be an entrepreneur. I was going to say earlier in 2023, the United States experienced over 25 different weather and climate related incidents that resulted in more than a billion dollars each of damages, as well as hundreds of human lives. All of those together came up to be $73 billion. We absolutely need to be thinking about the economics, but we also need to be thinking about the economics of climate change and the impact that is having on our economy. In the Midwest alone, since 1980, there have been more than $49 billion of climate related damages just from floods.
16:32
Jetta Wong
So if we’re thinking holistically about our role in the government, we have to be taking those things into consideration. How does that impact our work? For example, procurement is a really great example. And actually, Rick, you were kind of just talking about something that we spend a lot of time at here at GSA supply chains, right? Yeah, we’re the procurement arm. We need to have secure supplies for all of the different missions of the federal government. So we actually spend a lot of time trying to understand how to diversify our markets, how climate is impacting supply chains, what other agencies are doing, and what those policies are that can help enable better and cleaner and more sustainable, as well as secure supply chains.
17:19
Jetta Wong
We do the same thing as it relates to the electricity we buy, we want to make sure that we have reliable, resilient electricity to power all of our buildings. That means it needs to be diverse. It means that it needs to be potentially something that is more reliable for all of our buildings to depend on. These are all things that we have to take into consideration as we’re looking at both climate change and the economics.
17:43
Rick Stockburger
Yeah, well, I think one thing you didn’t mention on that, on what you’re looking at is you mentioned resilience from that standpoint, but also affordable. Right. And I think I’m like 99% sure right now that solar and clean energy is now cheaper than specifically coal and also natural gas from that standpoint. So it’s not only just like reliability, right. It’s affordability and sustainability, I think, that are unbelievably important in this space. And so it’s really exciting to see the technologies and how they’ve moved forward in this space. 20 years ago, we couldn’t say anything near that. Ten years ago, we probably couldn’t say anything near that. But now these technologies are coming on and at parity or better from that standpoint. So it’s exciting.
18:29
Mike Stacey
Jetta, in terms of the example that you set that the government sets in purchasing of these goods and services, what can the private sector learn from that, in terms of how you think and how you prioritize? So you had mentioned some of the consequences of what’s happening with climate and those big events, and there’s big dollars attached to the tail end of that. What can be learned in terms of how you purchase goods and services, in terms of how you evaluate those that can be shared with the private sector and even entrepreneurs that are thinking about how to sell into the market?
19:06
Jetta Wong
Well, I think that’s a really good question, and I would actually say, what can we learn from each other? Because one of the most amazing things about the work that’s going on here at GSA that is somewhat new to me as someone that worked on R D for a really long time, is that every single technology we deploy in a building or we put on a GSA schedule, it has to be commercial, it has to be something that we can use, that we can rely on. And that means that we have to understand the market. It means that we actually have to be engaging with the private sector so they can learn from us through the demonstrations and validations of technology that we do or the standards that we create.
19:50
Jetta Wong
But we can learn a lot from them by understanding what is already going on. What are the major problems in the market that we need to be addressing. And that feedback between the private sector and the federal government is really what’s going to kind of accelerate the technology deployment that we’re all looking for. So I think it’s a two way street. It’s not one way. We like to say that the transition to a clean energy economy is going to be government enabled, but private sector led. And that’s a quote from John Badassa, the climate advisor to President Biden. And we absolutely believe that here at.
20:28
Mike Stacey
GsA Jetta, one thing I wanted to drill down into is the category of energy purchases and how you think about that. We see this as a complex purchase. There’s many facets to it, many challenges to it, but understanding you’ve got a huge portfolio customer base. But how do you break down the energy purchase in terms of those dynamics?
20:56
Jetta Wong
It’s a really good question, and it’s one that we take as a very important responsibility since we are one of two entities in the federal government that can buy this energy. And it’s actually kind of feeds back into what were just talking about around public private partnership. In the last couple of years, GSA has signed four different memorandums of understanding with utilities across the country. And these MoUs are really focused on bringing together the public sector and the private sector so we can identify common goals. We have a goal in the federal government to buy 100% carbon pollution free electricity by 2030, with 50% of that being 24/7 matching.
21:42
Jetta Wong
And when we go into a state where we have a lot of load, which as the federal government, including the Department of Defense, which is a whole government approach, that’s a lot of load for these utilities. And so when we sign these mous, we’re saying we need this specific thing as part of our requirements to meet our goals, utilities will pay attention. And we’ve had some really great success in the last year. We actually helped work with Entergy Arkansas through one of our mous on a green tariff that they then introduced into the PUC PC moved it very fast. And now we have about 94% of the federal load onto this green tariff, which is 100% carbon pollution free electricity with a 24/7 match.
22:31
Jetta Wong
And other entities can also buy off of this tariff, which we think is really important because we’re not just doing this for the federal government. We want others to be able to have access to this power, too. And it’s important in Arkansas because they have a lot of manufacturing, and that manufacturing wants to be just as clean as possible. And so it’s a great economic development opportunity for them too.
22:57
Mike Stacey
Wow. Yeah, that’s amazing. So that sounds like it sets a great precedent for the private sector. Is there anything else needed to incent those, to piggyback off of that or you’re actually seeing some traction already there?
23:14
Jetta Wong
Well, I think what is really important is that we’re all sharing information. We’ve learned a lot from the utilities on what they need and what it looks like for them into the future. We’ve been working with them to understand their integrated resource plans, which many utilities across the country are forecasting a significant amount of new load on their grids. And thank you inflation Reduction act for amazing manufacturing incentives and tax credits, which are calling for new manufacturing in the United States. New data centers through the Chips and Science act, for example. That’s a lot of load utilities.
24:01
Jetta Wong
And so one of the things that we’re doing together is understanding what other customers need and what we need and trying to go to the utility together to make sure that we’re really understanding what we can bring to the table and what they need from us as well.
24:17
Rick Stockburger
Yeah, I think it’s really interesting that you say that here in Ohio and the know a lot of people are talking about electric vehicles coming online and the demand response that’s going to be in the necessary load increase. But we’re actually hearing from some of the utilities like, yeah, no, that’s a thing. Data centers though are now and happening and we do not know how we’re going to get enough generation on the grid to be able to do that. And so I think that’s why they’re excited to have any new generation opportunities to meet the demand that’s coming through, which I think is a huge opportunity for clean energy across the Midwest. I want to transition a little bit, and I love this topic from our purview from the startups space and what that looks like.
25:06
Rick Stockburger
So I know you guys a have an amazing proving grounds program, right? Can you tell me a little bit about that?
25:14
Jetta Wong
Yeah, so you’re talking about what we call the green proving ground program, or GPG for short. It was started in 2012. It is for newer technology series a little early. We’re looking for commercial technologies that we can demonstrate and validate in our buildings. The green proven ground program allows us to identify these technologies, deploy them in a building or multiple buildings, and then through a partnership with the Department of Energy and its national laboratories, we actually evaluate that technology in our building. So in a working building, provide a report back to that company. So they can use that for their own activities, but we also use that report for our needs to understand what new technologies we should be deploying in our buildings. So that’s the green prooving ground program.
26:13
Jetta Wong
That used to be about a million dollars a year kind of program, but with the Inflation Reduction act, we put $30 million into that. And so we’re going to see a number of new technologies coming out of that program. But it’s not just GSA, the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, the economic development agency, because new programs for entrepreneurs, new programs for regional economic development and innovation, and all of those programs are really beneficial for deploying these new technologies in an area that I think a lot of companies would be really interested in.
26:52
Rick Stockburger
Yeah, absolutely. And we’ve just recently had a lot of success with some Doe programs as well. Three of our companies got about 43 million in funding for their hydrogen technologies that they’re going to be deploying across Ohio, which is just really exciting. And that’s not even to mention the arch to hydrogen hub thing. So there’s a lot of opportunity in this space. So what does the chasm look like, though, from startup idea like this early stage thing to becoming a government vendor all the way up to GSA? And I guess the question that I’m asking probably more directly or more importantly, is what are the things not to do on your path to getting to be a government vendor that you might want to watch while you’re growing. Right? Because that’s something that we come across a lot with startups.
27:47
Rick Stockburger
It’s like, oh, they had the wrong way, they got set up, and now they aren’t venturable. What are those things that you look at?
27:56
Jetta Wong
Well, first of all, I would say that it’s really important to be paying attention to what the government needs and the government requirements are. But I wouldn’t only focus on that. I think one of the most important things for companies, early stage companies to think about is what is the problem in the market that they are trying to solve? If it’s not a real problem, you’re not going to have a market for your technology. And so it’s important for you to know what is the government working on? What is the government trying to do? Are there particular technologies that they’re trying to deploy to solve a problem? Reliability, grid security, better vehicle efficiency.
28:40
Jetta Wong
All of those things are important for companies to understand as they are making it way through the market, through the valley of death, and potentially making it into the federal government.
28:53
Mike Stacey
And those problems, they’re common, right? I mean, if you think about how the problems you described from a government perspective to the private sector perspective, all those things the broader market is asking for. So whether it’s a government sector that the entrepreneur is selling to or the private sector, both sides are asking for the same things. And I think that’s the key. Is there any uniqueness, though, from a government perspective, in terms of how you define your problems and needs versus the private sector? Is there any difference there, or do you generally see that as common?
29:35
Jetta Wong
So I would say that the federal government creates demand and requirements for the public good. So we’re trying to push the envelope to ensure that we are meeting requirements for low cost energy, for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, for a more competitive United States manufacturing industry. And so as we think about how we develop policy in that space, we want to do that on behalf of the public. And so the things that we put into a standard, like low embodied carbon construction materials and the standards that we’ve created around that, the intent behind that is that we would be a leader and that others would be able to follow, and we are doing that on behalf of the public. So I think we look at it in a slightly different way, but it is all for the larger picture.
30:38
Rick Stockburger
Yeah. So you’ve been working in the federal government since 2009. So 2009 to 2024. What are the biggest changes you’ve seen? Maybe in the approach that the government takes to purchasing or the approach to climate change and all of that? What have you seen in these last 15 or so years?
30:59
Jetta Wong
It’s a terrific question. I think when I started my career, things were really black and white. It was us versus them. In reality, it’s not. We are all working on the same problems, the same challenges. We’re all concerned about security and cybersecurity, competitiveness. And what I’ve seen in the federal government, and not just in the federal government, but in working with the private sector and nonprofits, is that it’s really about what do we do together? And we have a lot more enabling legislation and funding from chips and science, from the Inflation Reduction act, from bipartisan infrastructure law that is allowing us to partner in ways that we have never done before. And it’s really that partnership that is going to help us accelerate commercialization of new technology through new programs, working with entrepreneurs, working with incubators and economic development organizations.
32:04
Jetta Wong
That’s something that I’ve seen really grow over my time working in the federal government, and it’s really exciting. And people should reach out to agencies to find out what they have to offer because we have programs that can support entrepreneurs and support the commercialization of new technology.
32:22
Rick Stockburger
Yeah.
32:24
Mike Stacey
Jetta, maybe one last question for me in thinking about going back to the economics for a second, thinking about making the economics work, are there specifically kind of creative financing structures that the government uses in some of these complex power purchase agreements, things that you’ve seen that have been successful?
32:45
Jetta Wong
Yeah, no, that’s a really great question. And in fact, I’ve mentioned a little bit about the Inflation Reduction act, which, of course, is the largest down payment on the climate crisis that we’ve ever seen. GSA got a billion dollars from the Inflation Reduction act for emerging and sustainable technologies to deploy in our buildings. And so what we have done, and we announced this last June, is that we’ve taken that money and we are turning that into $1.9 billion through performance contracting. So again, it’s all about the partnerships. How do we leverage the federal government and the dollars we have to bring more money to the table and help us renovate our buildings, in this case with emerging and sustainable technologies. So we are taking that billion dollars, turning it to 1.9.
33:42
Jetta Wong
We are electrifying more than 100 buildings, 28 of which will be net zero. And that’s creating 5000 jobs, $2.9 billion in GDP. And it’s avoiding almost half a billion dollars in energy, in money that we would spend on energy. Because when we retrofit a building, we try to do what we call a deep energy retrofit. And that means that we’re trying to get to at least a 40% reduction in energy consumption in each one of those buildings. And for all the entrepreneurs out there, what we’re looking for are new technologies to help us do that. So we want energy efficiency technologies, we want grid technologies. And I’ll give you just one more example of one of these performance contracts that we did. It was at the Oklahoma City Federal building.
34:39
Jetta Wong
Some people may know this building because this was the building that was bombed in 1995. We rebuilt that building, and recently we did a renovation on that building. We did that renovation in partnership with Oklahoma Gas and electric through a performance contract with assistance from the Department of Energy as well as Rocky Mountain Institute. And we turned that building into a grid, interactive, efficient building. That means that we have new technology in there. We have solar panels, we have batteries, we have a little micro grid that’s not like actually a thing. We have microcontrollers that actually help us shift our load when we see that we are using too much energy. And the grid might need some of that we can actually take ourselves off of the grid for 3 hours. We can also put energy back onto the grid.
35:35
Jetta Wong
So those are all things that we’re doing with new technologies, new IRA dollars and partnerships that are enabled by the work that we’re doing here in the federal government. And so we’re really excited about that kind of thing across the country.
35:51
Mike Stacey
Wow, that’s amazing. It sounds like the plan is working then.
35:58
Rick Stockburger
I love it and I greatly appreciate, we’ve talked a lot about all these really big things, and sometimes when you say a billion dollars, it’s like, I can’t even comprehend what a billion dollars means. Right. And then it’s turning a billion dollars into three billion dollars. Two point nine. And all of that, it’s just like, wow. But when you actually talk about like, so this is how we did it. So Oklahoma City building and that’s great. I know we recently saw you in Cleveland with a building in Cleveland doing amazing work last year, I believe, or maybe the year know from that standpoint. And so a, I just want to say thank you for all the amazing work that you do at GSA.
36:37
Rick Stockburger
Your role is one of the most important roles in the country for folks that are worried about climate change and are impacted by climate change, which is every living human being on the face of the planet. So from that standpoint, on behalf of all of humanity, I want to say thank you for the work that you do in government purchasing for one of the largest purchasers in the world of energy in that space. So a thank you from everybody. I want to thank you on behalf of BRITE as well. As we mentioned, we thank you on behalf of the whole world, but want to thank you on behalf of BRITE for the work that you do as a senior advisor on climate at GSA. So thanks for joining us on BRITElights.
37:24
Jetta Wong
Well, thank you so much, Rick and Mike, for having me. Really enjoyed the conversation and look forward to seeing the work that you’re doing in the future.
37:32
Mike Stacey
Awesome.
37:33
Rick Stockburger
Jetta and Mike, thanks so much. Your second episode, you’ve done it. Next episode, we’re really excited to have Anna Siefkin, the deputy director of the FEMP program, and that’s going to be great. And we’re going to dig in more on government buildings and what happens in that space. So we’re really excited just about this work that we’ve been able to do and these amazing guests, Jetta and Dan Killoren. And from EPRI and Anna, this is a great month and great three episodes. So thank you so much. And we will catch you on the BRITE side.
