This website uses technical, customisation and analytical cookies, both first-party and third-party, to anonymously facilitate browsing and analyse statistics on use of the website. Learn more
Innovation at GSA: Zero Environmental Footprintand the Extreme Challenge (A)
-
Reference: HBS-HKS690-E
-
Number of pages: 17
-
Geographic Setting: United States;District of Columbia
-
Publication Date: Mar 28, 2017
-
Source: HBSP (USA)
-
Type of Document: Case
Description
In 2010, Martha Johnson, new Administrator of the General Services Agency (GSA), advanced the Zero Environmental Footprint (ZEF) initiative-a sustainability initiative to render GSA's activities environmentally neutral, agency-wide. She and her leadership team initiated a high-profile renovation project-dubbed the Extreme Challenge-at the agency's headquarters-one which sought to consolidate all GSA employee office space in the Washington, D.C. region into a single federal building. Doing so would require nothing short of a major organizational change effort within GSA, one which, if successful, could potentially serve as a model for other U.S. federal agencies looking to transform the way in which government employees organized themselves within modern office spaces. A year later, the agency approached a crucial moment in its evolution as a number of key leadership and organizational change questions needed to be answered: Could GSA execute on the vision put forth by Johnson's senior leadership team? Were the steps taken to date the right ones in setting the tone and preparing the agency for success? And what additional steps or strategies would need to be undertaken to ensure that the $5.5 billion investment in the Extreme Challenge would succeed, even as GSA pursued a longer-term vision of net zero impact through ZEF? Case number 1956.0