Case Study: Education and Outreach Campaign
Reduces Paper Usage
Two separate departments within the U.S. Office of Personnel
Management's Chicago office reduced the amount of paper
purchased by 28 percent through an education and outreach
campaign. This exceeded their original goal of a 5 percent reduction
and showed that with good education and outreach, office paper
usage can be decreased.
After starting to experience great success in their project to reduce
internal air travel, two groups within 0PM, the Nationwide Testing
Group'1' and the Oversight
Group, began a second
campaign to buy less paper by
using less paper. This was only
the second time these groups
had worked on a green project,
but their success in the Federal
Green Challenge air travel
reduction campaign was an
indication they would be
successful in collaborating
again to meet project goals.
0PM initiated a "Think Before
You Print" campaign with an
eye-catching logo on small
flyers that reminded employees
to save paper. The flyers,
laminated and placed on
everyone's desk, helped
employees think about printer
usage.
The Office of Personnel Management
Nationwide Testing and Oversight Groups
are located in the John C. Kluczynski
Federal Building in Chicago.
OPM's newly established office
green team asked staff to set
default printer preferences to
double-sided printing.
Sustainable Materials Management
Federal Green Challenge
Key Topics
• Paper use reduction.
• Double-sided printing.
Results
• 28 percent reduction in paper
purchased in one year.
• Reduced paper demand
avoided the emissions of
22,000 pounds of C02
equivalent'2'
• Establishment of a green
team.
Facility at a Glance
• Located in the Chicago Federal
Center in the city's central
business district.
• Two groups shared the office,
Nationwide Testing and
Oversight.
• 30 employees between the
two groups.
• Participant since 2011 in the
FGC transportation and
purchasing categories.
• Recipient of two EPA Region 5
FGC Awards: Transportation
and Purchasing.
CHANGING HOW WE THINK ABOUT OUR RESOURCES FOR A BETTER TOMORROW
United States
EnvlronmBntsI Protection
Agency
www.epa.gov/smm
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Paper Use Reduced
They also provided computer screenshots to show
how to do it. To encourage staff to make the printer
setting change, the green team organized a
competition to see which group could get the most
staff to make the changes. Monthly, they emailed
results on how many people had switched to double
-sided printing. At the end of the competition both
groups had made such great progress in reducing
paper use that it was a tie.
However, some employees have individual printers
that are not double-sided capable, so some
additional strategizing was needed. The team asked
employees to use individual printers to print only
one-page, single-sided documents. Employees
agreed that all double-sided documents would be
printed on network printers capable of double-sided
printing.
Accurately tracking paper-purchase reduction was a
challenge because two administrative assistants
did the purchasing, and neither person tracked how
much they bought. To solve this issue, 0PM tasked
one individual with tracking the number of reams of
paper used each month in the entire office.
This task itself proved challenging because
employees who have personal printers tended to
take more than one ream of paper at a time from
storage to use in that personal printer. This practice
skewed the tracking results since paper usage was
counted in the month the reams were taken from
storage, not the month they were actually used.
At the start of the initiative, employees were asked
to take only one ream at a time from storage, so
0PM could better track monthly paper usage. With
cooperation from the whole office, the paper usage
tracking system was implemented successfully and
the office was able to significantly exceed its FGC
goals.
Overall, the project was also successful because of
the green team's ability to work together toward a
common goal and adopt new techniques. They had
only worked before on one project, so the effort to
continue to join forces on this project was itself an
accomplishment.
(1) Nationwide Testing Group closed in early 2014.
(2) Environmental impact estimates were made using the
Environmental Paper Network Paper Calculator Version 3.2. For
more information visitwww.papercalculator.org.
About the Federal Green Challenge
The Federal Green Challenge, part of EPA's Sustainable Materials
Management Program, is designed to challenge federal agencies
throughout the country to lead by example in reducing the federal
government's environmental impact. It helps agencies meet obligations
under Executive Orders 13514 and 13423.
In 2012, nearly 300 federal agencies, representing more than 500,000
employees participated in the Federal Green Challenge. Their combined
efforts resulted in an estimated cost savings of more than $31 million to
U.S. taxpayers.
For More
Information
OPM Chicago contacts:
Nikkii Hatcher
202-606-2203
nikkii.hatcher@opm.gov
DeeSiegel
202-606-2265
dee.siegel@opm.gov
Federal Green Challenge:
http://epa.gov/fgc
Region 5, Land and Chemicals Division, Materials Management Branch
EPA-905-F-14-007
February 2014
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