Agencies face many mandates to become more environmentally friendly: Reduce gasoline consumption in cars and trucks, lower water use and greenhouse gas emissions, and adopt more renewable energy sources, among others.So doesn't that save them lotsabucks?
But the mandate that agencies struggle with most is one to convert their existing buildings to meet green standards. That means decreasing energy use at hospitals and health clinics and reducing waste at laboratories. Agencies will also have to work to bring historic buildings, and even prisons, into compliance.
Shirley, the costs of those changes were compared to the benefits, and a savings was projected, right?
Those steps take money, and that's what agencies are increasingly short on. Of 20 agencies graded by the Office of Management and Budget on their compliance with green mandates, only seven met the 2010 mandate to have at least 5 percent of their buildings meet energy-efficient and sustainable standards.
Governments will have to choose, just like the rest of us. There never was a goose that laid golden eggs. This pic was obviously Photoshopped.