SAVE Award 2011 Ideas

Challenge each agency to reexamine all areas currently being mowed and attempt to cut in half that wasteful activity. This will save on labor, equipment, fuel and maintenance costs while reducing air pollution and waste heat. Look for areas that can be mowed just once per year, perhaps at the end of the growing season and mulch the material in place to build up the soil and reduce transportation and landfill costs. Replace... more »

Reform the Combined Federal Campaign: eliminate paper waste and tremendous cost of personnel oversight by conducting the campaign across the federal government using solely the e-giving system. Donors could search charities online and complete electronic pledge forms, thereby eliminating the costs associated with printing thousands of each. This would also drastically reduce time and costs associated with preparing... more »

Lack of a comprehensive unit-level energy education program inhibits a collective application of improved practices and does not encourage innovation from the deck plates on up to work towards newer cost-cutting efficiencies in an increasingly challenging fiscal environment.
Including reportable progress metrics with recognition and rewards for the best quarterly efforts will further incentivize a more robust collateral... more »

Mandate that all federal agencies and building to inlcude monuments set temperature of 67-68 degrees in the winter and 74-75 in the summer. The cost savings from this action alone will make a significant impact without any extra labor costs.

It's cheaper than a taxi or taking out a government car, better for the environment, and it's good for employee health too.

Every month when mailing out veterans' medication refills or new prescriptions, a postage paid return envelope can be included in the package, and when the prescription is used, the veteran can return the empty bottle to VA. Even if only ten percent of the veterans actually return the bottles, it will save funds on the cost of purchasing the bottles, contribute to the environment by reducing the number of pill bottles... more »

The use of native plants for landscaping around government buildings would save a significant amount of money. The cost savings would come from the lower prices of native plants, and the substantially less maintenance required for them. Native plants will not need fertilizer, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, and water (after the first planting). Native plants have longer lifespans and will not need replacement... more »

Every office has a stack of unclaimed papers next to the printer. Costly and bad for the environment. A simple tool that counts print jobs for each user account can be used to keep wasteful printing under control. Managers can establish print targets for their workers that can be factored into performance evaluations.

I propose that our govt move into a new era where paper decisionmaking is a thing of the past. Technology exists where secure signatures and sharing networks can bring our offices up to the year 2011. We can reduce the burden on our forests and recycling centers! We can reduce the time it takes to get a document from one decisionmaker to another by using software that allows all decisionmakers to view and sign document... more »

In one hand is my personal smart phone. I love it. I pay for unlimited voice and data with this phone. I can surf freely and without guilt that I'm wasting government money when I do so. It's also faster and more flexible than...what I hold in my other hand, my blackberry. I hate it. I only use it for government business which is largely viewing e-mails when I'm off site. So I carry two of these devices around.... more »

Reduce government travel expenses, employee time, fuel consumption, and air emissions by finally establishing a nationwide high-speed surface transportation system. Such a system would also relieve the current traffic burden on both runways and highways, and can offer comparable door-to-door travel times particularly for regional service. Workforce productivity would increase, thereby helping to improve GDP and the overall... more »

Whenever possible employees should purchase and use hard-wired equipment such as computer keyboards and mouse pointing devices and other electronics to save on the purchase of hundreds of thousands of batteries each year. This will also keep those batteries out of the landfill.

Combine all the federal agencies data under one roof. Build a data powerhouse a state-of-the-art facility that provides secure data processing services to federal agencies. The data powerhouse manages mainframe and server operations, monitors the wide area network and provides key service desk, technical support and disaster recovery services for many of the federal governments mission-critical applications.
The Federal... more »

The gov't system is backward and geared toward wasted spending. If you don't spend all your money in one FY, you get cut the next - so you have all kinds of wasted buying and travelling just to use the money because it's there. Why? Because next year you may be cut and the costs could be higher so you might need it. You are rewarded for wasting. Change the system to REWARD SAVING. Telecommuting saves money and time... more »

I feel in this age of technology and emerging administrative and office functions we can reduce waste and become increasingly efficient without a huge monetary demand.

I suggest that all Federal agencies revamp administrative and managerial practices to include Microsoft Sharepoint as the backbone for this efficient and cost effective and environmentally friendly initiative.

The Microsoft Office Sharepoint intranet/internet... more »