SAVE Award 2011 Ideas

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 »

Too often I see sprinkler systems spraying water onto lawns when it is raining!! This is a waste of water and money. Turn these systems off.

I am sure the government spends a lot of money every month on its water bills. Perform a leak detection study at all government facilities to determine the amount of water loss and possible solutions.

Dual flush toilets should be installed. These toilets have two buttons for flushing -- one using less water and the other, more, for... when it is needed.

The autoflush toilets waste a tremendous amount of water. The toilets will flush before it needs to and sometimes several times on its own. This is extremely wasteful and inefficient. We should be able to manage to push a handle down by ourselves. Also, the settings for the AC & heat are way too cold in the summer and too warm in the winter, which is extremely wasteful. Each building needs to be looked at separately... more »

Turn off the hot water. Many federal buildings unnecessarily heat millions of gallons of water each year. Unless your department or Bureau is providing showers to employees there is no need to provide hot water for simply washing hands. If this was applied government wide, millions of dollars could be saved and we would be a greener government.

Require rainwater capture on all washrack systems as well as water recycling with oil and water seperators. This is sustainable and the water recycling is already a commercial standard that could apply to DoD vehicles.

I installed a 1.28 gallon-per-flush toilet at home and it works as well as my old toilet made in 1952. Before I bought it I checked it out on the Internet and found out that there is an organization dedicated to testing toilets using a certain kind of bean paste as a substitute for what could be difficult to flush down without a lot of water. New toilets installed by the government should use as little water as necessary... more »

Create new freshwater lakes to store water. The Southwest could use more of this resource and Lake Meade is a real money maker. New hydroelectric plants would be a nice by product too!

Currently, there is a high cost of lawn maintenance that exists across government facilities. The cost is heightened for low rainfall, high temperature areas. I know this personally as my last duty station had summer temps above 100F, but well maintained grassy areas that were in near perfect condition; which was watered during the peak of day or anytime that was necessary. None of the locals had a lawn of such high... more »

I am a Summer Intern at HUD and a Full-time student at the University of Maryland. In our dorms at UMD, we have sensor toilets that detects how long you've been on the toilet. Although this may sound silly, the toilet accurately predicts what type of waste you are emitting (putting it kindly). The toilet then determines how much water is needed to flush away the waste. For bigger projects, more water is used. And for... more »

Many areas of the US are flooding every year while other areas in our country are suffering from a constant drought. The idea is to have more dams or simply build more pools and store water for later redistribution. We pipe oil anywhere we want; over mountains and under water. The same idea should work for water which is even more precious than anything else on earth. We just have not come to realize the value until it’s... more »

I have been to a few VA facilities since I started working at the VA 2 years ago and I have noticed the exact same thing in every woman's restroom I used. As soon as I turn on the water I feel like like skin will be blasted off of my hands.

My solution. At each sink in the facility turn down the amount of water by 1/4 or 1/2 a turn for both the hot and cold water. This will greatly reduce the amount of water consumption.... 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 »

Automatic flush toilets are a horrible waste of water because many of them flush several times per user (especially when the user has to deal with nylons and the sensor keeps detecting movement within the stall.) Some even flush when someone just passes by the stall.

Automatic Sinks can also be a huge waste of water (and electricity) since the user cannot turn the water off immediately when they are finished.

Paper... more »