Federal Green Challenge

EPA created the Federal Green Challenge (FGC) as a way to engage federal facilities in reducing their resource use, save money through improved operational performance, and further the goals of Executive Order 13384 Regarding Efficient Government Operations. The EPA is in a unique position to coordinate federal collaboration as well as provide technical expertise by hosting trainings and developing associated tools. In addition, EPA also participates in the Federal Green Challenge - working to encourage further improvements in its own facilities as well as sharing best practices and lessons learned. As part of EPA's Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) Program, the FGC challenges federal facilities to meet or exceed federal agency requirements to advance sustainability in their operations. It targets executive level managers as well as environmental staff to get a top-down and bottom-up approach to improving environmental performance at the facility level. To join, participants "challenge" themselves to reduce their environmental impact by 5% per target area in a minimum of two of six target areas – energy, transportation, waste, water, electronics, and purchasing. It is necessary for program purposes that one of the target areas be waste, electronics or purchasing. Active FGC participants establish baselines, set goals, and measure results on a fiscal year basis.