News Releases from Region 05

EPA Recognizes its Ann Arbor Laboratory for Saving Resources and Taxpayer Money

07/12/2017

Contact Information:

Francisco Arcaute (arcaute.francisco@epa.gov)

312-886-7613 312-898-2042 Cell

For Immediate Release No. 17-OPA068

CHICAGO (July 12, 2017) –Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recognized its National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory in Ann Arbor, Mich., for improving efficiency, saving resources and reducing costs as part of the Federal Green Challenge (FGC).

“Federal agencies across the country are doing their part to minimize their environmental impact, in doing so saving American taxpayers millions of dollars,” EPA Administrator Pruitt said. “Their efforts resulted in an estimated cost savings of $17 million across the federal government.”

The lab cut paper purchases by 66 percent by increasing access to Wi-Fi, using electronic documents and adding electronic displays to conference rooms. According to laboratory staff, today’s recognition provides extra motivation for green purchasing, paper reduction, landfill diversion and recycling efforts. Staff credit the FGC’s seamless tracking tool for enabling them to measure their progress toward reaching EPA’s sustainability goals.

Now in its fifth year, the FGC is a yearlong commitment under EPA's Sustainable Materials Management program in which participants focus on efficiently managing their resources to reduce the costs of building operations, maintenance and supplies. Specifically, participants track their data in two of six categories for a year.

Through their involvement, FGC participants reduced the federal government’s environmental impact by reducing fuel oil consumption by more than 500,000 gallons, sending 310 tons of end-of-life electronics to third-party certified recyclers, saving 9.2 million gallons of industrial water, and diverting over 336,000 tons of waste from landfills.

EPA recognized three other FGC winners in the Midwest:

Department of Veterans Affairs, Minneapolis Health Care System, Minneapolis, Minn.
Department of Energy, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, Ill.
Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Detroit Field Office, Detroit, Mich.

For more information on the FGC and this year’s winners, please visit https://www.epa.gov/fgc.

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