Jordy Yager
The Hill
1/10/10
The maintainer of the House offices said on Friday that all offices belonging to members, officers and committees would have “green” consultations by the end of the year in its effort to make the House more environmentally friendly.
The program, initiated by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and run by the office of the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), has trained nearly 3,000 House staffers in ways to eliminate material, electric and pollutant waste in their respective offices, said the CAO in a new report released this week.
Since Pelosi launched the My Green Office program in April 2009 on Earth Day, the CAO says the House has saved 1 million sheets of paper each month, 175,000 kilowatt hours of electricity, diverted 75,000 pounds of waste from landfills, and cut nearly 400,000 pounds of carbon emissions.
“I’m pleased with the progress that Members have made to green their offices,” Pelosi said in a statement. “It’s critical for us to lead by example and show the American people that reducing our carbon footprint saves both energy and money.”
A spokesman for the CAO said that by July they would have a better understanding of the cost savings that the “greening” measures have created, but that right now, “the savings numbers are a moving target.”
The article continues at The Hill.
