Go Green, Get Healthy: An Agencywide Effort to Reduce Energy Use and Move the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention toward Sustainability.

Americans look to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to lead by providing an example of healthy people in healthy environments. Recognizing the synergy between environmental health and personal health and well-being, the CDC formed the Go Green, Get Healthy (GGGH) initiative. The GGGH rolls healthier worksite initiatives, quality-of-work-life programs, and internal environmental protection efforts into a coordinated campaign for widespread cultural change with energy conservation as one of the major goals. The CDC hopes that this success will be a model for other agencies and organizations. The Office of Sustainability at the CDC actively engages the entire agency in environmental stewardship and specifically, energy conservation (in the GGGH initiative) by providing a vision with leadership support, education for every individual, effective communication methods, and a robust tracking system for comprehensive data and feedback. The campaign works effectively by breaking down the task of greening the agency into sectors. Each sector needs support of CDC leadership and work of responsible offices, complimented by the grassroots dedication of individuals in the GGGH workgroups and collaborative external partnerships. Several low/no-cost examples are included to demonstrate progress toward a sustainable CDC and these can be used to help other organizations discover a greener and healthier model for their sustainability and conservation efforts with a minimal outlay of funds. Through physical changes, culture changes, and policy/operational changes, energy and water can be saved. This paper seeks to convey the following main learning points: (1) identify low/no-cost ways to reduce energy and water consumption; (2) describe ways to influence workers to adopt more sustainable behaviors; and (3) discuss ways to integrate energy-management decision-making processes and standard operating procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]