SAVE Award 2011 Ideas

Roofing Projects for new government buildings and for Repairing existing government buildings is expensive, but it would Save a lot of money over time if we added Solar Panels at the same time as roof work is being contracted. The installation costs would be reduced greatly and the electrical savings would more than make up for the smaller construction cost over time and would lower our dependence on energy. It would... more »

The government spends thousands to millions of dollars making plastic IDs for their government employees each year. When these IDs expire or their beholder leaves his/her position, they are then tossed into the trashed and disposed as waste; waste destined to sit in a landfill. Why not recycle them? By making IDs out of recycled plastic and then recycling the IDs themselves after use, the government could not only increase... more »

Currently, the U.S. government spends in excess of $1 billion annually to license software -- software that produces documents that are difficult to access after a few years because the new version of the software often doesn't work with the older documents. Since the document formats are proprietary, we have no way to access these documents other than by maintaining the unsupported older software. This has made transparency... more »

Combine the Navy, Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard online training programs into a single web-enabled entity.
Having multiple agencies and organizations manage the education of our combat personnel is inefficient and highlights the disparity and unfocused attempts the different services take on online education. It is simply a waste of time and money to break up online education into different areas for... more »

Web meetings are an effective way to reduce travel. Staff will save travel time at airports, GovTrip scheduling, overtime, and compenstory time, not to mention per diem, parking, lodging, etc., for some trips. Under this idea, employees would first be required to investigate the use of a web-based meeting format rather than incurring travel costs (or video feed would work too) and only if an electronic approach is not... more »

Replace exterior doors with revolving doors to prevent outside air from entering the building. This would save on heating in the winter and cooling in the summer.

The current automatic doors remain open long after the user passes through. With the door wide open, air conditioning (or heat) escapes the building. A revolving door would prevent large amounts of interior conditioned air to escape, thus saving on utilities.... more »

Have a lottery for the National Debt .

In order to conserve electricity (and therefore operating costs), as many items as possible should be powered down when not in use. Office lights should have timers/motion sensors installed that turn them off after a certain period of inactivity. Printers can be powered down at the end of the day (or when they are not in use - sometimes I use my printer only a few times a week). Scanners should remain powered off and... more »

As the world progresses so must the federal government. Purchasing data pads to replace paper (ones you can write and have download/ upload into your computer) would save hundreds of millions of dollars in paper and printing costs.
Security concerns can be addressed easily with the installation of certain features to track and maintain file integrity from outside intrusion. The specifics for that innovation are already... more »

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 »

The Rollover Budget Initiative (RBI) would allow units to maintain their annual budgets without being penalized for not fully utilizing the last year’s budget. Any remaining money from a fiscal year would be the base amount for the next fiscal year, which will then have additional money added to meet the unit’s requested budget. For example, if a unit requests $10,000 and has $2,000 left over from the previous year, that... more »

Require all federal agencies to turn in to Congress a one page document explaining what article(s) of the Constitution authorizes their existence. Eliminate those agencies that do not have clear and specific authorization in the Constitution.

The military ,every year moves hundreds of thousands of members just for career advancement.The taxpayer not only foots the bill for the expensive move but also in the 2-3 months of lost productivity Cut these permanent change of station moves by 2/3. Raise the time on station limit to 6 years before someone can move to another base.

Turn off computer monitors at night. Computer monitors can always be turned off at night. Computer upgrades can occur with monitor screens switched off. Leaving computer monitors on at all times is a huge waste of energy and dollars. It is completely unneccessary!! Let's save those dollars! Let's save that energy! It will also cut our greenhouse gas emissions!

Conducts meetings over video enhanced internet phone companies like Skype to eliminate on-site meetings. There will be money saved on travel, meals, and lodging .