Federal Chat

January 9, 2025 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM (EST)

Description

This session will be hosted by Timothy Unruh, Executive Director of NAESCO, and Mary Sotos, Director of the Federal Energy Management Program. Each quarter we will talk with Mary about what FEMP is doing, and some of their current actions. Also, each quarter we will be joined by a guest, and this quarter our guest is Kevin Kampschroer of the U.S. General Services Administration.

Registration is free. You will receive a separate Zoom invitation with a link to the webinar about a week prior to the event.

Presenters

Dr. Timothy Unruh, Executive Director, National Association of Energy Service Companies (NAESCO)

Dr. Timothy D. Unruh is the Executive Director of the National Association of Energy Service Companies (NAESCO). In this role, he manages the representation of its member Energy Service Companies. NAESCO provides advocacy for the industry at the Federal, State and Local levels, and provides for member company Accreditation.

Dr. Unruh has had previous positions as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Renewable Power at the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Office of the US Department of Energy (DOE), Director of the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) at the DOE EERE, and the Director of Operations for ConEdison Solutions. During his career, Dr. Unruh has performed numerous assessments, project analyses, and energy engineering services for an array of facility types. He is involved in the development of electrical power quality standards with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Power Quality Subcommittee.

Dr. Unruh is a licensed Professional Engineer in multiple states across the U.S. and is a Certified Energy Manager (CEM) as well as a Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design Accredited Professional (LEED AP). He has doctorate, master’s, and bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering from Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas.

Mary Sotos, Director of the Federal Energy Management Program, Department of Energy

Mary Sotos is the Director of the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP). She leads a team dedicated to helping federal agencies achieve sustainable facilities and fleets by assisting with federal-wide data collection and aggregation, developing reporting tools and technical assistance, and offering training and project funding.

Sotos previously served as a senior policy advisor with the Connecticut Department of energy and Environmental Protection, where she launched a revamped "Lead By Example" program to create new strategies to track and manage greenhouse gas emissions, waste and water use across all state agencies. She also served as the agency's deputy commissioner for energy, directing the state's energy policies and programs. Sotos also worked at the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Program at the World Resources Institute, an international think tank, where she developed new lobal carbon accounting standards and tools used by thousands of organizations worldwide. Additionally, she partnered with corporate leaders to develop and advance new renewable energy strategies, tools, and policies to decarbonize the grid. 

She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies from St. Olaf College and completed a Fulbright Fellowship in Brussels, Belgium.

Kevin Kampschroer, Chief Sustainability Officer, U.S. General Services Administration

Kevin Kampschroer is the recently retired Chief Sustainability Officer, and the Director of the Office of Federal High-Performance Buildings, in the US General Services Administration. His mission was to influence and accelerate industry capability and adoption of high-performance principles across all aspects of asset creation, operation, maintenance and disposal. 

He created the framework for which GSA responds to the challenges of improving a diverse and aging portfolio of commercial buildings so that they can serve the mission needs of their occupants, support effective work, improve occupant health, and deliver solid financial performance. 

He devised a challenge for companies to dramatically improve the government’s ability to achieve deep retrofits through Energy Savings Performance contracts and Utility Energy Service contracts. To date, GSA has invested over $2 Billion dollars in deep retrofit projects that on average achieve double the energy savings than traditional retrofits. 

Mr. Kampschroer managed an unprecedented increase in GSA’s active construction projects through the development of rigorous performance criteria and a central tracking system. In less than 6 years, GSA identified, obligated, and completed over 500 new construction, modernization, and limited scope projects.  95% of the projects surpassed their sustainability goals, and in aggregate, they are saving $68 million annually, and the buildings are 22% more energy efficient than before.

Focusing on the relationships among the physical environment, individual and group behavior and organizational performance, Mr. Kampschroer developed a unique framework—of building + behavior + business—tested in real office conditions.  GSA’s research focused on finding practical ways to deploy and capitalize on emerging technologies, and measure the applied results.  In creating the WorkPlace 20•20 program, Mr. Kampschroer and his team have applied all the research completed to date, together with best practices in the field, to create a new process that emphasizes organizational performance before design, a fundamental re-thinking of the practice of workplace making.

He has authored or co-authored over 40 peer-reviewed papers on issues pertaining to the effects of buildings on human performance and health, including the first paper showing the links between buildings and medically-measured occupant stress levels.  

He led the creation of real estate portfolio management in GSA; the establishment of performance measures linked to pay and budget; and was the project manager for the Ronald Reagan Federal Building and Trade Center, then the second largest office building in the United States (344 M2 ). Mr. Kampschroer worked for GSA for more than 50 years and is a graduate of Yale University.