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Nov. 24, 2015
Obama Administration Announces 2015 GreenGov Award Winners
The GreenGov Presidential Awards celebrate extraordinary achievement in the pursuit of President Obama's Federal Sustainability goals. They honor Federal civilian and military personnel, agency teams, agency projects, facilities, and programs that exemplify President Obama's charge to lead by example. On November 23, the White House announced eight awards in seven different categories to individuals and teams. These honorees exemplify our Federal workforce's commitment to meeting the President's directive to create a clean energy economy that will increase our Nation's prosperity, promote energy security, protect the interests of taxpayers, combat climate change, and safeguard the health of our environment.
- Award Category: Building the Future Award. The Smithsonian Institution's Mathias Laboratory was conceived and built with a critical focus on environmental leadership and designed to adapt to anticipated changes in scientific research due to rapidly occurring advances in instrumentation, chemistry methods, and telecommunications. The Mathias Laboratory now emits 37 percent less carbon dioxide without compromising the well-being of its inhabitants or agency mission.
- Award Category: Climate Champion Award. Located in New Mexico, the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) has experienced firsthand the need to build resilience to the impacts of climate change. Severe wildfires in 2011 burned the property, destroying hundreds of residents' homes and shutting down the lab. LANL created a Wildfire Management Plan, integrated across Federal agencies and local communities, which has led to the development of re-seeding programs, retention basins for flash floods, and the creation of a more integrated leadership role for overall prevention and mitigation activities.
- Award Category: Green Dream Team Award. Over the summer of 2013, fifteen Federal agencies moved into the newly renovated, LEED Platinum, Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt (EGWW) Federal Building in Portland, Oregon. This building is meeting performance goals head on with an Energy Star score of 97 out of 100, a 60 percent reduction in potable water use, and 30 percent energy generation from an on-site photovoltaic (PV) system. Soon after moving in, the GSA and agencies created the EGWW Green Team, which initiated composting and recycling programs, and developed a community outreach program to bring in student interns and give tours to local school children and Scout groups to teach them about sustainable design.
- Award Category: Green Innovation Award. The Kennedy Space Center's Chemistry Team set out to develop precision cleaning methods with no environmental liability while maintaining equal performance and cost parity. The team developed two novel solvent-free precision cleaning methods, which will increase workplace safety, replace solvents with high global warming potential, and reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions for the Kennedy Space Center without compromising performance. Additionally, the NASA Chemistry Team is working to apply their solvent-free cleaning methods on a much larger scale.
- Award Category: Lean, Clean, and Green Award. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Detroit District Flex Fuel Program decreased gasoline use in flex fuel vehicles 20% by getting drivers to choose E85--an alternative ethanol blend fuel--when filling up at the pump. The district went from using just 2 percent alternative fuel in its flex fuel vehicles to 71 percent in eight months. District leadership is supplying data and continuous updates to the GSA so that all Federal agencies using the GSA fleet know where to go to find alternative fuel.
- Award Category: Sustainability Hero Award. As the Sustainable Operations Manager at the United States Department of Agriculture's headquarters in Washington, D.C., Ed Murtagh has created Green Teams, engaged senior leadership, developed outreach and education programs, and promoted an overall culture of sustainability throughout the agency. In addition, his efforts have resulted in the reduction of use of electricity, water, and steam; higher rates of waste diversion; greener infrastructure; increased use of environmentally preferable products; and meeting many sustainability goals, including achieving an Energy Star score of 99 at USDA's headquarters building.
- Award Category: Good Neighbor. The Federal Highway Administration has set out to develop more livable communities through an increase in transportation choices and access to transportation services. Scott Allen and Corbin Davis partnered with universities, the Memphis Metropolitan Planning Organization, the Tennessee Department of Transportation, NGOs, and other Federal agencies in their area to implement statewide programs and collaborate on their desired multi-objective outcomes. Their efforts led to increased investment in infrastructure, facilities, and services for improved multimodal transportation. Additionally, investments were made in extreme weather vulnerability assessments, improved infrastructure for growing freight demands, and assessments of the overall sustainability of transportation plans.
- Award Category: Good Neighbor. In Charleston, Massachusetts, the National Park Service created the "Branching Out: Youth Exploring Landscape Management Program" to engage young people from diverse backgrounds in learning concepts and techniques of sustainable resource stewardship within the National Park Service. The program has partnered with local public schools and youth-service organizations to create a multi-year educational and career development program. As the program progresses, the participants are faced with increasingly complex, hands-on challenges, all meant to give them meaningful experiences and to inspire them to become lifelong stewards with a connection to their local lands.
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