Homeland Security Advisory Council

Sustainability and Efficiency Task Force

Recommendations

February 2010
Sustainability and Efficiency Task Force 

Recommendations 

Executive Summary

America’s security is closely intertwined with its energy use. A wisely planned sustainability 

policy that addresses issues of economy, conservation, and future viability will allow the United 

States to move toward a safer and more secure future by reducing its dependence on foreign 

energy sources, increasing its dependence on renewable and low-carbon energy sources, and 

increasing its resilience in the face of disaster.

This report by the Sustainability and Efficiency Task Force (SETF) - an independent advisory 

board comprised of sustainability experts from around the nation - outlines a strategy through 

which the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) can adopt sustainable practices, decrease

reliance on foreign oil, limit contribution to climate change, and address fiscal concerns in a way 

that strengthens the DHS mission and enhances the overall security of the nation. To achieve 

these objectives, the Task Force recommends a number of immediate measures DHS should 

pursue as first steps on the road to sustainability.

There is no federal agency better positioned to demonstrate the inseparability of sustainability 

and national security. Equally important, as this report will show, DHS is in a unique position to 

set the national paradigm for a sustainable, secure, and resilient future. 

The recommendations offered in this report demonstrate how sustainable practices can both

reduce operating costs and increase national security. Recommendations in this report also 

provide guidance on how to successfully implement Executive Order 13514 (EO).

This report includes major recommendations for implementing sustainable practices in four 

broad areas: 

Organization and Management

Energy and Water

Transportation and Regional Integrated Planning

Procurement and Waste

Opportunities Unique to the DHS Mission
Sustainability and Efficiency Task Force 

Recommendations 

Sustainability as a Pillar of National Security

Uncertain and unsustainable supplies of energy, water, and other resources, and the 

unpredictability of natural disasters and terrorism, have a major impact on the nation’s security. 

The nation’s security leaders should recognize that their actions should be intimately connected 

to sustainability. 

A well planned sustainability policy that addresses issues of economy, conservation and future 

viability will allow the nation to move toward a more secure and safe future by reducing its 

dependence on foreign energy sources and increasing its resilience in the face of disasters. 

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is in a unique position to set the paradigm for a 

sustainable, secure, and resilient future by demonstrating how efficiency and sustainability will 

enhance America’s national security.

Once it has implemented a comprehensive set of sustainability measures, DHS will serve as a 

model not only for other departments and agencies, but for states, localities and the private 

sector.
Sustainability and Efficiency Task Force 

Recommendations 

DHS Leadership Opportunity

Implementation of Executive Order 13514

On October 5, 2009, President Barack Obama signed Executive Order 13514, Federal 

Leadership in Environmental, Energy and Economic Performance. 

This Executive Order (EO) sets sustainability goals for federal agencies and focuses on 

improving their environmental, energy and economic performance. The EO substantially raises 

the bar on performance measures and accountability, and underscores the relevance of 

sustainability and efficiency to DHS’s mission. DHS is responsible for integrating the goals set 

forth in the EO with its mission, and for developing a strategic roadmap for performance and 

implementation. 

Contribution to America’s Sustainability and Efficiency 

The EO offers DHS the opportunity to develop successful initiatives to strengthen the 

department’s sustainability and efficiency goals, while helping to further secure the nation.

Successful implementation will produce a pragmatic, flexible, and strategic DHS that is the 

leader in efficiency among the executive agencies, and a model to state, local, private sector, and 

citizen sustainability efforts. 

Sustainability and One DHS

Excellence in sustainability can also enhance the creation of One DHS through adoption of a 

range of best practices across the organization, across levels and across functions and the 

integration of sustainability goals with existing DHS program objectives. 

Recommendations for Implementing Sustainable Practices

The following recommendations are interdependent and equal in importance. These 

recommendations have not gone through a governmental budget review process.

Organization and Management

The Task Force/HSAC recognizes the short history of DHS, and appreciates the many challenges 

the agency faces. However, for DHS to become a leader in sustainability, it must allocate the 

necessary resources and take the following actions.

 Align staff resource allocation to ensure support for the EO.

DHS should provide the staff and systems needed to manage EO compliance, 

establish accountability measures, and report regularly on sustainability 

benchmarks.
Sustainability and Efficiency Task Force 

Recommendations 

 Work with the General Services Administration (GSA) to develop standardized leasing 

requirements that incorporate principles of sustainability, with regular, quantifiable status 

updates to DHS.

Sustainability-related issues should be incorporated into lease agreements and 

occupancy agreements to enable faster dissemination and implementation of the 

EO and other sustainability initiatives. Due to the amount of leased space the 

department occupies, even simple programs—such as DHS-wide recycling—

currently cannot be implemented because DHS receives little to no feedback on 

sustainability metrics and quantifiable programs.

 Establish a cross-functional team to address sustainability issues.

This team should comprise technical experts and representatives from a range of 

functional areas, including information technology, finance, legal counsel, procurement, 

human capital, and communications. Collaboration among key leaders will ensure the 

employee ―buy-in‖ necessary for the successful implementation of the program. This 

team should include key GSA members with operational control of DHS buildings. 

 Include lifecycle costs in budget analysis and decision-making.

The DHS budget process must address more than initial capital investment; it 

should also encompass real lifecycle costs. The current process does not account

for significant returns on investments after several years, making it difficult to 

account for real lifecycle costs over the long-term.

 Implement department-wide sustainability training for all DHS employees.

To ensure the highest level of participation, DHS must engage the commitment of all 

employees, and managers, though proper training and incentives. Sustainability goals 

also should be incorporated into job descriptions and employee performance reviews. 

Extensive employee involvement will facilitate employee-driven innovation.

 Assess the security standards of the Interagency Security Committee to reinforce and 

advance the sustainability interests of the EO and DHS.

The interagency security standards provide guidance to ensure appropriate measures to 

secure federal facilities. Sustainability must be incorporated into security measures 

whenever possible - not subordinated or treated as a separate program.
Sustainability and Efficiency Task Force 

Recommendations 

 Stand up a department-wide Environmental Management System (EMS1).

DHS must ensure facilities have the ability to gather data and report progress on 

sustainability metrics, including energy consumption, waste production, and water usage. 

If DHS cannot accurately account for its consumption, it will not be able to effectively 

reduce consumption in compliance with the EO. An EMS would serve as a framework to 

execute a department-wide sustainability program and tracking metrics. As an 

overarching system, EMS would aggregate and analyze data from many individual 

program areas such as energy, water, waste management, recycling, and environmentallypreferable purchasing. It also would function as a department-wide records system to 

monitor, measure and report compliance. DHS will need to work with the GSA to 

develop and stand up an EMS for the facilities DHS leases from GSA. The plan for 

developing EMSs should focus first on projects with the highest return on investment.

Additionally, DHS must develop and implement the appropriate systems, methods and standards 

to support the management of a department-wide sustainability program and ensure optimal 

outreach to DHS employees.

Energy and Water

Climate change has the potential to accelerate and intensify extreme weather events which 

threaten the nation’s stability and security. DHS must implement its own cost-effective 

strategies to address these concerns by focusing on energy efficiency, conservation, and 

renewable energy sources; greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) reduction; and resilience and 

adaptation. This includes but is not limited to: transitioning to high-performance buildings; using

all resources more efficiently; and incorporating resiliency measures to potential changes in the 

natural environment into mission plans. These strategies can save taxpayer dollars, safeguard 

public health and the environment, and create new domestic jobs. 

Energy

 Subject all capital and operating projects that affect energy or water usage to lifecycle cost 

assessments.

This approach recognizes the full service life of buildings and building systems by 

assessing the long-term effects of renovations or operational changes. These 

assessments would ensure that federal dollars are spent wisely and energy savings 

are maximized. 

 Evaluate opportunities to implement renewable and clean energy options using land 

and facilities available to DHS.

DHS facilities have extensive land and rooftop area that can be used for landintensive, alternative energy sources like solar, biofuels, geothermal, and wind – as 

 

1

U.S. Army Environmental Command. “Sustainability: Environmental Management System (EMS,”U.S. Army, 

Department of Defense, http://aec.army.mil/usaec/sustainability/ems00.html (accessed Dec. 9, 2009).
Sustainability and Efficiency Task Force 

Recommendations 

the U.S. Coast Guard has already begun to demonstrate in its sustainability efforts. 

These installations can often be cost competitive and implemented with minimal 

upfront capital through lease arrangements on land or facilities already owned by 

DHS. The department should look for additional opportunities appropriate to local 

conditions such as availability of local natural resources, local utility rates, and 

other local factors. DHS should also periodically reevaluate opportunities as the 

price for these technologies trend downward.

Water

 Use cost-neutral retrofits involving low-flow and waterless fixtures.

Scarcity of regional water supplies is increasingly a security concern.

2

Following 

disasters, the ability to provide potable water is a mission-critical resiliency issue. 

Furthermore, water treatment is typically the single largest energy consumer for 

any municipality. 

Although water use reduction does not currently provide the same level of cost 

savings as energy-use reduction, the rising cost of water and sewer service across 

the country3 will likely reverse this trend. Cost-neutral retrofits involving lowflow and waterless fixtures can provide the first steps in reducing potable water 

consumption in DHS facilities. More advanced strategies that provide resilience 

from drought and disaster—such as reuse of gray water and rainwater for 

flushing, and on-site wastewater treatment strategies—also are part of a resilient 

design approach. 

Transportation and Regional Integrated Planning

For most Americans, the single greatest daily contribution to greenhouse gas emissions occurs 

not at work, but while driving to and from work4. Balancing transportation requirements with 

the need to bolster energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions is one of the major 

challenges to sustainability. A viable strategy must include more efficient means of 

transportation and increase access to mass transit, including ways to incentivize its use.

 Further incentivize employee use of mass transit, bicycling, and walking, while locating 

facilities to reduce their transportation impacts. 

 

2

Reed, R. Major USAF. “Dehydrated National Security: Water Scarcity, The Emerging Threat of the 21st Century.” 

Graduate diss., School of Advance Air and Space Studies, Air University, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, 2004.

3

Frost and Sullivan, “Rising Cost of Making Water Safe - A Domino Effect,” Frost and Sullivan,

http://www.frost.com/prod/servlet/market-insighttop.pag?docid=95420739&ctxixpLink=FcmCtx1&ctxixpLabel=FcmCtx2 (accessed December 4, 2009).

4

Scott, Beverly. “Testimony Of Dr. Beverly Scott, General Manager and CEO Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit 

Authority and Chair, American Public Transportation Association to the Subcommittee on Oversight and the 

Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures of the House Committee on Ways and Means Hearing on Surface 

Transportation Investment Needs . Washington, D.C., 

http://www.apta.com/gap/testimony/2009/Pages/testimony090625.aspx. (accessed Dec. 4, 2009).
Sustainability and Efficiency Task Force 

Recommendations 

Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) correlates inversely to residential density; the 

greater the density, the fewer miles traveled. Neighborhood structure and mix of 

uses are also contributing factors. To limit individual automobile commuting, the 

majority of DHS facilities—except those limited by strategic and security 

concerns, such as border stations—should be located near transit stops in more 

urban areas of America’s low VMT cities.

Procurement and Waste

 Leverage purchasing power to incentivize the innovation of goods and services that align 

with EO goals.

DHS should use its purchasing power to procure goods and services that address key 

sustainability issues such as GHG emissions, water efficiency, pollution prevention, and 

high-performance sustainable buildings to encourage manufacturers and corporations to 

invest in research and innovation, and to increase the production and availability of 

environmentally preferable goods and services. This can lead to competitive pricing and

increase reliance on abundant, renewable, and environmentally-preferable resources5.

 Conduct a waste audit.

This would include assessment of waste generation and disposal, waste streams, waste 

stream composition, current recycling program effectiveness, and waste diversion 

technologies. All aspects of waste elimination should be reviewed, whether they result 

from procurement, packaging, solid and food waste, recycling materials, or other sources.

 Promote the procurement and use of products with low levels of volatile organic compounds 

(VOCs) and toxic chemicals.

A range of VOCs are used in construction, cleaning, and maintenance at DHS. Evidence 

that VOCs contribute to absenteeism and present an increased risk to public health 

continues to gain strength.6 DHS can use its operations and purchasing, where possible, 

to contribute to chemical security by promoting a transition to the purchasing and use of

safer chemicals.

Opportunities Unique to the DHS Mission

Certain aspects of the DHS mission present unique opportunities for promoting sustainability and 

require distinct solutions. The Task Force recommends that DHS share its processes and results 

 

5

Resource Conservation Alliance & Government Purchasing Project, “Government Purchasing,” Resource 

Conservation Alliance & Government Purchasing Project, http://www.gpp.org/gpp.pdf (accessed Dec. 4, 2009).

6

Indoor Air Quality Scientific Findings Resources Bank. “Impacts of Indoor Environments on Human Performance 

and Productivity,” Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, http://www.iaqscience.lbl.gov/performancesummary.html (accessed Dec. 4, 2009).
Sustainability and Efficiency Task Force 

Recommendations 

with other executive agencies to further establish its leadership credentials and promote 

compliance with the EO across the federal government. 

Some opportunities unique to DHS are:

St. Elizabeths

The future site of DHS headquarters in Washington, D.C., the St. Elizabeths campus provides a 

unique opportunity for DHS, in partnership with GSA, to showcase its comprehensive approach 

to sustainability and efficiency, to test the intersection between security and sustainability, to 

expand its interaction with surround communities, and to act as a catalyst for high-performance 

building innovation for other federal agencies.

Construction: DHS, as the tenant, should drive sustainability requirements, and highlight the 

renovation and adaptive reuse of the historical structures at St. Elizabeths as it reinforces a 

design ethic grounded on resiliency, and underscores the compatibility between security and 

historic preservation. This would involve reviving original sustainable design features such as 

natural ventilation and daylighting, as well as incorporating new strategies and technologies to 

allow St. Elizabeths to become a leading example of high-performance design. This should 

include seeking LEED certification for some or all of the buildings and a utilizing Sustainable 

Sites Initiative rating system for site development.

The St. Elizabeths campus can also demonstrate the use of smart building automation systems 

and a smart grid. This responsive, resilient systems approach will lead to more cost-effective 

operations, and encourage innovation focusing on the interrelatedness of security and building 

management systems.

Community: DHS also should ensure that St. Elizabeths reinforces community connectivity by 

using smart growth principles that improve pedestrian and transit access for workers (as outlined 

in the EO) and discourage solo-driver commuting. St. Elizabeths can help promote a new 

standard of sustainability and community connectivity for all DHS entities.

Law Enforcement

DHS, which encompasses the largest federal law enforcement workforce, can demonstrate that 

sustainable law enforcement is possible without compromising security or mission. 

DHS’s law enforcement components—Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and 

Customs Enforcement, the Transportation Security Administration, the Coast Guard, and the 

Secret Service—can lead the country in adapting sustainable practices, from using sustainable 

fueled vehicles (as Secretary Napolitano’s Efficiency Review calls for) to utilizing renewable 

energy sources. DHS can also align with state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies to 

facilitate the exchange of sustainability practices, and provide a forum for demonstrating credible 

solutions to enable their adoption.
Sustainability and Efficiency Task Force 

Recommendations 

Public Engagement

Several DHS components have the opportunity to capitalize on their daily interaction with the 

public and develop strategies to benefit the department’s own operations by publicizing, when 

possible and cost-effective, sustainability efforts to those who they serve. Border crossings and 

ports of entry, for example, offer multiple opportunities to spread the sustainability message to 

the many millions of people who pass through U.S. borders each year. Transportation Security 

Agency (TSA) security checkpoints, which provide interaction with large numbers of the general 

public, offer additional opportunities for educational outreach though something as simple as 

having recycling bins near airport security checkpoints.

Tactics and Implementation

In addition to these strategic objectives and broad recommendations, the SETF has outlined 

several dozen tactical recommendations which will elevate DHS as a leader in sustainability; 

enhance DHS’s operational capabilities by decreasing spending on electricity, water, fuel and 

waste removal; and increase DHS’s resiliency by creating a safety net of renewable energy. 

These recommendations are included in Appendix A of this report. They have been further 

grouped into short-term and long-term recommendations. Short-term recommendations are 

those the SETF believes can and should be implemented within approximately a year. The SETF 

believes that by enacting these recommendations, DHS will increase its sustainability and reduce 

its carbon footprint, but also significantly reduce operating costs. However, these 

recommendations have not gone through a governmental budget review process. 

The discussion of specific individual tactical recommendations must continue. These tactical 

recommendations are designed to focus efforts on fundamental concepts and practices which, 

when implemented will put DHS on a path to achieving the goals laid out in the EO and the 

objectives described in this report.
Sustainability and Efficiency Task Force 

Recommendations 

Appendix A

Specific Recommendations

Organization and Management

Short Term

1. Align staff resource allocation to ensure support for the EO. Conduct a review of 

DHS and component environmental staffing, by office level, to ensure 

commitment to sustainability by DHS headquarters and components, identify gaps 

in the existing resources as identified by the EO.

2. Work with GSA to develop standardized leasing requirements that incorporate the 

elements of sustainability, and provide status updates on metrics to DHS.

3. Establish a cross-functional team to address sustainability issues.

4. Assess the security standards of the Interagency Security Committee to 

reinforce and advance the sustainability interests of the EO and DHS.

5. Standardize component environmental and energy office functions across the 

department, where possible.

Long Term

6. Include lifecycle costs in the budget analysis and budget decision-making.

7. Put in place regional energy managers focused on energy efficiency who can

work with multiple components in their respective regions. 

Systems and Methods

Short Term

8. Stand up an enterprise-wide Environmental Management System (EMS). This 

system would be the overarching ―sustainability‖ system that compiles data from 

individual program areas. Department-wide records would be used to monitor, 

measure, and report compliance with requirements. 

Dedicate resources to establish a system to track the status of all 

facility projects, and ensure that Energy Independence and Security 

Act (EISA) and other sustainable building requirements are met. 

Establish a comprehensive policy for centralized energy and water 

data collection through an Energy Management System across DHS to 

understand and track energy performance and to align operations.

Centralize the processing of utility invoices and data collection to 

eliminate unnecessary penalties for late payments. 

Require source-of-energy performance information and billing 

information from all DHS facilities. 

Develop a plan for performance assessment and measurement which 

includes the assessment of the effectiveness and efficiency of 

initiatives, and which includes a plan for long-term monitoring, 

verification of savings, and benchmarking.
Sustainability and Efficiency Task Force 

Recommendations 

9. Work with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Congress to adjust 

the federal budgeting process to remove barriers and create incentives to investing 

in efficiency and sustainability improvements. 

10. Establish and implement a department-wide plan for the following energy savings 

ideas: incorporating power management strategies on DHS networks; making 

double-sided printing the standard format for computers, printers, and copiers; 

purchasing Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool products; and 

reporting on the annual performance of the above requirements.

11. Procure software tools that calculate GHG emissions from energy, fuel, 

petroleum, chemical use, and other sources7.

12. Establish DHS standards for greening travel and meetings.

13. Set mandatory targets for energy savings from retrofits. Work with performance 

contractors and Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) to establish federal retrofit 

performance rates to determine final department-wide percentage reduction8.

Employee Outreach and Training

Short Term

14. Implement department-wide sustainability training for all DHS employees.

15. Engage all DHS employees to work toward DHS sustainability goals. 

16. Empower employees to solve tough sustainability challenges, and allow their 

solutions to have an appropriate impact on the resolution of those challenges.

17. Establish requirements for Contracting Officers, Contracting Officer Technical 

Representatives, Program Managers, Project Managers, and other members of the 

acquisition workforce to complete sustainability training.

18. Instruct all employees engaged in facility maintenance, design, construction, and 

property management to complete recognized Leadership in Energy and 

Environment Design (LEED)® training courses. Senior employees within these 

career fields should be or become LEED Accredited Professionals (LEED AP)9. 

Long Term

19. Develop mandatory sustainability training courses for DHS and component 

employees via the DHScovery (on-line) training system.

20. Establish a Department-wide awards program for sustainability and provide 

incentives for winners.

21. Include sustainability training in new employee orientation.

 

7

Climate Change Program. “Calculating Greenhouse Gas Emissions,” New Hampshire Department of 

Environmental Services, http://des.nh.gov/organization/divisions/air/tsb/tps/climate/calculate.htm (accessed Dec. 

4, 2009).

8

US DOE Federal Energy Management. “Emerging Technologies for Energy Savings Performance Contracting in the 

Federal Sector Program.” Department of Energy, 

http://www1.eere.energy.gov/femp/pdfs/emerging_technologies_ase_report.pdf (accessed Dec. 4, 2009).

9

Professional Accreditation. “LEED Professional Accreditation,” U.S. Green Building Council, 

http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=1815(accessed Dec. 4, 2009).
Sustainability and Efficiency Task Force 

Recommendations 

Energy and Water

Energy

Short Term

22. Subject all capital and operating projects that affect energy or water usage to 

lifecycle cost assessments.

23. Evaluate opportunities to implement renewable and clean energy opportunities

using land and facilities available to DHS.

24. Retro-commission DHS facilities to ensure they are operating at the highest levels 

of efficiency currently possible.

25. Develop a plan for performance assessment and measurement that includes a plan 

for benchmarking, long-term monitoring, and verification of savings.

26. Develop a department-wide goal of a specific percentage of energy consumption 

that must come from renewable energy.

Long Term

27. Identify DHS sites for the construction of large-scale renewable energy facilities 

that will help the department accomplish its mission with a more reliable and 

secure energy supply10.

28. Incorporate shade trees and unpaved surfaces wherever possible around buildings, 

and in and around parking lots, to decrease temperature of local micro-climates11.

Water

Short Term

29. Use cost-neutral retrofits involving low-flow and waterless fixtures12.

30. Where appropriate, develop a plan to incrementally move away from using 

potable water in toilets, cooling, and irrigation.

Implement strategies for capture and storage of rainwater for 

irrigation, toilet flushing, vehicle washing, laundry and other nonpotable uses;

Investigate and implement strategies for onsite water reclamation.

31. Develop a plan to use Sustainable Sites guidelines for all DHS sites.

 

10 Doris, Elizabeth, Joyce McLaren, Victoria Healey, and Stephen Hockett. “State of the States 2009: Renewable 

Energy Development and the Role of Policy,” National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 

http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy10osti/46667.pdf (accessed Dec. 4, 2009).

11 United Facilities Criteria. “Landscape Architecture” Department of Defense, 

http://www.wbdg.org/ccb/DOD/UFC/ufc_3_201_02.pdf (accessed Dec. 4, 2009).

12 Cohen, Ronnie, Kristina Ortez and Crossley Pinkstaff. “Increasing Water Efficiency in California’s Commercial, 

Industrial, and Institutional (CII) Sector.” Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) Issue Paper. May 2009.
Sustainability and Efficiency Task Force 

Recommendations 

Long Term

32. Develop a plan to divert rainwater from entering sewage treatment systems 

through:

Dispersed rainwater catchment systems (producing new supplies of 

water for irrigation, gray-water systems, etc);

Green roofs in urban areas where there are limited opportunities for 

rainwater filtration;

Urban forestation in DHS projects (to absorb storm water and reduce 

urban heat island effects characterized by spikes on peak-load due to 

increased air conditioning).

33. Move toward decentralized, low-energy wastewater treatment systems, such as 

―living-machine‖ treatment systems that rely on gravity and horticultural 

engineering.

Transportation and Regional Integrated Planning

Short Term

34. Further incentivize employee use of mass transit, bicycling and walking, while 

locating facilities to reduce their transportation impacts. 

35. Investigate the possibility of purchasing low-emission/low-consumption or 

alternative-fuel vehicles and investigate the possible use of an Energy Savings 

Performance Contract (ESPC) purchasing tool to purchase these vehicles.

36. Provide secure indoor storage for bicycles, and proper facilities to support 

commuting via bicycle, where needed, feasible, and cost-effective. 

37. Develop and implement ―live where you work‖ programs, to encourage DHS 

employees to live in communities and neighborhoods surrounding DHS work 

sites. Provide incentives for employees to move into surrounding communities 

from which it is close enough to walk or take public transit to work.

Long Term

38. Work to ensure current and future DHS facilities are located near transit stops in 

more urban areas of America’s low Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) cities. 

39. Work to ensure that DHS facilities are an integrated part of the community, where 

possible and achieving this objective will not inhibit DHS’s security mission.

40. Locate DHS offices and facilities within existing communities and neighborhoods 

of low VMT cities, where possible and achieving this objective will not inhibit 

DHS’s security mission.

41. Design DHS buildings in existing communities that would provide porous and 

activated facades along sidewalks that welcomes pedestrian traffic, where 

possible and achieving this objective will not inhibit DHS’s security mission.
Sustainability and Efficiency Task Force 

Recommendations 

Procurement and Waste

Short Term

42. Leverage purchasing power to incentivize the innovation of goods and services 

that align with EO goals.

43. Conduct a waste audit, including assessment of waste generation and disposal; 

waste streams; waste stream composition; effectiveness of current recycling 

programs, and implemented waste diversion technologies.

44. Promote the procurement and use of products with low levels of VOCs or toxic 

chemicals.

45. Develop a waste management strategic plan including: waste pickup schedule 

adjustments, recycling programs, source reduction and reuse of products and 

materials, and innovative waste diversion technologies.

46. Determine a baseline for the amount of food waste generated at every DHS 

facility.

47. Sort and compost food waste generated at each facility, where possible.

48. Establish a DHS-wide contract for replacement of ink jet and toner cartridges. 

This contract would include mandatory use of remanufactured ink jet and toner 

cartridges, easy recycling of spent ink jet and toner cartridges (i.e., mailing 

envelopes), and credit for recycled ink jet and toner cartridges.

Long Term

49. Encourage the use of local small businesses to contract with outside product and 

service suppliers to DHS.

50. Encourage carbon footprint minimization through contract provisions with 

suppliers of all materials, goods, and services.

St. Elizabeths

Short Term

51. Use smart growth principles to set and promote a new standard of sustainability 

and community connectivity13 where possible.

52. Dramatically reduce the amount of planned on-site parking, and free up a vast site 

area for more productive uses14.

53. Work to make buildings that do not need to be gated or closed off for security 

reasons, open and integrated with the surrounding community.

54. Adopt the Sustainable Sites Initiative guidelines for rainwater, storm water 

management, and ecosystem services at St. Elizabeths15.

 

13 Smart Growth Online. “Principles of Smart Growth,” The Smart Growth Network, 

http://www.smartgrowth.org/about/principles/default.asp?res=1024 (accessed Dec. 4, 2009).

14 Carl Walker. “Parking Structure Cost Outlook for 2009,” Industry Insights. 1st Quarter 2009. 

http://www.carlwalker.com/sites/default/files/pdfnews/1st%20quarter%20newsletter%20FINAL%204-up.pdf.

15 The Sustainable Sites Initiative. “About Us,” The Sustainable Sites Initiative, http://www.sustainablesites.org 

(accessed Dec. 4, 2009).
Sustainability and Efficiency Task Force 

Recommendations 

55. Design and construct some or all of the buildings to achieve USGBC 

LEED standards at a minimum Silver level for renovations and Gold for new 

construction. Achieve LEED Certification for the largest buildings.

Long Term

56. When possible, work with regional, city, and WMATA officials to extend metro 

transit service to locations close to the main entrance of facilities, ideally by rail, 

to ensure a feeling of convenience and safety for commuting workers.
Sustainability and Efficiency Task Force 

Recommendations 

Sustainability and Efficiency Task Force Membership List

Lydia Thomas (Chair), Trustee and Former President and CEO, Noblis, Inc

Jared “Jerry” Cohon (Vice Chair) President, Carnegie Mellon University 

Sunil Paul (Vice Chair), Founder, Spring Ventures

Majora Carter, President and CEO, The Majora Carter Group, LLC 

Aimée Christensen, Founder and CEO, Christensen Global Strategies

Lawrence “Larry” Coben, Chairman and CEO, Tremisis Energy LLC 

Mark Frisch, Principal, Solomon Cordwell Buenz

Heather Henriksen, Director, Office for Sustainability, Harvard University

Kathleen McGinty, Member, Board of Directors, NRG Energy, Inc 

Muscoe Martin, Principal, M2 Architecture 

Michael Polsky, President and CEO, Invenergy

Jeff Speck, Principal, Speck & Associates, LLC

Katarina Tesarova, Senior Project Manager, MGM MIRAGE CityCenter

Gail Vittori, Co-Director, Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems
Sustainability and Efficiency Task Force 

Recommendations 

Subject Matter Expert Acknowledgements

Don Bathurst, Chief Administrative Officer, Department of Homeland Security

John Knott, President, Noisette Company, LLC

Teresa Pohlman, Director, Safety and Environmental Programs, Department of Homeland 

Security

Chris Mills, Project Manager, St. Elizabeths

Michelle Moore, Federal Environmental Executive

Nancy Sutley, Chair, Council on Environmental Quality 

Steve White, Energy Program Manager, Department of Homeland Security

Pete Wixted, Environmental Program Manager, Department of Homeland Security