SAVE Award 2011 Department of Energy

In my building there are 18 rows and each row has 21 (6+8+1+6) fluorescence tubes in doublet (i.e., 42 in numbers) for lighting. All the tubes are covered with screen and therefore total 756 tubes are used everyday for lighting. The cover reduce the intensity of light, therefore, if we remove the cover it will increase the intensity of light and then reduce the number of tubes to be used. By this way, we can convert... more »

Numerous newspaper publications (Roll Call, Politico, Federal Times and Government Security News) are currently mailed and distributed government-wide to federal executives on a daily and weekly basis. Most of the intended recipients have no need for hard copy publications. Recipients should be allowed to access the news papers on line and thus yield savings associated with the unnecessary printing, mail distribution... more »

I submitted this on Wednesday 27 Julyand I have not seen it on the blog, It does qualify and meets your criteria for savings.

I am an American Airman, Electrician, author and inventor. I have submitted my designs for review through the United States Air Force (AFMCLO/JAZ) Intellectual properties law office at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. AFD 1124 “SHAW” and I am currently waiting for the final determination of rights.... more »

Numerous office construction renovations take place throughout the government on a routine basis. A moratorium should be placed on all office renovations used to consolidate employees assigned to a given office. Employees need only be accessible to supervisors and managers on a daily basis, they need not be located in the same office suite. Placing the moratorium on relocating employees would yield savings associated... more »

I had a thought I wanted to share about reducing travel costs and greenhouse footprint based on two recent trips that I took.

For both trips (one private, one business) a compact car had been reserved for me, but when I got to the counter all they could give me was an SUV. I got it at the same daily rate, but when I brought it back, I had to put about $60-70. of gas in the tank to return it full due to the low mpg... more »

I originally attempted to submit this on Wednesday 27 July but continue to receive an error message and do not see it listed in the Blog. -I am an American Airman, Electrician, author and inventor “want-to -be”. I have submitted my designs for review through the United States Air Force (AFMCLO/JAZ) Intellectual properties law office at Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio. It is AFD 1124 “SHAW” and I am currently waiting for... more »

Currently the DOE has vast volumes of rules and regulations to govern its operations. So much so, that it takes a new R&D staff member years to negotiate how to get work done within the tight boundaries. One of the chief reasons for this plethora of codes and requirements is a U.S. culture of punishing the innocent. Instead of solely dealing directly with an individual who does something unethical or illegal (via discipline... more »

The FERC issued orders 888 & 889 in 1996 which gave all power producers equal access to the Nation'a electricity transmission lines. As such, customer now have a choose where they can purchase their power. Thus, the Federal Government, as a customer, should select VIRIDAN Energy as its choice for its electricity provider. The benefits include: protection of the envirnoment; health; lower prices; options to select greerner... more »

Travel Regs allow $4/day up to $12/week for calls home on travel. Many travelers have Blackberrys or govt phones, but not allowed for personal use. Allow Blackberry/gov phone users to call home on their Blackberries/gov phones when on travel, and disallow the $4/day $12/week allowance for travellers who have Blackberries/gov phones.

Allow reviwers to vote thumbs up AND thumbs down.
Allowing thumbs down would enable people to add narrative as to why something might not work.
e.g., Recycling. If there is no market demand for plastics, paying someone to pick up and/or store plastic (with $0 market value due to high transportation costs to foreign countries), then recycling plastic has no purpose.
On the other hand, creating a market in the U.S... more »

Install controls on exterior and interior lights to turn them off when not required. Emergency and security lighting excluded. I work at DOE HQ and have noticed many exterior lights operating during daylight hours when they are clearly not needed since sufficient daylight exists. Photo-controls, occupancy and vacancy sensors can be installed to extinguish these lights when sufficient ambient light or occupany exists.... more »

Install smart meters in all federal buildings with 2,000+ employees. To start, narrow this down to those with highest utility loads first.

Incentive employees to car pool by offering a day off from work for car pool miles. If a group of employee save 50,000 mile in one year they each get one day off with pay.

Empower office managers to manage energy usage by their office, where smart meters are installed. Each office will then be aware of their usage and can prioritize how to minimize their energy load, particularly during summer months. Employees will feel ownership and some level of control over their energy usage and environmental footprint.

The current policy regarding patent application from federally funded research at the National Labs is wasteful and stifling the vary innovation our Nation needs. The patent application fee for inventions conceived and realized under federally funded and directed work needs to be waived. The impact of this is twofold: 1. More federal funds can be used for actual R&D and not diluted, 2. Innovations and patents will not... more »