SAVE Award 2011 Ideas

Room temperatures should be comfortable for people to work in adequate clothing that does not restrict movement. During the Summer time room temperatures are set to 72F, in the Winter time temperature is set to 80 degrees. Both are extreme temperatures and not comfortable at all. We are constantly calling maintenance, they come in tape the ducts, make some adjustments and a few days later we are back to the starting point.... more »

Why are federal employees expected to wear suits and ties during summer? The summer dress code for all federal workers should be changed to business casual [including golf shirts] and the ambient indoor temperature of federal office buildings should be increased 5 degrees. Employees will be more comfortable at work and commuting on mass transit, no more complaints about overly air conditioned offices, and the government... more »

Being a college student, I really don't have a budget to get items I need ( like books, hangers, whatever) so I often turn to the service Freecycle--which I guess inspired me with this idea. Since each Department is complied of many offices, I think we should create an inter-office supply network. Similar to the website/program Freecylce, offices within each Department can post wanted ads for supplies they need and offices... more »

There is too much fraud related to getting social security and disability benefits. For someone to receive any one of these benefits, the paperwork should be notarized and submitted with a fraud disclaimer indicating that if the information is falsified, criminal punishment will occur. This should also be signed by any doctor or educator that indicates that a person cannot work or learn due to a disability. If the... more »

If prisoners want to watch TV, make them ride a bike that will generate the electricity to keep the TV on.

Standardize the management of our vehicle and equipment fleets. Currently, each agency, writes policy/regulation and has software, procedures, and management policy for their fleets. Conversely, we're all doing the same thing; tracking utilization, right-sizing, greening, tracking fuel, training, etc. On top of that, each agency is writing directives, regulations, policy, and even creating separate forms. Standardizing... more »

Computers should last longer than 3 or 4 years. Unless you are using a computer for anything other than MS Office, Internet, or email, your computer should last longer than the warranty dates. Only replace when necessary.

I noticed people wearing coats/sweaters in the summer. By setting thermostat back up to 10 degrees saves up to 20% on Cooling/Heating bill. We conserve energy where ever possible at home; the same should apply at work.

Repair broken window panes to save energy and money. Broken glass, and leaking windows are very wasteful of energy from space conditioning.

Reuse existing buildings when possible. Existing building use is usually more cost effective and is more conserving of resources. It is wasteful to tear down buildings that can be used productively.

Ensure that conferences being attended by more than 20 people within the department/agency or being traveled by the department/agency are approved prior to the deadline for early bird registration. Frequently the deadline is missed for the cheaper rates while waiting for this approval. Often the early bird registration is $100 or more cheaper per person. Even if only 20 are attending, this is $2000 in savings per conference.... more »

Each year if we don't spend all of our alloted program dollars it goes back to the black hole. While I understand that this needs to be the case, we are then penalized with a cut to our program the following year. Based on the logic that since we did not need it last year we won't need it this year. This leads to employees frantic year end spending. Buying that extra GPS or survey equipment, etc. Programs and employee's... more »

With move to paperless offices, it is astounding how many people print and then scan hard copies back to make them into e-documents. Users are often not aware that they can "print to PDF" format direct from their desktops, and have the "scanned" document immediately available.

What a waste of time and paper, not to mention additional hardware support and maintenance to the required scanners and printers.

Save paper... more »

Mandate that the top 100 ideas at a minimum are forwarded to the involved agency executive for review and comment.

There are an extensive amount of valuable ideas here that may not score number one. It would be tremendous waste of effort if those below number one were not reviewed for consideration. We all have an idea or two here, we all put effort into this, what a waste if the ideas were simply deleted.

Mandate that... more »

Honorable Members of House appear to not be aware of studies which have been completed on topics of interest and to justify the related costs to complete. Due to current housing crisis multiple studies are being completed or have been completed pertaining to the same topic. If the data of the completed studies is still relevant an additional study should not be completed. However, simple easy accessible database... more »