Top row: Melissa Fatni, USPTO; Lisa Langrell, USPTO; Matthew Carriveau, NOAA; Milicent Alexander, Census; Chante’ Sawyers, Census; Christine Smith, NOAA; Dan Schmidt, NIST; Phil Weber, USPTO
Bottom row: Giselle Tapia, USPTO; Jason Austermann, NIST; Jessica Caraway, NIST; Kyona Shorter, Census; Mark Liau, NIST; Sara Morse, NIST; Scott Ingalls, NOAA

The Department of Commerce Energy and Environmental Stewardship Awards Program recognizes personnel who have gone above and beyond to promote energy efficiency, environmental stewardship, and sustainability. Please join us in congratulating the following recipients of the 2022 Department of Commerce Energy and Environmental Stewardship Awards:

CATEGORY: Energy and Water Conservation Project

WINNER: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Physical Measurement Laboratory, Quantum Electromagnetics Division, Quantum Sensors Group, Boulder, CO

DOC Team Members: Dan Schmidt, Jeff van Lanen, Jason Austermann, Jessica Caraway, Sara Morse

Recognized for the design and implementation of a successful freshwater conservation project.  By using largely existing NIST infrastructure, existing capacity in a closed loop of recycled cooling water, and minimal new hardware costs, this project is saving an estimated 3.6 million gallons per year of fresh water.  When combined with other new water systems upgrades within the Quantum Sensors Group, the site will save an estimated 8.9 million gallons per year when compared to previous standard practices, in addition to reducing water and maintenance bills. 

RUNNER UP: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/NMFS/SWFSC, La Jolla, CA

DOC Team Members: Matthew Vogel, Martin Navarro, Matthew Carriveau

Recognized for designing and installing new equipment for the Aquarium life-support system that uses filtered seawater instead of potable water for backwashing sand filters. Upgrading the system reduces potable water consumption and wastewater discharge, both which are better for the environment, while also reducing annual operating costs. This upgrade enables the facility to save ~400,000 gallons of potable water per year - a 20% decrease in total potable water consumption for the facility – and utilities and operations/maintenance of ~$11,400 per year.

CATEGORY:  Environmental Stewardship Project

WINNER: National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, Office of Oceanic & Atmospheric Research, Global Monitoring Laboratory, Utqiagvik, AK

DOC Team Members: Scott Ingalls, Christine Smith, Brian Vasel

Recognized for completion of the NOAA Barrow Atmospheric Baseline Observatory, the northernmost LEED-certified building in the U.S. Arctic and demonstrating the ability to build a sustainable Federal research facility in one of the most challenging locations in the country. 

CATEGORY:  Environmental Stewardship Program

WINNER: United States Patent and Trademark Office, Office of Administrative Services, Alexandria, VA

DOC Team Members: Lisa Langrell, Melissa Fatni, Phil Weber, Candido Rodriguez, Giselle Tapia

Recognized for sending zero waste to landfills in FY 2021 by reusing and recycling furniture, electronic equipment, and appliances; transferring surplus property to GSA for reuse, redistribution, or recycling; donating surplus electronics to local area schools and other government agencies; transferring all non-hazardous waste to a local energy-from-waste facility; and recycling all plastic, cans, paper, and cardboard. The USPTO diverted nearly 130 tons of waste from their Alexandria, VA facility, achieving a 43% waste diversion for FY2021, and diverted 171 tons of waste to the local energy-from-waste facility that would have been sent to a landfill.

RUNNER UP: United States Census Bureau, Policy Coordination Office, Records Management Branch, Suitland, MD

DOC Team Members: Chante Sawyers, Trung Nguyen, Davon Bryant, Kyona Shorter, Milicent Alexander

Recognized for reducing the Census Bureau's paper footprint by 80% in preparation for a new interactive, digital work environment.  The Census Reimagined project was a specialized cleanup led by Records Management Branch (RMB) that coordinated the disposition and sensitive destruction of records to help the Census Bureau into a digital government.  The team worked with a local Energy-from-Waste (EfW) processing facility to submit 167 tons of CO₂ equivalent greenhouse gases in the form of waste destined for a landfill. This generated 91,850 kilowatt-hours of energy, enough to power 100 homes for a month. 

CATEGORY:  Contracting

WINNER: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Associate Director for Management Resources, Gaithersburg, MD

DOC Team Members: Adam Yuhas, Mark Liau, Patrick Murphy, David Fawley, Kathy Thomerson

Recognized for reforesting 35 acres of NIST’s Gaithersburg, MD campus to improve the quality of stormwater runoff that enters the Chesapeake Bay watershed.  At the end of FY2021, NIST awarded a contract to a small, disadvantaged contractor to plant 3,850 trees during the FY2022 tree planting season.  The trees will slow down the water's speed as it runs off of surfaces, help to decrease erosion, treat the water through increased water absorption in the soil, increase the absorption of greenhouse gases, improve the appearance of the NIST-G campus, and provide for a more diverse wildlife habitat.