2008 Florida Department of Health “Lean to Green” Initiative A Green Guide for Public Service Agencies “I am persuaded that global climate change is one of the most important issues that we will face this century. With almost 1,200 miles of coastline and the majority of our citizens living near that coastline, Florida is more vulnerable to rising ocean levels and violent weather patterns than any other state…I will bring together the brightest minds to begin working on a plan for Florida to explore groundbreaking technologies and strategies that will place our state at the forefront of a growing worldwide movement to reduce greenhouse gases. Florida will provide not only the policy and technological advances, but the moral leadership, to allow us to overcome this monumental challenge.” -- Charlie Crist, Florida Governor In July 2007, Governor Charlie Crist signed three executive orders to reduce Florida’s greenhouse gases and increase energy efficiency. One of these orders is entitled, “Leadership by Example”. Florida’s state agencies have an opportunity to lead by example by establishing more sustainable choices in public service operations. The benefits of such institutional commitment include reduced operating and capital costs, reduced liability risks, increased employee productivity, greater health and well-being of employees, property value increase and greater environmental responsibility. The Florida Department of Health, as the vanguards of public health, have staff throughout the state and touch millions of lives each year with their services and prevention efforts. Preventing climate change and encouraging energy efficiency are both related to public health outcomes. The Florida State Greenhouse Gas Reduction Scorecard, including baseline emissions for the Florida Department of Health, can be found here: http://www.myfloridaclimate.com/env/home/greenhouse_gas_reduction_scorecard/florida_state_greenhouse_gas_reduction_scorecard The Department of Health can be a leader by supporting carbon emissions reduction efforts through more “green” decisions and behavior. These proposals are not meant to be an exhaustive list, but a starting point from which to encourage action in 2008. Since the first draft of this green plan, the Florida Department of Management Services released a new energy policy for state buildings in March, 2008. Actions that can be supported by or within the Department are followed by a (DOH). Actions more global in nature, or ones which require the support of another agency, are followed by a (DOH+). Flexible Work Schedules/Telework/Telecommuting ? Support more employees working at least one day from home or alternate location. (DOH) ? Study arrival and exit times to support more staggering of work hours, in compliance with original Capital Circle Office Complex development order. (DOH+) References: For every gallon of gas burned, a car produces roughly 20 pounds of CO2. The average car (in terms of fuel economy) driven the average number of miles per year (15,000) produces approximately 13,000 pounds of CO2 annually. The U.S. Census Bureau’s 2005 American Community Survey showed the average vehicle miles per day in 2005 for Leon County was 28.3 per resident. The estimated travel time to work was 21 minutes. Since 1999, miles of travel per resident (22.6 miles), has steadily increased in Leon County. This trend indicates that people on average are traveling more and that this demand is increasingly exceeding the capacity of our public roads. The Florida Department of Health’s Division of Information Technology recently piloted a telecommuting program with over 60 staff members. Their findings included that, in most cases, there were “no loss(es) in worker productivity,” and received some reports where productivity actually increased (September, 2007). The IT report also relates that “the technical infrastructure currently in place is sufficient to allow most employees the opportunity to telecommute.” In the State of Arizona, telework has been such a success that a 2003 Executive Order reaffirmed that every agency has a mandate to have 20% of state employees participating. The telework program has been estimated to have reduced five million driven miles, 171,000 fewer pounds of air pollution, and 177,000 fewer hours of stressful driving time per year. The telecommuting program at the University of Central Florida has resulted in reducing the costs for utilities and the need for additional office/parking space. Telecommuters can share office/work station space with other telecommuter colleagues at UCF. The option of telecommuting increases the retention of staff. Telecommuting gives the employee and the agency more flexibility, and in some cases, can increase productivity and reduce absenteeism. Telecommuting allows offices to hire employees otherwise not available, acting as an incentive to potential candidates. There are also environmental benefits in regard to clean air achieved by reduction in carbon dioxide from less commuting and petroleum use. These work arrangements are likely to become more popular with current trends towards greater customization of services, and should be a greater part of emergency preparedness efforts. There are currently over 4,000 employees in the Capital Circle Office Complex with an estimated 1,800 being Department of Health employees. The staggering of work hours and support of more telecommuting will not only support employee satisfaction, but should result in energy savings, less traffic, and less idling time. Less traffic and idling time will directly reduce carbon dioxide emissions from vehicle combustion. One division has suggested the four 10-hour work day alternative, or the four days in office and one day work from home as alternatives to the five day-eight hour work week. If a 20% mandate of employee participation were followed, flexible work schedules has the potential to reduce 1.5 million pounds of carbon dioxide pollution. The Florida Department of Health does have a Telecommuting Policy and Procedure in place (DOHP 60-24-06): http://dohiws.doh.state.fl.us/divisions/administration/Personnel/Policies/Telecommute_60-24-06.pdf . Alternative Transportation ? Reserve ten color coded parking spaces in premium areas of each public health building for carpool and ride sharing employees. (DOH+) ? Establish a variety of incentives such as free bus passes, park passes, or gift cards for staff to use Star Metro bus service. (DOH+) ? Charge a monthly parking fee to DOH staff at equitable salary levels ($30,000 = $1, $60,000=$2, etc). Use these funds to pay for commuting incentives and travel offsets. (DOH+) ? Install more bicycle parking areas inside and outside the buildings. (DOH+) ? Install showers and locker rooms in individual buildings to encourage walking and biking. (DOH+) ? Re-institute the Employee Transportation Coordinator position. (DOH) ? Revise auto leasing policies to include the use of an alternate fuel vehicle or a high mileage vehicle when available. (DOH+) References: According to the 2000 US Census, approximately 78% of all trips to and from work are drive-alone. This is an unsustainable trend given that vehicles are the source of 1.5 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases each year (US Dept of Energy). Per Commuter Services of North Florida, the Southwood Complex is 400 spaces short of meeting user needs. A healthy and sustainable solution is to reduce the need to park by reducing the number of vehicles coming to the complex. Using the Department’s existing telecommuting/teleworking policy, allowing a 30 minute work time credit would encourage the use of alternative transportation where the time it takes getting to work may actually increase. With modern technology available, and the planned introduction of free wireless internet on some buses, commuters will also be able to do work and reading assignments during the commute time. These recommendations can be accomplished at minimum financial cost to the state, support climate change initiatives, will serve to offer a disincentive for individual driving, as well as an incentive for commuter options. Purchasing ? Divisions should look at purchasing laptops instead of desktops when they refresh their computers in the future. (DOH) ? Electronic equipment should be purchased only from vendors with the highest standards of recycling and offset initiatives. (DOH) ? Furniture and office furnishings made from natural or recyclable materials with minimal to no off-gassing chemicals present should be purchased. (DOH) ? Social marketing purchases should be done as much as possible of sustainable made products from sustainable vendors. (DOH) ? Consider travel options and begin the purchase of carbon offsets with all air travel. (DOH) ? Hold annual conferences every other year via internet meeting services such as LiveMeeting, WebEx, etc. (DOH) References: Many vendors of equipment are now using sustainable options in the sale and support of their products. Dell, for example, offers offsets, tree planting, and recycling of used equipment (including competitive brands): http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/corp/environment/en/index?c=us&l=en&s=corp. Laptops will allow more flexibility in staff location which will not only support emergency preparedness operations, but will support telecommuting options that reduce the need to travel to a central location and thereby reduce carbon emissions. Work travel is a necessary part of doing business, and air travel specifically is one of the fastest growing causes of climate change. The amount of carbon dioxide emitted by air travel doubled between 1990 and 2004. Travel is one part of climate emissions that all agencies have an opportunity to influence. The purchase of carbon offsets when purchasing tickets should become a normal business procedure. There are several vendors for supporting this: http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/carbon_offset_wind_credits_carbon_reduction.htm http://www.terrapass.com/flight/flightcalc.html http://www.co2balance.uk.com/ There is a good report on carbon offsets at http://www.cleanair-coolplanet.org/ConsumersGuidetoCarbonOffsets.pdf which would seem to tilt toward Climate Trust as an effective carbon offsetting firm: (http://www.climatetrust.org/). Carbon offsetting has been used by offices at the USEPA, the CDC, and the Governor of Florida’s Climate Change Summit. In the State of Florida, Section 287.045 F.S. requires agencies to purchase recycled products which contain at least 10% post consumer recovered materials. Agencies should encourage continued support of the recycled program by purchasing office supplies, printing, copying and other such commodities or services that are determined to be recycled, when available. If a recycled product is not available or suitable for a project, a justification as to why recycled will not meet the requirements should accompany a requisition. From a healthy foods standpoint, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials have created the attached policy for meetings they sponsor. Policies such as this could increase the amount of local foods purchased, mitigating the travel costs associated with foods purchased globally. Energy Use in Buildings ? Conduct an Energy Audit of Each Building (DOH+) ? Begin use of desktop power strips at each workstation to encourage appropriate turn offs and diminish “phantom” loss of energy. (DOH) ? Decrease the number of printers and increase the reuse of paper and double-sided printing. (DOH) ? Support transition to solar roofing and other onsite power sources for the four Department of Health buildings at Southwood. (DOH+) ? Support the use of green roofs on all Department of Health facilities. (DOH+) ? Allow hand correction of small typos (Green Grammar). (DOH) ? Transition to use of rechargeable batteries. (DOH) ? Offer a LEED certified training for interested Department of Health staff. (DOH) ? Ensure that vending machines in buildings are using energy saving features. (DOH+) ? Include the IT infrastructure (computers, servers, etc.) in any energy audit. ? Swap conference rooms to interior offices, giving more employees direct access to sunlight and natural views. (DOH) ? Establish motion sensors in bathrooms and breakrooms. (DOH+) ? Assess Indoor temperature settings for employee comfort and energy savings. (DOH+) ? Change out lighting for improved energy efficiency. (DOH+) References: Supporting individual responsibility is critical to any successful green initiative. An energy audit of each building and a personal energy use in the office will serve to model the green behavior. Reduction in the use of paper and energy at each workstation is a simple way to get staff involved, and directly goes to the bottom line of energy costs. The loss of energy through plugged in equipment is costly: http://www.pfadvice.com/2006/04/24/phantom-electricity-loads-daily-financial-tip/. If one million people shut off their office PC’s overnight, we would eliminate up to 45,000 tons of CO2 per year – the equivalent of taking 7,663 SUVs off the road (www.environmentaldefense.org, reported in National Geo Adventure, December 2007). With the advent of easy printing, the norm has been to make new copies of documents in order to correct simple typos. This is a wasteful procedure and is easily remedied by a re-institution of the past business practice of careful handwritten corrections. Florida is the Sunshine State and is therefore a land of opportunity for solar power. The Department of Health buildings at Southwood are in direct sunlight, have a large footprint, and are easily noticeable. Solar panels will establish another source of power for the state and model clean, sustainable energy use to thousands of employees. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. Governor Crist has issued an executive order that all state buildings constructed in the future will use the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED for New Construction (LEED-NC) standards – striving for Platinum Level certification under the LEED program. Additionally, LEED for Existing Buildings will be implemented for existing state agencies. The LEED criteria are very public health oriented, offering points on issues relating to water, waste, indoor air, land use, recycled product use, and alternative transportation. There are about 4 million vending machines in the United States, most of which sit and burn energy. New gadgets, such as the Energy Miser, (USA Technologies), monitor the ambient temperature of the room and also check for “occupancy” (which means nothing more complex than when someone walks up to the machine to make a purchase). These gadgets can reduce the power consumption of a cold drink vending machine by an average of 46%. When equipped with it, refrigerated beverage vending machines use less energy and are comparable in daily energy performance to new ENERGY STAR qualified equipments. USA Technologies estimates that enterprises can save $100 to $150 per machine per year by using an EnergyMiser sensor. The reduction in energy use is 30 percent to 46 percent per machine. USA Technologies is working with 29 different utility companies around the country to offer rebates ranging from $15 to $180 per unit. They’ve also signed another utility company, Gainesville Regional Utilities in Florida, which will offer the devices to its customers at no costs. So far, 100 utilities around the United States have participated in this effort (www.LivePaths.com). Efficient use of the IT infrastructure is critical due to a high reliance on energy consumption. An essay in New Scientist recently concluded that the carbon footprint of data servers may be comparable to SUV’s. Including emissions assessments in IT plans would be a reasonable addition to energy plans. (http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/dn12992-computer-servers-as-bad-for-climate-as-suvs.html?feedId=earth_rss20) Simply turning off computers and electronics at the end of the day is the first step in corporate strategies on reducing energy use: http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/feb2008/id20080211_204672.htm Swapping interior offices for outer conference rooms not only saves energy costs but also can boost productivity and improve discipline and health. Few employees spend entire days in meetings. Working in or near green spaces enhances health and mental well-being. Contact with nature through window views reduces stress at work and improves recovery from illness in hospitals. Office workers perform 10% to 25% better on tests of mental function and memory recall when they had the best possible view vs. no view. Increased fatigue has also been associated with lack of a view. Research in the 1970’s showed that hospital patients with a window view of nature recovered quicker than those without (http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/224/4647/420 ). Recycling ? Establish and measure the amount of recycling within each building for paper, cans, bottles, and electronics. (DOH+) ? Use donated dinnerware for office events in place of disposables. (DOH) References: Each building and division have separate recycling programs with various degrees of success. Recycling is a major component in reducing the energy used to extract raw resources and the land space dedicated to landfill and waste operations. For future office parties, instead of using paper plates, Styrofoam cups, plastic utensils and plastic tablecloths, try collecting a sufficient supply of “real” items to wash and reuse. Interested staff can purge their own kitchen cabinets and drawers, shop thrift stores or yard sales, and otherwise locate things to donate to the cause. After an event, staff can have “dishwashing relay teams” working in 15 minute shifts, one after another, until the job is completed. Different people can take home the fabric tablecloths to wash, dry and return them. It is expected that water use and staff time on events would increase. This would be offset by reducing trash, reducing landfill use, increase in staff camaraderie, and extended use of reusable materials. The purchase of recycled material is also beneficial. The Environmental Defense Fund has a calculator to compare your current paper purchases to the number of trees it uses. See: www.papercalculator.org Environmental Protection ? Promote alternatives to the use and disposal of plastic-bottled water. (DOH+) ? Ensure landscape plan for the complex is environmentally sustainable, not polluting, and necessary. (DOH+) References: The Capital Circle Office Complex was once agricultural land with forest and livestock. It now houses thousands of employees who walk and enjoy the established and maintained greenery on a daily basis. Landscape maintenance for the complex must use sustainable methods due to employee use, its history as a more native landscape, and its vicinity to known water quality problems. The byproduct of plastics is an environmental issue of concern, but the larger issues is the disposal of millions of plastic water bottles. A good example is the current trend of purchasing bottled water. 1.5 million barrels of oil a year are required for plastic water bottle production (National Geo Adventure, Dec. 2007). Educating on alternatives and aligning purchasing procedures to refrain from plastic bottle purchase is a healthy and sustainable approach. Encouraging more personal responsibility in how water is distributed and consumed goes directly to energy costs for its production and to the waste problem of plastic disposal. Education ? Add green focus to meetings, conferences, and calls throughout 2008. (DOH) ? Establish green workgroups in each division. (DOH) ? Include green objectives in all strategic plans. (DOH) ? Issue a series of reports throughout 2008 highlighting the connection between public health and the environment. (DOH) ? Establish an assessment process for this initiative, whether by new tool or adoption of an existing scorecard. (DOH) ? Work toward offering assistance for staff interested in green alternatives and to conduct individual assessments of their carbon footprint. (DOH+) ? Establish email distribution list to share “green” information. (DOH) ? Take advantage of training tools for all employees – (for example, the carbon diet workbook and Johnson Controls SEEC training ) . (DOH) ? Ensure employees aware of successes – increased recycling, reduction in energy consumption, etc. (DOH) References: The Department of Health is a community of educators who work to prevent problems before they happen. Modeling green behavior is a natural fit for a staff already dedicated to public service and to protecting public health specifically. Additional Resources: Green Driving Tips: http://def.sharepoint.doh.ad.state.fl.us/DEH/Lean%20and%20Green%20%20Footprint%20at%20home/Green%20Tips%20-%20Driving%20More%20Efficiently.pdf