[Judy Pino] 
With the growing awareness 
about the impacts of 
climate change, you may 
be asking yourself,   
"What can I do to reduce 
my carbon footprint?" 
Everything we do, 
from driving to work 
to downloading this podcast, 
has an impact on the 
environment, and EPA's working 
internally to decrease our 
footprint as well, 
as we go about our 
daily office activities.  
And to tell us more about the 
agency's own sustainability 
efforts is Luis Luna, EPA's 
assistant administrator for 
the Office of Administration 
and Resources Management.
Welcome, Luis, always 
good to have you.
[Luis Luna] 
Thank you, Judy.
[Judy Pino] 
Well, I always see posters, 
and many of us do, 
on your floor and close to your 
office about how we could save 
energy and resources 
around the agency.
For example, don't print 
something if you don't 
have to, things 
like that.
What else are we doing at 
EPA to create awareness?
[Luis Luna] 
Well, you have to understand 
that EPA's mission is 
to protect human health 
and the environment, 
and so, if we're going to do 
that, then we need to set 
an example.
And we are trying throughout 
the agency to be good 
environmental stewards. 
We're trying to reduce 
our energy consumption.
We're trying to make sure that 
our buildings are as green as 
possible, that they use as 
little energy as is necessary 
and conserve as much 
energy as possible.
We're trying to generate 
our own energy as well, 
using renewable fuels, 
and in that way really 
show that it can be done, 
should be done, 
and that we can be a 
leader in doing that. 
[Judy Pino] 
What would you say are 
the drivers of EPA's 
sustainability efforts?
[Luis Luna] 
Well, there are a couple. 
First of all, by law and 
by executive order, 
and executive orders are, 
of course, 
orders that the president signs, 
we are required -- 
all federal agencies 
are required to use 
less energy and to use 
more renewable fuels. 
But then also because of the 
mandate that EPA has itself, 
that if we're going to 
protect the environment, 
then we should be 
doing something, 
not just what the law requires, 
but above and beyond that. 
And that's really 
the driver here; 
it's our own sense of mission, 
our own sense of what needs 
to be done and what's 
right to do. 
[Judy Pino] 
Now, this idea of the 
carbon footprint, 
we've been hearing 
so much about it.
It's a fairly new concept 
for the masses now, 
because there have always been 
people that have known about 
carbon footprints.
But EPA has been successful 
in addressing emissions 
in our facilities.
Tell us more
about that.
[Luis Luna] 
Well, we've taken some of our 
laboratories and used them 
as models for what 
can be done.
For instance, we have a 
laboratory in Ada, Oklahoma, 
and we were able to turn that 
into the federal government's 
first carbon-neutral 
laboratory.
And what that means is that we 
produce no net carbon emissions.
Instead of using natural gas 
for heating, for instance, 
we put a ground source heat 
pump, where we take heat out 
of the earth, and the difference 
between the air temperature and 
the ground temperature and use 
that to generate heating 
and cooling. 
We also bought energy credits 
so that we're actually helping 
green and renewable energy 
sources to be used, 
and we then take advantage 
of those resources.
We have a laboratory 
in North Carolina, 
at Research Triangle Park.   
It's the largest laboratory 
in our system.
[Judy Pino] 
It's a beautiful 
laboratory. 
[Luis Luna] 
It is.
It was built a decade ago and 
we made it state of the art, 
and that lab alone uses half our 
energy, so we tried to make it 
as energy efficient 
as possible.
We have another laboratory 
in Massachusetts, 
another example in Chelmsford, 
that was the first federal 
laboratory to be getting 
the Gold LEED rating, 
LEED Gold for 
laboratories.
So, we've been trying to use 
the labs as an example of 
what can
be done. 
[Judy Pino] 
Now, why the focus on 
the laboratories? 
[Luis Luna] 
Because they use so 
much of our energy. 
Labs are highly energy- 
and water-intensive. 
A lot of the research that 
is done in laboratories use 
a tremendous amount 
of electricity, 
tremendous amount
of water.
And so what we do there is, 
if we can reduce the energy 
consumption in our labs, 
we make a tremendous 
difference in our total agency 
energy usage and we save a lot 
of money.
[Judy Pino] 
Now, you have developed -- 
EPA has developed a 
five-year strategy 
for sustainability.
You call it
the E2PLAN.
Let's talk
about that.
[Luis Luna] 
Well, that's what I have 
in front of me here and 
why I brought this, because 
I wanted to do a little 
"show and tell" and let you see 
that this plan is something 
that actually exists.
This is not simply a 
theoretical construct.
And we're focusing on what 
it says in the plan, 
and we call it E2 because, 
you know, in the federal 
government we always give 
things cute names --
[Judy Pino] 
Acronyms.
[Luis Luna] 
Acronyms, et cetera.
So E2 stands for Energy and 
Environmental Performance, 
those are the 2 "Es," PLAN, 
Leadership, Accountability, 
and Neutrality. 
And each of those words were 
picked for a good reason.
One is because we want to 
focus on not only the 
energy consumption but also 
our environmental footprint, 
what you were talking about 
earlier, that we want to 
show leadership and that we 
don't just simply want 
to follow everybody else in 
the federal government; 
we want to be 
at the head. 
[Judy Pino] 
Walk the walk.
[Luis Luna] 
Walk the walk.
Accountability in that we're 
going to make sure that we 
hold our managers accountable 
for the plan and what it's 
intent is. 
And neutrality, we're trying 
to be carbon-neutral as much 
as possible. 
And we're focusing on six areas 
here, and those six areas are 
energy efficiency, you know, 
are we actually using energy 
that we do use as 
well as possible? 
On water conservation, 
on transportation, 
on sustainability, 
sustainable buildings, 
and on renewable energy, 
and finally,  
on environmental management, 
how we actually manage all 
these pieces
together.
[Judy Pino] 
That's a tall order.
How are you going to get 
to all of these goals?
[Luis Luna] 
Well, we have, first of all, 
highly motivated people. 
They get it, they understand 
the mission, they want to do 
a good job. 
We're using rewards. 
We're giving people 
incentives.
We're running little contests 
and things where people can 
see and track 
the results.
We're training
people.
We're showing them how they can 
better use the resources that 
the American people
have given us. 
We are using better tools, 
better technology, metering, 
things that we can actually 
track the results and be able 
to tell how well
we are doing.
[Judy Pino] 
Now, I know that a lot of 
organizations and even the 
federal agencies can benefit 
from all of -- this good plan, 
but how can the laymen, 
the rest of us, 
how can we apply these 
lessons learned from a 
federal agency's plan?  
[Luis Luna] 
Well, what we have done here is 
think ahead and figure out what 
we need to do and 
how best to do it. 
Anybody can do
that at home.
Anybody can do the kinds 
of things that we did, 
the little things that add 
up to the bigger things, 
for example, replacing 
inefficient light bulbs 
with more efficient ones. 
There's already a program 
called "Change a Light, 
Change the World," which says 
that if every household in the 
United States changed one 
inefficient incandescent bulb 
with a compact fluorescent 
energy-efficient bulb,   
which uses 75 percent less 
energy, it would be the 
equivalent of saving enough 
energy to power three million 
homes for a year.
It would save as much 
carbon as taking 
800,000 cars 
off the road. 
I mean, there are tremendous 
changes that we can 
make ourselves. 
[Judy Pino] 
It's so easy.
[Luis Luna] 
It is so easy.
[Judy Pino] 
Just go to your hardware 
store and buy the bulb. 
[Luis Luna] 
Exactly, or when we buy 
appliances, look for the 
Energy Star label.
When we have to change 
a water fixture, 
look for the 
WaterSense label.
All those are things that 
already show you you're 
going to save energy
and save water. 
The other things we can do is 
to be proactive in terms of 
our thermostat
settings.
Set the thermostat so that 
it goes down at night and 
when we're away. 
Look for little things that 
make a difference and engage 
the whole family in fun 
ways to save energy.
[Judy Pino] 
And of course, here we talk 
about getting to work, 
but there are also commuting 
services, things like that.
[Luis Luna] 
We are encouraging people 
to use mass transit, 
to not take a trip to begin 
with, but when you do have 
to take a trip, share a ride, 
look for ways to use technology, 
telecommute.
That's something that the whole 
federal government is exploring, 
how we can have people work from 
home or from other locations 
so they don't have to make a 
long trip in to the office.
And in that way, basically use 
technology to save us a lot 
of energy and 
a lot of time.
[Judy Pino] 
Yeah, all good advice, 
transferable to our 
daily lives. 
Thank you, Luis.   
And of course, the E2PLAN 
is accessible to the public.
[Luis Luna] 
Yes.
[Judy Pino] 
And although many of these 
strategies and implementation 
tools are specific to EPA, 
we can translate them into 
our homes.
Thanks again.
For more information 
on EPA's E2PLAN, 
please visit 
www.epa.gov/e2plan.