Pacific Southwest, Region 9
Serving: Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Pacific Islands, Tribal Nations
Champions of Green Government
2008 Recipients
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National Park Service
Mojave National Preserve
Barstow, CA
Mojave National Preserve, a unit of the National Park Service, reduced its impact on the environment by installing solar power systems to replace diesel-powered electric generators and storage tanks at some of its remote facilities. Situated in the heart of the Mojave Desert with 320 days of sunshine per year, the preserve is an ideal location for solar power. Many of its facilities and quarters are located far from commercial power grids, which required the use of diesel powered electrical generators. With the switch to solar, Mojave National Preserve greatly reduced is dependence on petroleum and its carbon footprint, and also significantly decreased the impacts and hazards associated with fuel deliveries and storage, including emissions from trucks, spills during transport, spills while filling the tanks and leaks to the environment from fuel tanks. Mojave is working in partnership with Cal State Fullerton to double the size of its off-grid system, furthering its environmental contribution.
U.S. General Services Administration Pacific Rim Region
Steven M. Clark
San Francisco, CA
The U.S. General Services Administration is a leader throughout the Pacific Rim region on recycling, composting, energy-efficiency and green power. GSA strives to manage its many governmental assets to promote sustainability and green architectural innovation. Highlights included an energy alternative project at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego, which will generate off-grid clean electricity from vehicles at border crossing facilities; the world-renowned sustainable San Francisco Federal Building, which will save taxpayers $500,000 annually in reduced utility bills; developing a “cool roof” building in Reno, Nev. that conserves 65 percent of energy use compared to a standard building; awarding a ten-year on-site solar power supply contract for the Sacramento federal building, and implementing an aggressive federal building lighting retrofit program with a combined electric energy savings of 2,503,722 kilowatt hours each year.
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