by Brianna Crandall — June 19, 2015—The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) presented last week the Federal Green Challenge national awards to several facilities for their outstanding efforts in 2014 to advance sustainability efforts and for their leadership in reducing the environmental footprint of federal government activities.
In 2014, more than 400 facilities participating in the Federal Green Challenge, representing nearly 1.3 million federal employees, “walked the talk” in various target areas (Waste, Electronics, Purchasing, Water, Energy and/or Transportation) and reduced their environmental footprint, which in many cases also resulted in significant cost savings, explains EPA.
These facilities as a group obtained the following results in 2014:
- Diverted 390,000 tons of waste from landfills
- Saved 80 million gallons of water
- Avoided purchasing 15,000 pounds of office paper
- Reduced fleet distance traveled by 12.3 million miles
- Saved 107 million cubic feet of natural gas
- Sent 457 tons of end-of-life electronics to third-party certified recyclers
These combined efforts resulted in an estimated cost savings of more than $24 million to U.S. taxpayers, points out EPA.
The 2015 national awardees, which are the facilities with the highest increased percentage over the previous year in each target area, are:
- Waste: Southern Arizona VA Health Care System, Department of Veterans Affairs, Tucson, AZ
- Electronics: Western Laboratory, Drug Enforcement Administration, Department of Justice (DOJ), San Francisco, CA
- Purchasing: U.S. Courthouse, General Services Administration (GSA), Los Angeles, CA
- Energy: Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, U.S. Marine Corps, Department of Defense (DOD), San Diego, CA
- Water: Oregon Caves National Monument, National Park Service, Department of the Interior (DOI), Cave Junction, OR
- Transportation:
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Department of Energy (DOE), Golden, CO
- Minneapolis VA Healthcare System, Department of Veterans Affairs, Minneapolis, MN
- Capulin Volcano National Monument, National Park Service, Department of the Interior (DOI), Capulin, NM
More details on the National Awardees are available on the Federal Green Challenge National FY14 Results and 2015 Awards Web page.
