Green Information Technology Strategic Plan - Departmental ...

CO 2 emissions in tons fig. 16
NOTE:
The Agency uses four general ledger and five payment modules to support the farm payments system.
The carbon reduction found in these modules is documented on the Data Center Consolidation,
Application Consolidation, and ERP section of this plan.
—Paperwork
Current systems and processes require manual paper
applications, contracts and reporting for the majority of
the programs. It is estimated that the average number of
paper pages created by FSA for producers to apply, qualify,
contract, and report for the programs is 60 pages per year
per producer. An average of 1.5 million producers received
payments or benefits from FSA during FY2004 and FY2007.
Therefore, 110 million pieces of paper or 221,000 reams of
paper were consumed annually during FY 2004 through
2007 5 .
FSA annual costs associated with purchasing 221,000 reams
of paper are estimated to be $552,500 vi . In terms of the
carbon dioxide attributable to the consumption of paper
due to the large number of manually processes required
by the farm programs and the legacy system’s inability to
provide Internet capabilities, such as online application and
eligibility processes, etc., FSA estimates 1,570 tons in carbon
emissions annually.
The paper cost does not include the required storage of the
paper to meet the Federal document retention regulations
or the transportation of documents to a storage facility. By
allowing producers to submit program application forms
6,800
6,600
6,400
6,200
6,000
5,800
5,600
5,400
5,200
5,000
74
CO 2 Emission – Hosting
6,680
6,479
6,280
and/or other required documents electronically, accepting
electronic or digital signatures, and storing files electronically,
FSA will reduce the carbon footprint, conserve energy and
provide greater benefits to customers and society as whole.
—Producer’s Travel
On average most customers make 4 trips to the local county
office to conduct business with FSA vii . During these visits
producers normally submit and sign annual program
requirement documents, such as acreage reports, and/or
complete various farm program applications for benefit or
services throughout the applicable crop year.
FSA estimates that a producer’s average miles traveled per
visit is 36 miles round trip to the local County Office. Based
on 18 miles per gallon for the producer’s transportation viii at
$3.60 per gallon of fuel (based on October 2008 prices), the
total estimated cost of all the annual trips by the 1.5 million
producers is $47 million; generating an estimated 113,025
tons of carbon dioxide. As a rough estimate, using an hourly
wage for a producer at $16.04 per hour at two hours per visit
in travel and time; with 1.5 million producers the value of
the producer’s cost for 4 visits is an estimated $192.4 million
per year.
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
6,078
5,878
5,678
Green Information Technology Strategic Plan