To Protect the Future, Take Action Into Your Hands

Greening WorkshopFebruary 19, 2009

Terry Lelandlelandt@mail.nih.gov

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NIH Activities

23,000 employees in Montgomery County

27 autonomous Institutes and Centers (ICs) who make decisions through committees

75 energy-intensive buildings with a total utilities $100 million FY2008

12 million square feet of federally owned and leased facilities

Diverse activities including: laboratory research; animal care; patient care/clinical center activities; patient lodging; facility design, construction, renovation, operations and maintenance, decommissioning, and leasing; managerial and administrative office activities; procurement; IT activities; transportation; emergency response services; and fleet management.

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Environmental Impacts Environmental concerns are public health concerns

Energy consumption and air emissions

– More than $100 million in utilities FY08

– 6.6 trillion BTUs approximately equal to 53,000 houses

– Air emissions and climate change

Waste management

– 40,000 lbs of solid waste daily, 200 tons hw annually

– Waste incinerated in Dickerson. Recycling and reducing is better.

Degradation of the Chesapeake Bay and local waterways

– NIH uses 1 billion gallons ($8 million) annually

– Stormwater runoff

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NIH Success Stories: Urban Forest and Stream Conservation No net loss of trees and Establish a 20% (62 acres) Forest

Canopy– Tree diversity includes over 140 species with planting

emphasis on native species and understory trees– 2004 total canopy area = 46 acres (15%)– 2004 total tree count is 5,440 (18%)

Increase stream buffer canopy

Stream mitigation initiatives include creating forested stream buffers.

Enhance wildlife habitat – Bird monitoring since 1991 has documented over 40

species. – Over 60 bird and bat houses have been installed on

campus. 20-40 ft tree snags are left in place for wildlife habitat.

Reestablish forest floor duff layer – Wood chips and leaves are used to establish a natural

forest floor and encourage natural tree regeneration in forest groves.

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IT Success Stories

Automated Program to remotely enable Energy Star computers – Turns off computers and monitors at the end of the workday.

– 60,000 desktop computers and monitors x ($27) $1.6 million in energy costs a year!

5300 employees participate in transhare! 

Approximately 40% of our waste (16,000 lbs/day) is recycled!

Building recycling –all construction debris is recycled.

– Bldg 36 kept 5600 tons of debris out of the landfill

NIH Mercury Free Mad as a Hatter Program

Cafeterias have replaced Styrofoam cups with biobased.

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Energy and LEED Success Stories

Energy consumption/gsf has been reduced 28% since 2003.

– Audit 10% of facilities every year

– Matrix of energy technologies in use or explored for use at NIH

– Use animal bedding as biomass

Greening all NIH facilities including leased buildings

– 36 existing buildings registered for LEED

Purchase 3.5% of electricity from renewable resources: wind, sun, biogas.

Children’s Inn, Family Lodge, Parking Garages Project

– $182,792 savings from lighting, hvac, water upgrades

– Solar panels for environmental outreach for young patients and their families

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Protecting The Environment At NIHEnvironmental compliance

– Meet regulations for waste, water, air and chemical use and handling.

NEMS and NIH Going Greener

– Encourage each person to be aware of the impact of their job, and empower them to make green choices.

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What Does It Mean For NIH To Go Greener?

Examine all NIH activities and how they impact the environment.

Determine polices and procedures; outreach needs.

Develop NIH environmental objectives.

Conduct environmental awareness training for the NIH community.

Perform audits.

Prepare annual report.

Review progress through management reviews.

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Desired Results

Challenge the employees to consider the environmental impacts of their activities at work.

Empower the employees to make decisions that are the least burdening to the environment.

Produce culture change over time so that this becomes the norm.

Continual environmental improvement!

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NIH Challenges

Posters, emails, NIH Record articles, table tents, etc. may not be the best ways to reach our employees.

Behavior change is complicated.

27 autonomous ICs. Difficult to determine when decisions are made or who has authority.

Not a “command and control” type of organization.

De-centralized structure to foster scientific research and creativity.

Academic setting and mentality.

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Performance Plan Element – SES Level

“Develop and implement at least three business practices that are designed to improve HHS’ environmental performance and simultaneously serve to minimize costs. This may be through the elimination of paper centric processes, office based energy savings practices, green procurement or other sustainable business practices.”

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NIH Goes Greener

Sustainability Management TeamSustainability Management Team

NEMS Implementation TeamNEMS Implementation Team

Montgomery County Sites

• Poolesville Liaison

• Rockville Environmental Working Group

Montgomery County Sites

• Poolesville Liaison

• Rockville Environmental Working Group

Advisory Groups

• Energy Stewardship Advisory Group

• NEMS Communications Advisory Group

Advisory Groups

• Energy Stewardship Advisory Group

• NEMS Communications Advisory Group

Functional Working Groups

• Sustainable Facilities Working Group

• Sustainable Lab Practices Working Group

• Sustainable Office Practices Working Group

• Sustainable Animal Care Activities Working Group

• Sustainable Clinical Center Activities Working Group

Functional Working Groups

• Sustainable Facilities Working Group

• Sustainable Lab Practices Working Group

• Sustainable Office Practices Working Group

• Sustainable Animal Care Activities Working Group

• Sustainable Clinical Center Activities Working Group

Green Teams

• CIT

• NIDDK

• NIDCD

• NEI

• The Children’s Inn

• NCI sites

Green Teams

• CIT

• NIDDK

• NIDCD

• NEI

• The Children’s Inn

• NCI sites

Sustainability Management TeamSustainability Management Team

NEMS Implementation TeamNEMS Implementation Team

Montgomery County Sites

• Poolesville Liaison

• Rockville Environmental Working Group

Montgomery County Sites

• Poolesville Liaison

• Rockville Environmental Working Group

Advisory Groups

• Energy Stewardship Advisory Group

• NEMS Communications Advisory Group

Advisory Groups

• Energy Stewardship Advisory Group

• NEMS Communications Advisory Group

Functional Working Groups

• Sustainable Facilities Working Group

• Sustainable Lab Practices Working Group

• Sustainable Office Practices Working Group

• Sustainable Animal Care Activities Working Group

• Sustainable Clinical Center Activities Working Group

Functional Working Groups

• Sustainable Facilities Working Group

• Sustainable Lab Practices Working Group

• Sustainable Office Practices Working Group

• Sustainable Animal Care Activities Working Group

• Sustainable Clinical Center Activities Working Group

Green Teams

• CIT

• NIDDK

• NIDCD

• NEI

• The Children’s Inn

• NCI sites

Green Teams

• CIT

• NIDDK

• NIDCD

• NEI

• The Children’s Inn

• NCI sites

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NIH Environmental Goals Improve Energy and water management to reduce energy intensity 50% over the 2003 baseline by 2020

Reduce the NIH carbon footprint becoming carbon neutral by 2020

Improve recycling and green procurement to achieve zero waste by 2020 (zero waste is diverting > 90% of the solid wastes generated from Landfill and incineration)

Require 75% of all product purchases to use take back or minimal packaging by 2020

Reduce toxic chemical use by 50% at all NIH facilities by 2020, developing and employing less toxic alternatives for standard research protocols

Develop NIH campuses to be energy independent by 2050

Require all electronic office products purchased minimally meet the EPA Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) gold standard or latest replacement by 2020

All NIH and contractor vehicles powered by non-carbon based fuel and exceed toughest US emission standard by 2020

Require all new construction and renovations to meet the USGBC LEED Platinum standard or better by 2020

By 2020 improve local environmental quality through water efficient landscaping and land management practices that reduce erosion concerns and releases at all NIH sites (The Chesapeake Bay program is an example)

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NIH Green Teams: NIDCD

NIDCD Environmental Policy

– NIDCD Commitments

– Employee Responsibilities

NIDCD Goes Greener Office Challenge

– Evaluate: Copy rooms, conference rooms, common areas, kitchens for energy conservation, recycling, procurement, paper use, transportation

– Provide outreach tools and fact sheets

– Re-evaluate for final results

Green Team Go Greener Guide

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NIH Green Teams

NEI: Recycling initiatives and NEI Environmental Policy

NIDDK: Increase recycling, minimize paper, raise awareness through brown bags and awards

NCI: “Go Green” recycling seminar/fair March 17th from 11am to 2 PM to coincide with St. Patty’s Day for EPN, EPS, & 6100. 

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The Role of Green TeamsEvaluate what you do

Consider opportunities to do it better

Set objectives

Integrate management support

Institute new policies, procedures, or other tools

Conduct outreach

Track progress

Celebrate success

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Sustainable Labs WG: Labs Go Greener Challenge

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Labs Go Greener Challenge

Data collection

– Equipment

– Water use activities

– Target chemical usage

– Fume hoods

Pilot evaluations in a few Labs

– Energy conservation, recycling, green purchasing, fume hoods, chemical management, water conservation, hazardous waste disposal, chemical minimization, fossil fuel use.

Roll out to all of NIH

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Sustainable Labs WG: NIH Target Chemicals Ranking

Identify chemicals for reduction: Risk-basked criteria for use in targeting and prioritizing laboratory chemical waste streams for reduction efforts. Track results.

•Chromic Acid

•Phosphoric Acid

•Picric Acid

•Ethidium bromide

•Ethylene oxide

•Phenol/chloroform

Green Procurement

Recycling initiatives for labs

Mercury Free NIH

Read the full NO MERCURY policy at NIH: http://www.nems.nih.gov/records/NIH_Manual_Issuance_3033.pdf

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EMS Outreach

Moving from Awareness to Participation… How do we get there?

Awareness UnderstandingMotivation

(communication of the value proposition)

Cooperation Participation

Success of change is often enhanced by leveraging leadership influences

Two-way communication

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Green Team Tools

NIH Offices Go Greener Challenge

NIH Labs Go Greener Challenge

Environmental Awareness Training

Green Hour Seminars

Greenserve-L https://list.nih.gov/archives/greenserve-l.html

Fact Sheets

Global Emails

Posters

Specific Campaigns

Green Team Leads Meetings

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Green Team Tools (continued)

Goal Tracking Tool for the ICs

Earth Day (April)

America Recycles Day (November)

Energy Awareness Month (October)

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Green Team Tools (continued)

Suggested business practices http://www.nems.nih.gov