SAVE Award 2011 Ideas

Although we are trying to automate the Federal Government, there are still many times we have to use paper. When employees print, use duplex printing! When employees take notes, write on both sides! If the Agency distributes monthly Posters to hang up in the building, print 2 months at a time. Flip the poster over after the first month. When an employee gives a presentation, use the "white space" on each side of ...more »

Employ a "printer-friendly" method for printing (Powerpoint) slides that minimizes the use of ink. The vivid colors that make a great on-screen presentation sap the resources of our ink cartridges and aren't necessary for hard copies of briefings. Similar to spell-check in Word, a simple feature could prompt for correction of ink-sapping features so the user could adjust the slide design for ink-conserving printing ...more »

As information flows through an organization documents are the key component that drives it. The cost of maintaining and printing documents are very costly to every organization. A good portion of the cost is printing, which includes paper, consumables, power/cooling (i.e., AC) and maintenance. These costs can be controlled or at the very least reduced. A recent Info Trends market research study indicates that the ...more »

All offices should be prohibited from printing, shipping, or mailing a document for interoffice use when an original signature or hard copy is not required by law. When hard copies are required, the cheapest available mailing or shipping method should be used provided that compromises should be made to maintain the integrity or a time-sensitivity of the item being shipped. In many cases, email and electronic signatures ...more »

Every quarter the SSA employees publish Oasis, a magazine distributed internally for the employees of the Social Security Administration. It is packed with information on the changes within the organization; however, this magazine could be published via the intranet instead of spending the money to print, ship, and distribute the magazine amongst the employees. I don't know if other agency have such publications, but ...more »

Have IT set everyone's printing preferences to default to "print to PDF". It will automatically prompt individuals to save digital files to to their computer; people will have to make a conscious effort to physically print something. This effort will save on paper, ink and energy costs for printers. Also, hard copy files necessitate storage space. Less paper will allow for more compact workstations and less storage ...more »

Federal Government agencies use millions of pieces of paper per day.

There should be reminders around the offices to "Be Green-Print Only When Necessary."

The federal government could save milions of dollars per year by eliminating many of the unnecessary print jobs on a daily basis.

Mandate a review of each computer program in every federal office. Many programs include an unnecessary cover page. Ensure that all unnecessary cover pages are removed from print jobs.

Set the default printing to draft or eco printing and have staff print double sided. They can always change the settings if they need to, but because they have to select the draft print and double sided a majority of them may forget.

In DHS/ICE we have an online training program called "Virtual University." The concept is sound and having online training saves the govt. money. However, at the end of each training course, we employees are directed to print out a hard copy of the certificate of completion. This is counterintuitive. The whole course is online, the certificate can be viewed online. Upper management is able to access the training ...more »

Install DynaComm/Elite printing scripts on every computer that uses this software. The default print button prints out one screen per page and uses only about one third of a piece of paper. This wastes ENORMOUS amounts of paper when having to print out lengthy criminal records, etc. It is possible to fit up to three screens on one page using scripts. Some printing scripts already exist, but they are not readily available, ...more »

The IRS should develop a website similar to loan or credit card agencies that allows taxpayers (individuals, businesses, payroll taxes, etc.) to create an account and login to see if and how much in taxes they still owe. These individual accounts should also include a breakdown showing returns that have been received or are still due, and what the taxes due are comprised of. For example, the year and type of Form or ...more »

With the internet, one can rapidly find the best prices and compare products. The desktop publishing revolution is 24 years old, and we no longer need a babysitter to help us prep "camera ready" artwork. Furthermore, when a user really knows what they want, GPO is more of a hindrance than a help. I think that any savings that GPO produces is more than offset by the cost of operating that part of the federal government. ...more »

If my information is correct, the US Government has had trillions of dollars in cash printed with no sure way to shore up the value of the US dollar. While done early on in the whole credit debocal the inflation which would normally step in an hurt the value of our currancy was offset. Right now with the amount of paper money in the system, and banks still not loaning it out, I believe it is time for the Fed to start ...more »

Agencies usually do not measure how much paper their employees use. As a result they do not make efforts to save paper, because they often can't even quantify it. My office fills an entire room with paper every couple of months, uses it all, then places a new order when it gets low- even though it it unecessary and we could rely on more digital forms. In university, each student had a 30 page quota per month, and every ...more »