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EPA honors NOAA’s Guam Weather Forecast Office with Federal Green Challenge award

09/18/2016
Contact Information: 
Dean Higuchi (higuchi.dean@epa.gov)
808-541-2711

HONOLULU – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today recognized National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Guam Weather Forecast Office with EPA’s 2016 Federal Green Challenge Education and Outreach award. The Federal Green Challenge encourages federal agencies to lead by example in reducing the federal government's environmental impact.

“The NOAA Guam Forecast office staff is leading the way towards zero waste,” said John McCarroll, Pacific Islands Office Manager for EPA’s Pacific Southwest Region. “Island environments have special challenges, so it’s great to see federal employees who work on Guam show their commitment to sustainability.”

To reduce their environmental impacts and achieve maximum employee participation, NOAA’s Guam office took action by:


- Establishing dedicated recycling collection points for paper, aluminum cans, heavy metal, batteries, and electronic waste.

- Collecting and transporting over six tons of materials for recycling last year. The amount they recycled weighed about as much as 24 full-sized refrigerators.

- Providing employees with environmental education and opportunities to lead environmental change.

- Establishing a culture of shutting off lights in the hallway and unoccupied rooms, such as the server, storage and mail rooms, and installing bathroom light-motion sensors.

- Promoting reuse by stocking the break room with dishes and silverware donated by employees and making scratch pads of previously used paper.

In 2014 the NOAA Guam office became the first federal facility thus far in the Pacific Territories to join the Federal Green Challenge. Prior to that, the Guam office, located at 3232 Hueneme Road, was already an environmental leader. In 2000, it won the Clean Energy Innovations Award for the construction of an environmentally-friendly “green building” that featured a solar water heater, recycled building materials, and energy-efficient lighting.

The Federal Green Challenge is a national effort challenging federal agencies to lead by example in reducing the Federal Government's environmental impacts. In 2015, 290 participating facilities reduced their environmental footprints to cut greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of taking 518.000 passenger cars off the road for a year, and saved an estimate $21 million in avoided waste disposal and utility costs.

EPA is also celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and the tremendous impact this groundbreaking federal environmental law has had and will continue to have. RCRA protects human health and our environment from hazardous and solid wastes, and advances Sustainable Materials Management.

For more information on the Federal Green Challenge, please visit: http://www.epa.gov/fgc
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