SAVE Award 2011 Ideas

I think the Government should rethink the role of having Safety Officers. In my agency (USDA Forest Service), each forest has a highly paid safety officer that makes $70,000 or more. That equates to millions of dollars in salary across the forest system. Many of these folks get paid to simply send out emails about safety incidents and predominantly represent redundant middle management. Make employees responsible for... more »

Reconsider total costs of consolidation in terms of great costs of rehabilitating extensively decayed buildings with little national historical value. The Department, government, and tax payer will incur vast costs as a result of this rehabilitation, movement of large numbers of employees work spaces, loss of employees due to decreases in work-life balance, rehire costs, retraining costs, decreased efficiency, etc.... more »

In my agency, the safety folks label everything "hazardous waste" that is used in a lab setting. My idea is to have a list of safe chemicals and substances across government agencies that are considered safe when not combined with unlisted chemicals.

As a recent example, when I boil tap water in a clean ceramic container that has never held a chemical other than water, I think "hazardous waste" is a bit excessive.... more »

Have each prison in a region have a specialty service. For example, one could specialize in repairing/testing fire extinguishers, one could specialize in SCBAs, etc. Then the services could be provided in-house and at a significant savings for others.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) puts a $3,391 price tag on each employee who smokes: $1,760 in lost productivity and $1,623 in excess medical expenditures. In addition, estimated costs associated with secondhand smoke’s effects on nonsmokers can add up to $490 per smoker per year. On average, smokers miss 6.16 days of work per year due to sickness (including smoking related acute and chronic... more »

Currently the OSHA 503 General Industry Trainer Update is permitted online but there are no providers for the OSHA 502 Construction Industry Trainer Update. Permitting this course online would drastically reduce the costs for both the government and private sector.

The government wastes billions of dollars per year with under utilized vehicles depreciating in our government motor pools. Many vehicles aren't even used at all. The first place to tackle this problem is to identify the oldest and least used vehicles in the fleet. Any 1991 motor vehicle or older should be sold. The government would save millions of dollars in direct/indirect maintenance cost, reduce the government's... more »

Secretary Napolitano suggests raising security fees.

In the following presentation to the DFW Occupational Safety and Health Specialist the premise of reducing the burden of the carry-on baggage handled by TSA Officers is highlighted.

According to the safety proposal as a weight/size reduction begins as compliance with already established FAA protocol the size/weight restriction on carry-on baggage and... more »

Explore options to melt snow piled up in the parking areas, convert it to steam and generate electricity in the winter. This is the 21st century-there must be someone at MIT who can build an industrial grade machine to do this that would take up a couple of parking spaces at each office complex. The power generated would be fed back to the machine to melt more snow. Employ this all over USA at least in public places.... more »

Remove all food inspections duties from all of the variuos Agencies, and create one Food Safety Agency (Food Safety Administration) who's only mission is food inspection. This would eliminate all the confusion, duplication and conflict of interest that exists in the current set up.

Every new employee whether they have come from another federal postion or from the private sector deserves to have an efficient orientation. We loose employees because of inefficieny in this area. Currently there is millions of dollars wasted on inefficient orientations of emplyoee. To add to this thier is increased safety risk and safety violations because of this inefficiency. This is not only new employees but any... more »

The Government buys every employee on the work floor a new pair of boots each calendar year. THey do not buy cheap boots, but top named brands like Red Wing. I understand that there are folks who literally have pairs of new boots at home and are still using the ones they first received!

These boots are anywhere from $80 to $120 or more. You can see how this can add up quickly. With maybe a thousand people in the... more »

The Navy is faced with an aging inventory of expensive munitions (torpedoes, missiles, etc.) that don't get used in the GWOT as quickly as small, hand-held items like bullets, hand grenades, etc. In order to maintain expensive munition items in the inventory longer, simple data loggers and sensors can be installed (costing between $100-500) on them to better monitor their condition and "health." Munitions health management... more »

I suggest a consolidation of chemical hazard assessment in a single forum to produce uniform Federal assessment documents on chemical hazards. Multiple agencies could then use this product in their specific risk assessment and risk management activities. While chemical “RISK” changes depending on use and exposure patterns, necessitating different approaches to assessing and managing risk as appropriate based on use and... more »

All work must be measured no matter where an employee works. There is so much waste with socializing in the government workforce sometimes I have to leave the noise and go to the cafeteria to answer my taskers. Teleworkers should not be held to a different standard than people who cost the government and the taxpayer money by consuming high rent buildings in the Wash DC area. You could save billions by closing most... more »