The EPA and other federal agencies have released their 2013 Strategic Sustainability Performance Plans that outline steps the agencies will take to reduce carbon emissions and save energy.
The plans are also intended to help meet the new goal President Obama set yesterday with a Presidential Memorandum directing the federal government to consume 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020 — more than double the current level.
The EPA’s updated sustainability plan includes:
- Pursuing reconstruction of key EPA research infrastructure. Projects completed at the Cincinnati, Ohio, A.W. Breidenbach Environmental Research Center, the EPA’s second largest research center, have already reduced energy use by more than 30 percent.
- Consolidating the Research Toxicology Laboratory in Durham, NC into the main laboratory at Research Triangle Park, NC. This project will reduce agency rent costs, cut greenhouse gas emissions, and result in a net reduction in EPA space without impacting research capacity.
- Continuing water conservation program work.
Since 2009, the EPA has reduced its scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by nearly half from FY 2008 levels. The agency says it has also reduced annual water use by more than 25 percent since 2009.