Green Information Technology Strategic Plan - Departmental ...

5.0 OCIO Impact Areas
USDA’s large presence in rural America, where its county offices provide a direct interface to
farmers, ranchers and rural communities, provides the grassroots connection to enable USDA
to live out this vision.
Supporting Environmentally Responsible Technology at USDA
5.1
People
The area in which the OCIO can create the greatest green
impact is through the people it employs and the people
it serves. The United States Department of Agriculture
(USDA) is a diverse and complex organization with
programs that touch the lives of all Americans every day.
More than 100,000 employees deliver more than $75
billion in public services through USDA’s more than 300
programs worldwide, leveraging an extensive network of
Federal, State, and local cooperators. By incorporating
OCIO Green IT programs within USDA that interface
with UDSA employees, our country’s producers, with the
American population, we are able to create exponentially
larger green results. Keeping people off of busy roads and
enabling people to work and live in new ways will infuse
environmentally sound principles throughout the United
States.
5.1.1 Employees
USDA employs more than 100,000 people across the United
States and abroad. The OCIO Green IT Plan will directly
impact these employees through new initiatives and IT
innovations that change the way USDA employees do
business. As environmentally sustainable IT practices and
solutions shift the way USDA employees do work, employees
outside of the IT community will begin to understand the
benefits of functioning in a more environmentally conscious
manner. This ripple effect will hopefully carry over into
other aspects of employees’ lives and lead to a culture that
strives for green solutions to problems.
5.1.2 Customers
USDA’s vision is to be a dynamic organization that is able to
enhance agricultural trade, improve farm economies and
quality of life in rural America, protect the Nation’s food
supply, improve the Nation’s nutrition, and protect and
enhance the Nation’s natural resource base and environment.
USDA’s large presence in rural America, where its county
offices provide a direct interface to farmers, ranchers, and
rural communities, provides the grassroots connection to
enable USDA to live out this vision. Currently, our Nation’s
producers and rural families must drive to these county
offices in order to take advantage of the many programs
available to them. The USDA OCIO sees this as a
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