Case Study: Reassessing How Work is Done
Reduces Air Travel
Two separate departments within the U.S. Office of Personnel
Management's Chicago office reduced airline miles traveled by
33 percent in two years through a joint project. Collectively,
they exceeded their original goal of a 10 percent reduction in
miles traveled.
OPM's Nationwide Testing Group'1' - a national program
head-quartered in Chicago - proposed combining efforts with
OPM's Oversight Group, a
regional office, to bolster
project results.
Nationwide Testing Group
managers made the
decision that this group
would forgo conference
travel in Fiscal Year 2012,
eliminating an estimated
13,000 airline miles.
The Oversight Group,
accustomed to significant
travel to conduct audits in
its 14-state region, elected
to pilot several of its audits
from the Chicago office via
conference call or webinar
instead of on location,
reducing the need for
personnel to fly to those
project sites and saving
money associated with
travel.
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The Office of Personnel Management Nation-
wide Testing and Oversight Groups are in the
John C. Kluczynski Federal Building in Chicago.
Key Topics
• Airline mile reduction.
• Technology adoption.
Results
• Airline miles reduced by
33 percent in two
years.
Facility at a Glance
• Located in the Chicago
Federal Center, in the city's
central business district.
• Two groups, Nationwide
Testing and Oversight,
shared the office.
• 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.
Sustainable Materials Management
Federal Green Challenge
CHANGING HOW WE THINK ABOUT OUR RESOURCES FOR A BETTER TOMORROW
&EPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
www.epa.gov/smm
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Reduced Air Travel
This change to off-site evaluations was also
facilitated by the increase in automation at client
agencies. Current budget constraints have
encouraged the expansion of off-site evaluations to
save travel dollars.
0PM used several software tools to support its
project. Staff used a software program from its
travel vendor to develop a list of city-to-city travel
that occurred in OPM's baseline year and fiscal
year 2012, the year the agency chose to reduce
miles for the Federal Green Challenge project.
Staff manually transferred each flight from the
travel management software to the tracking tool.
Then the distance between cities was calculated
using on-line air travel distance calculators to give
0PM data on the total air miles traveled in both
years. Once the distance between cities was
calculated, this distance could be used again for
future trips to the same destination. Carbon foot
print calculations estimate that reducing air travel
reduced over 5,500 pounds of C02 emissions.
Overall, the project was successful not only from
the standpoint of reducing airline miles, but from
the groups' ability to work together toward a
common goal and adopting new technologies. They
had never worked together, so the effort to
successfully join forces on this project was itself an
accomplishment.
(1) Nationwide Testing Group closed in early 2014.
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.
Region 5, Land and Chemicals Division, Materials Management Branch
EPA-905-F-14-008
February 2014
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
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