Green Information Technology Strategic Plan - Departmental ...

Current measurement:
In this category, USDA spends approximately $420 million
annually on travel-related expenses (fig.4). The general
trend is increasing with an outlier in the estimate for FY08.
If USDA Agencies and staff offices were to remain consistent
in their travel, inflation due to fuel and labor would increase
the expense by approximately $60 million and projected
travel expense at $480 million. We estimate that the
FY2007 rate is over 1,500 tons of carbon per year for airline
and rental car travel.
Carbon Reduction Plan
For this measurement, USDA will only measure carbon
reduction due to air travel and rental cars (fig. 5). We will
not measure the impact in carbon reduction due to USDA
travelers in other areas directly affected by USDA travelers
including airports, personal vehicles, restaurants, and
hotels.
USDA and its Agencies are implementing Video over
IP at various levels of the organization. At the employee
level, small “eyeball” cameras with microphones on local
computers will be installed in many Agencies to help
facilitate online meeting and collaboration of policies,
50
fig. 5
ERS .................(1)
OGC .............. (2)
DA .................. (3)
OSEC .............. (6)
OCIO .............. (8)
GIPSA ............(13)
NASS .............(16)
FNS .............. (28)
RMA ...............(21)
0 – 50 Tons
101 – 150 Tons
FSIS .............. (52)
51 – 100 Tons
ARS ..............(104) FS .............(1,084)
151+ Tons
procedures, and implementations. At mid-level, Agencies
are implementing video over IP (VideoIP) conferencing
in major offices across the United States. At a high level,
USDA and its Agencies will be implementing seven High
Definition Video Conferencing rooms in areas where there
are major USDA employee populations.
—HD Video over IP
Carbon Output from Rental Cars by Agency Sample
Several of the Agencies and the Office of the CIO’s
International Technology Services are partnering to
implement High Definition Video over IP (HD VideoIP)
conference room at seven targeted locations across the
United States. These locations include major operations
for Forest Service, Rural Development, Farm Service
Agency, Agricultural Research Service, Natural Resources
Conservation Service, and Staff Offices.
HDVideoIP provides an environment that is conducive
to dynamic interaction and training in meetings. The
environment is designed with conference tables that
penetrate the screen and give the appearance that the group
conferencing into the location is sitting on the other side
of the table. The high definition provides a clear life-size
picture with digital sound. The digital picture and sound
are communicated through the USDA Networx data lines in
place for information technology data transfers.
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Green Information Technology Strategic Plan
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Tons