February 2008 Updates

Recycling and Waste Reduction Updates:

During February Departmental Administration installed new recycle stations in the South Building cafeteria, Whitten Patio, and other locations, purchased with revenue generated from the Departmental recycling program.  The new stations, which encourage recycling with easy to understand sorting bins.

For the month of February, over 40 tons of resources were recycled, including over 16,000 pounds of cardboard.  A lot of office moves in the South Building generated large quantities of cardboard.

Federal Times Highlights USDA's Efforts in Sustainable Practices:

On February 26, the Federal Times highlighted the Department's efforts as USDA takes the lead on biobased purchases.  In the article written by Assistant Secretary for Administration Boyd Rutherford, and in support of the President's Executive Order 13423, “Strengthening Federal Environmental, Energy and Transportation Management,” USDA is working towards adopting sustainable practices in 10 areas.  Among those is the acquisition of green products and services, including the purchase of biobased products. USDA will hold its first BioPreferred/Biobased Product Showcase and Training, in conjunction with the 2008 GSA International Products and Expo on April 21-24 in Anaheim, California. (http://www.federaltimes.com/index.php?S=3376278)

Green Housekeeping:

One aspect of greening the USDA Headquarters complex that impacts everyone, yet many don’t realize is with our green housekeeping practices.  Did you know that our custodial staff uses highly efficient bag filters on their vacuum cleaners, nontoxic biobased cleaning products, and paper products with high recycle content?  Our custodial program is a key element in our sustainability program.  A new write up has been recently posted on the USDA Headquarters Green Team website on our green housekeeping program.  See http://www.usda.gov/da/HQs_GreenTeam/green_housekeeping.htm

Energy Management:

The cost of electricity continues to climb.  Despite a modest reduction in electrical use in the South and Whitten Buildings for the first 4 months of this fiscal year, the cost of providing electricity has increased by over 7 1/2 %.  Engineers and energy managers in the Departmental Administration are working to significantly reduce our energy use downtown by using a Utility Energy Service Contract with Washington Gas.   Washington Gas and their subcontractors will shortly formally propose numerous energy conservation opportunities in the headquarters facilities.   The cost of implementing these opportunities will be paid from the energy cost savings from the projects.  Washington Gas recently presented a preliminary report to the Assistant Secretary for Administration who has been very supportive of efforts to reduce energy use through alternative funding mechanisms.  Energy reduction efforts by employees and agencies will continue playing an important role in our overall energy reduction efforts.

We are continuing our efforts to reduce our electric use by replacing incandescent light bulbs with new energy efficient compact florescent bulbs.  During the month of February, dozens of incandescent light bulbs were replaced in the Whitten Buffet.

Greening the USDA Headquarters Cafeterias.

During the month of February, the South and Whitten cafeterias started offering USDA Organic snack.  There is a good demand for these products, Sodexho will increases its organic offerings.

Organic farming greatly reduces and even eliminates the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. 

As part of our waste minimization efforts, new napkin dispensers were distributed in the South and Whitten Building cafeterias.  The older dispensers encouraged patrons to take more napkins than was needed.  Sodexho found that paper napkin waste could be reduced by 25% - 40% by having patrons take only what they needed for their meal. 

Two of the new napkin dispensers in the South Cafeteria.

The Chef's Table in the South building cafeteria featured a sustainable menu on February 15.  Sodexho reported that there was a good turn out and would feature additional sustainable menus in the future.

Executive Chef Braum was in the South Cafeteria on February 15 cooking up a tasty sustainable menu.