CDP Looks Forward to Savings Through Facility Projects

Government facilities nationwide continue to seek new strategies to save dollars and stretch smaller budgets. Over the past two years, the CDP Facilities staff has worked closely with the FEMA Energy Office to modernize systems throughout the 900,000 square feet of facilities on the CDP campus.

The Center's aim is to reflect the DHS Efficiency Review and create energy savings. In 2010, the DHS Strategic Sustainability Performance Plan was released. The plan highlights Executive Order 13514, outlining Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance. Inside the document, the President has made energy savings a priority in the United States Government.

The CDP upgrades include the modernization of critical infrastructure that heat and cool the facilities. In many cases, these new systems replace heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems that are in excess of 20-years-old.

The goal is to reduce consumption of electricity and natural gas throughout campus. Over the past two years, the CDP has completed several energy conservation projects. These projects were made possible thanks to collaboration with FEMA Support Services and Facilities Management Division.

"The CDP is striving to find attainable initiatives that create energy efficiencies and allow savings to influence training dollars for emergency responders," said Mike King, CDP Acting Superintendent. "These are lean times and we had to take a hard look at where we could save. The last thing we wanted to do was cut back on our resident training programs our state, local, and tribal responders depend on. We're following the DHS plan to create energy efficiencies that not only maintain our training programs, but create a stronger response community and protect the environment."

CDP training focuses on incident management, mass casualty response and emergency response to catastrophic natural disasters or terrorist acts. The center trains an average of 12,000 responders in its resident programs each year. The completed efficiency projects are projected to save $75,000 that the CDP can redirect towards training operations.

"The CDP continues to work with FEMA's Energy Office to update antiquated systems with new technology that creates more efficient energy consumption," said Bruce Bush, CDP Director of Business Operations. "We are fortunate to have such great support from both FEMA Facilities and the Energy Office. They conducted detailed energy assessments on each facility to ensure we are taking the right steps to modernize our infrastructure systems to further increase efficiencies and provide even more savings. We are working very closely with FEMA Headquarters to meet the energy reduction goals set out in Executive Order 13514."

The CDP has completed 10 energy conservation projects. Projects range from simple to sophisticated, such as motion-sensitive lighting, energy-efficient lighting, energy-efficient windows, energy-efficient boilers and chillers, as well as virtual computer servers that provide better service using fewer servers. All of these projects contribute to reducing the CDP's energy consumption.

Researching methods that save operating dollars allow organizations to direct those cost savings to other critical mission areas that could otherwise be impacted by funding shortages. The inclusion of energy efficiencies in operations permits the CDP to continue meeting national training needs, contributes to less energy consumption, and demonstrates the center's ability to reduce energy using modern methods that benefit the CDP's budget and the environment.