White House Introduces Green Gov

Today the White House launched a new initiative that rocks. They’ve launched the GreenGov challenge as a way to get ideas from govies on how to make gov’t more green.

I urge all feds to share their ideas at http://www.whitehouse.gov/greengov/
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On Monday, October 5th, 2009, President Barack Obama signed an Executive Order on Federal Sustainability – and in doing so, committed the Federal government to lead by example, practice what we preach and help build a clean energy economy through how we operate.

To harness the collective wisdom of the more than 1.8 million civilian employees and our men and women in uniform, we’re launching the GreenGov Challenge, an online participatory way for Federal employees to suggest clean energy ideas and vote on others.

Some of the top ideas will be presented to the Steering Committee on Federal Sustainability – a group comprised of a senior official from each agency who is responsible for delivering among other things, each agency’s sustainability plan.

Though anyone can see your ideas, only Federal employees can participate – so this is your chance to positively impact how your agency will meet its 2020 greenhouse gas emissions reduction target.

Be part of the GreenGov Challenge and help green our government!

The GreenGov challenge runs from Oct. 19th — 31st

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Henry Brown

The Director of OPM sent the following message

Over the last few years, we’ve seen how going green has made a big impact in the workplace. Whether it’s through small ideas, like enabling double-sided printing, or big ideas, like retrofitting our buildings to save energy, we’re working to save money and the environment.

When it comes to going green, the best ideas don’t always come out of Washington conference rooms or from a specific office or agency. You’ve probably had your own good ideas on how we can save energy and reduce waste — ideas like installing bike racks to encourage employees to bike to work or switching to longer-lasting LED lights. You may have even helped implement these ideas in your section or office, but sometimes it can be difficult to share what’s working at your desk with a larger audience.

Get ready to really make a difference. Starting today, you can submit your ideas, big and small, to the GreenGov Challenge and share them with more than 3 million of your colleagues in an online forum and marketplace designed to bring together creative clean-energy solutions and help the best ideas get noticed.

Here’s how the GreenGov Challenge works. From now until October 31st, any Federal employee can submit a clean energy idea to Green gov challenge . Once an idea is submitted, all Federal employees and men and women in the Armed Services can take a look and vote an idea up or down. As more ideas are submitted and voted on, the best ideas will start to rise to the top.

You can sign in with your real name or anonymously. Though the general public can visit the site, only Federal employees with a government email addresses can submit ideas or vote them up or down.

At the beginning of November, some of your best ideas will be presented to the Steering Committee on Federal Sustainability, a group comprised of a senior official from each agency. Your ideas will figure prominently as agencies throughout the Federal government develop their sustainability plans.

As you may know, President Obama signed an Executive Order on Federal Sustainability on October 5th. The order is a challenge to all Federal agencies to increase energy efficiency, reduce petroleum consumption, conserve water and reduce waste.

Lisa Coates

We are in the process of replacing all of our office printers, flatbed scanners and faxes with one network all-in-one per department. Documents now can be scanned, faxed, copied and printed from one printer. Also documents that are copied or scanned can be sent out to multiple recipients to their email cutting the need to print multiple copies.

Mel Still

We are in the process Going Green by the replacing of our power company. We are receiving and setting up a windmill which is small enough to fit on top of the roof, looks good enough to sit on the grass. This windmill generates enough electricity to supply the power needs & consumption with the Elect. Companies buying all of the extra electricity at wholesale .. plus our company (or an individual); can make a few extra bucks every month residually .. by sharing this with other agencies, business family, friends and neighbors. Most important aspect of this is .. It’s Free. The company makes their money by keeping the majority share of the wholesale electricity pay. For more information contact Government Merchant Solutions: [email protected]