Tennessee Department of General Services
Steven G. Cates, Commissioner

Responsibilities include environmental management, energy management, and engineering and architectural services

On environmental issues, the section is focused in the following areas:

• Fuel storage tank compliance of all state-owned fuel storage tanks
• Asbestos management compliance in all state-owned buildings
• Hazardous materials assessment for all state agencies
• Environmental clean-up including emergency response, abatement and reporting for all state agencies.

Technical Services also manages the work of Environmental Program Consultants currently under contract. This includes monitoring the site studies of phase 1 & 2 environmental consultants, NEPA assessments, and other specialized studies.

The Energy Management Program administers the State Building Energy Management (SBEM) program, which is dedicated to the reduction of energy consumption in state-owned buildings. The energy management team and their consultants are creative in both energy reduction methods and energy-project financing. The SBEM is charged by Tennessee Code Annotated (TCA) to implement the SBEM program for facilities in all agencies of state government. The State´s SBEM activities were developed in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy " Rebuild America Program" and the Federal Government´s " Energy Star Buildings Program."

• Energy Management Handbook

• 2009 SBEM Annual Report to the Legislature

The section´s engineering services are an important component in providing professional expertise in support of our design and construction projects.

The section also handles the procurement of professional services. Requests for Proposals and Requests for Qualifications are processed to secure contracts with construction management companies and specialists such as environmental engineers and architectural consultants. The process is designed to ensure fair market competition for such contracts. RFP and RFQ and bidding information can be seen on the Advertisements, Procedures, & Reports web page.