How FEMP Saves the Government Money by Cutting Energy Waste in Federal Facilities and Fleets

MARY SOTOS: The federal government. Collectively, across our 30-plus agencies, we are the largest energy consumer in the US. The government has more than 350,000 buildings, more than 600,000 vehicles. All of those different assets are using energy all the time. Why do agencies have these buildings? Why do they have these fleets? It's to complete critical services for the American people. Agencies also have an opportunity to use their collective procurement power to change what utilities are actually delivering on site.

And by changing the way that the energy comes to facilities, the way it's used, it actually can start to move markets. At FEMP, we empower energy excellence. We partner closely with the national labs to create world-class, innovative tools to help you understand, as agencies, some of the best solutions. FEMP has off-the-shelf tools, as well as technical assistance, pilot projects to help answer some of those key questions. You also have to actually procure things. You have to actually execute projects. So we work closely with the private sector, public-private partnerships.

You'll see that there are positive examples, case studies, places where there are innovations, breakthroughs, things that are working really well. FEMP is here to lift up those case studies, and especially to lift up those energy champions. It's a critical part of our theory of change. Increase resilience, decrease costs. None of that's going to happen without some real champions in every agency at every site across the world. So why does this energy work matter for all of us? It matters because all of us are a part of the public infrastructure that is federal service.

We have an opportunity to save taxpayer's money and to help that money go towards important operational activities. When we look to any level of government, city, state, federal, it should be a model of the best of what we can do, the best of our values, the best of operational efficiency, and demonstrating leadership.

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