SAVE Award 2011 Ideas

I would recommend that all routine/non-essential printing default to a font such as 'ECO Font' which looks like a normal font but uses approximately 50% less ink. It does this by printing microscopic holes in each letter printed that are really not noticeable to the naked eye. This would result in savings of millions of dollars by reducing by 50% the number of replacement ink carterages purchased by all the D/As.

In addition to buying duplexing printers, operations staff should be directed to set most printers to automatically default to 2-sided copying. Most copy jobs can be 2-sided but it takes time and effort to manually change each copy job to 2-sided and people forget. Users could still manually change to single sided if necessary.

FEMA engages in Floodplain Mapping for insurance rating. The Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) are based on hydraulic and hydrologic studies captured at the time of the data review. The FIRMS are only as good as the data used at the time of completion. Because of this we consider updates from local government and private land owners. Depending upon the science presented as consideration for an update, the outcome of the... more »

The suggestion to format training materials for e-books is great. However, it can go further than that. FEMA program manuals for federal programs as well as the CFR can be cumbersome and costly (printing and costs to ship to deployment sites and home again). Format the manuals one time for e-books so FEMA staff can load onto their e-books. This would save printing costs as well as repetitive shipping costs.

Every time I passed by the recycling bin next to the office printer, I often see piles of paper in there that are not documents from work but rather the pages with people’s name and the document’s title. This is such a waste of ink and paper because most people just throw them away. I suggest adding an option as we print from the computer where we can choose whether we want that first page of our name and document’s title... more »

NASA prints annual reports of 'space utilization'. these books, (just the one for Wallops, a small facility, are hundreds of pages) are not only wasteful of paper, they are not as useful as they could be. This is because, even if only printed when needed, no one would carry them around. I propose that we eliminate the routine printing of these books, which consist of exhaustively detailed diagrams of buildings. Instead,... more »

Agencies usually do not measure how much paper their employees use. As a result they do not make efforts to save paper, because they often can't even quantify it. My office fills an entire room with paper every couple of months, uses it all, then places a new order when it gets low- even though it it unecessary and we could rely on more digital forms.

In university, each student had a 30 page quota per month, and every... more »

While this initially seems like a cost-incurring idea, tablet computers could significantly reduce costs in a variety of ways.

They could replace desktop computers, laptop computers and Blackberries. Video chat capabilities could replace cell phones (or agencies could opt for a stripped-down cell plan without data or texting) and expensive-but-rarely-used video conferencing equipment. Fewer projectors would be needed,... more »

For several years prior to FY 2011, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has enjoyed substantial discounts on Federal Register printing due to our use of XML tagging for submission of documents to GPO. On July 2, 2010, GPO announced in GPO Circular Letter No. 777 that Federal Register document tagging would no longer be accepted – effective date October 1, 2010 GPO also established a new per page rates which are 31.4% higher... more »

Our office, like many others sends a ton of or supply money on coping paper. Since we are headed toward being paperless, I am suggesting that for individuals with email addresses, we can give claimants the option of getting their copy of the application via mail or email. We could send this in encrypted emails if necessary or have a program that blocks out most or all of the Social Security Numbers for security purposes.... more »