2016 Federal Green Challenge Award Winners in the Pacific Northwest

Recognition was an important part of the Federal Green Challenge. Awards were given at the regional level in the categories of Purchasing, Waste, and Energy.

In the Pacific Northwest and Alaska region, the 2016 award winners were the Bonneville Power Administration and General Services Administration (GSA) Region 10. Below are descriptions of what the awardees achieved and/or how they achieved reductions.

Purchasing and Waste

Department of Energy, Bonneville Power Administration, Spokane, Washington

In fiscal year 2015 (FY15), Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) reduced their paper purchasing by 61 percent. To achieve this reduction, BPA networked all printers, installed monitoring through card and password access and removed all single desk printers. BPA also standardized and implemented a virtualized desktop environment with mobile thin clients.

Additionally in FY15, BPA increased their recycling efforts by 71 percent. This increase was mainly accomplished by diverting obsolete and aging ceramic and glass insulators from the landfill to certified recycling centers. By actively supporting and engaging internal BPA customers, the Investment Recovery Center (IRC) and Supply Chain Services were able to ship these insulators from remote regions that did not offer glass/ceramic recycling to IRC facility and local Portland, Oregon recycling vendors. On one of the largest projects, BPA was also able to recycle a large amount of surplus copper wire with the insulators. This not only paid for the glass and ceramic recycling fees, but also recovered funds that BPA was able to credit back to BPA’s General Fund, in turn crediting the rate payers.

Energy

General Services Administration (GSA) Region 10, Auburn, Washington

GSA Region 10 Headquarters building reduced their natural gas consumption by 34 percent in FY15. In response to increased vacancy, which is due to government space consolidation, GSA Region 10 has been aggressively assessing its needs, adjusting set points in vacant spaces, modifying mechanical systems and reducing inventory which has led to dramatic reduction of heating and cooling energy use.