KN: Thank You, Emily, and Thanks to Everyone for Calling in Today. We Have a Great Peer

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MOD: Hello and welcome to the [UNINT] Peer Learning Session. My name is Emily and I’ll be moderating today’s session. Before we begin we would like to mention a few technical details. This is a closed captioned event. You should see a closed caption window in the lower right of your screen. If you do not want this to display you may close that window. Please note that the phone and voice over IP lines will be muted during the session to minimize background noise, and to ensure that everyone can clearly hear the presenters. However, there will be ample time to ask questions. You can submit your questions at any point during the conference and they will be answered during Q&A in the middle and end of the presentation. Please type your questions in the ‘notes’ tab, located on the right side of your screen, or you can click the ‘send note’ button on your top toolbar, where you see the pencil and pad icon, to type your questions. Address your notes to ‘presenters’ and these questions will be posed to the presenters for the benefit of the entire group. If you wish to ask your question verbally and are connected to the audio by phone, just dial *1 on your phone during the Q&A period and you’ll be notified when your line is unmuted so that you can ask your question. If your question is answered before it is your turn in the queue, just press *1 again and that will take you back out of the queue. At this time I would like to introduce Katie Newcomb.

KN: Thank you, Emily, and thanks to everyone for calling in today. We have a great peer learning webinar for you. We’ll be covering the topics of energy and sustainability leadership. We’ll start with a look at the sustainability leadership on the Tongass National Forest; learn about the Energy Cost and Consumption Reduction Plan; hear about lessons learned; and what the GHD tracking team is up to; and then finally we’ll finish with a talk about leadership and sustainable operations tool.

So our first speaker for today is Michelle Parker. She is the Environmental Engineer and the Tongass Green Team co- chair. And so I’d like to introduce Michelle whenever you’re ready.

MP: Thanks, Katie. Today I’d like to talk to you about sustainability leadership on the Tongass National Forest. Next slide. So what does sustainable leadership mean to the Tongass, and to everyone? The Forest Service seeks to create a management climate that reduces barriers to sustainable operations and integrates sustainable habits into the Forest Service culture. And since reducing the environmental footprint of the Forest Service begins at the forest level, the Tongass is committed to being a leader in sustainable operations. This means that all Tongass employees and all employees should start to be modeled for the best sustainable practices. Next slide please.

So how does the Tongass demonstrate sustainable leadership? Well we do this through our Green Team. We create an action plan, approved by leadership annually, which connects the top down to the bottom up. We also recommend one to three Tongass focused actions per fiscal year to achieve forest- wide participation and performance, connecting the top down. This year the Tongass is requesting all units to commit to completing the three actions shown on the screen: shutting off lights, computers, every night; designating a staff person to make sure we’re in compliance – essentially powering it down. Taking steps to reduce the junk mail we receive at work. And then purchasing 100% post-content recycled paper. We also report annually on sustainable operation accomplishments. Next screen please.

So how does the Tongass demonstrate sustainable leadership? Well we encourage sustainable practices. We engage in regular communications. And we produce educational documents. We provide updates on staff meetings, regularly at our monthly safety meetings we share sustainable operations trainings, we focus on the footprint areas of the month, and we also report on our accomplishments. We do this through our environmental footprint reports. Our first one was published in 2010 and it discussed the six footprint areas: energy, water, fleet and transportation, waste prevention, and recycling, green purchasing and sustainability leadership. So in that report we established our baseline, we conducted a greenhouse gas inventory for fiscal year 2007, we were a part of the EPA Climate Leaders program. So then we also discussed our successes and how we wanted to move forward. We just recently finished working on our second report, and this covered stuff that we had accomplished since 2010, through fiscal year 2012. And in this report we show our greenhouse gas inventory that we completed for fiscal year 2008, and then our second one for fiscal year 2011. And that was done using the GSA carbon footprint tool. Next slide please. 411717

We also host sustainability events like Power It Down days and forest wide sustainability challenges. Last year we had a pilot across Region 10 where three offices in the Tongass and three in the Chugach participated. And everyone turned off their computers for a weekend. Next slide. And the results showed how much energy we do waste by leaving on equipment. We were able to see a reduction of a little over 24% and the numbers showed that if all Tongass offices powered it down every night, we could save almost $78,000 annually, which is a huge amount. Next slide.

So we also came up with tips to give out to employees because the number one thing is employees complain how long it takes the computers to reboot in the morning. So we tried to give them a list of ideas that they could do. Settle in for your day. You know, power it on and then go hang up your coat or sweater, wash your hands, put your lunch in the refrigerator, fill your water bottle, grab some coffee or tea. You can prepare your workspace, file something, listen to your voice mails or return some calls, prepare your mind, do some reading, check in with your supervisor or your employees, make a to do list, and then last, engage your community. You could go empty recyclable paper, refill copiers or printers, water your plants. Next screen please.

So another thing we do is have Sustainability Challenge. This year we’re going to conduct the Get Your Green On, Summit Mount Edgecumbe Footprint Reduction Contest, and this is going to start on Earth Day, April 22nd, and run until May 31st. This is a new contest, on the Tongass, and it was adopted from the Rocky Mountain Research Station. So the contest aims to change habits, increase awareness, encourage the adoption of green activities on a daily basis. This contest will have weekly and one time green actions during the three, the six weeks that it will be run, and the office that has the greatest percentage of participation will receive a $500 micro grant. Next slide.

So what can you do to promote sustainability leadership on your unit? Well, you can volunteer to join your unit’s Green Team, or you could start one. You can participate in your monthly safety meetings and share information on sustainable operations. You can review communications that have been produced by your Green Team or the Sustainable Operations Collective. Share what you know about your Green Team’s sustainable operations with your colleagues and neighbors. Share ideas that you have for making operations more sustainable. Support your Green Team’s efforts by doing your part, and you can also start or participate in a sustainable initiative like the Summit Mount Edgecumbe we just talked about. Recycling programs, programs with local schools, Power It Down days, and Earth Day initiatives. Next screen.

So we have lots of information on our Tongass Green Team web site. There’s also the Forest Service’s Sustainable Operations Internal Demonstration web site, and feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

KN: Thanks so much, Michelle. And if it works for you, Michelle, we’ll have the next two speakers go and then take questions for both groups.

MP: That sounds great, Katie.

KN: Okay, thank you. So our next speakers are Laurie Yeager and Kayli Barber. Laurie is a facilities engineer on the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests, and Kayli is a facilities engineer on the Umpqua National Forest. And they’ll be talking to us about the Energy Cost and Consumption Reduction Plan. So Laurie, whenever you’re ready.

LY: Okay, thanks, Katie. And I’m going to do the first few slides and then I’ll transition over to Kayli. And I’m talking today about the Energy Cost and Consumption Reduction Plan that is in the works for the Forest Service. So if you can go to the next slide, Katie? Okay, so why do we have, why do we go down this path to put together a cost and, Energy Cost and Consumption Reduction Plan for the agency? Well, in order to make a dent in our $27.5 million energy bill, it, we thought it would be a good idea to kind of get that information out there and make folks aware of it, because most managers don’t know how much their units spend on energy on an annual basis. There is also a recent emphasis on reducing our cost pools, of which our utility bill is a big chunk of that. Local champions drive our energy reduction measures, so there is a need to coordinate and prioritize those actions to help achieve our agency goals. And one of the big aspects of getting that data is getting, having access to accurate utility data. And we 411717

also needed to engage across the different stovepipes in the agency to decrease our consumption. And focus on key steps to make progress. So the purpose of the plan was really to provide coordination across the stovepipes so that we can manage our energy costs and consumption. And it’s not an exhaustive list of all of the energy consumption reduction efforts that are going on across the agency. So next slide please.

So what is the Energy Cost and Consumption Reduction Plan? What it does is it helps us meet our legal requirements, identified here through these executive orders and laws that are aimed at the federal government energy reduction strategy. It’s to coordinate existing work, identify roles and responsibilities as well as gaps and how we can close those, to track progress. Basically it allows us to divide and conquer and get the correct subject matter experts engaged. Next slide please.

So these are the four goals of the plan: to provide easy access to accurate, transparent energy cost and consumption data; to increase energy cost and consumption awareness across the agency; and to provide organizational capacity; and to implement reduction measures. So the plan is an integrated approach to these goals. Next slide please.

So how this is an example of one of the actions that’s in the Energy Cost and Consumption Reduction Plan under, and this action is under the Increased Energy Cost and Consumption Awareness goal. And what it does here is it emphasizes the partnership that we are developing with the CSO as well as a number of other programs that are, that we are working together with to raise awareness across the agency and recently our first Cost and Consumption Communications newsletter went out and hopefully you saw that either through your sustainable ops network or your climate change coordinator channels. So next slide please.

And now Kayli’s going to take over and discuss the rest of the plan.

KB: Hi. So, so we wanted to get different stack areas involved in this plan. [INTERRUPTED] office engineering, budget –

KN: Kayli, this is Katie. Sorry to interrupt, you’re cutting out a little bit, I don’t know if you’re on a cell phone. KB: Okay. I’m not, I’m on a landline –

KN: Okay. Just keep going and we’ll do our best.

KB: Okay. Business operations and the Sustainable Operations Collective and the CIO is also an involved stack area. The stack areas interact on various levels for individualized actions. And for – individualized actions structured within the energy reduction plan. As executive staff members with high leadership roles in a steering committee with additional agency leaders [INTERRUPTED] –

KN: Are you still there, Kayli?

KB: Yeah, can you hear me?

KN: I can now, yeah, did you want me to go to the next slide?

KB: Yes, next slide.

KN: Okay.

KB: I’m so sorry, everyone. So as Laurie said before, there’s four goals or, as we call them in the plan, there’s four major steps. That’s to provide easy access to accurate consumption data, to [INTERRUPTED] consumption awareness, provide organizational capacity, and to implement energy and cost reduction measures. And examples of how we’re doing those major steps, for the easy access to accurate consumption data, NSC has recently awarded the [INTERRUPTED] awarded a contract to a web based vendor called Amaresco to run a utility bill management system [INTERRUPTED] Billing will become automated with information capture technologies that will provide faster access to accurate data. For energy cost and consumption awareness, talked about we have a communications [INT] that is targeted towards our leadership but it also trickles down to others [INT] – capacity, we’re working on a series of trainings geared towards [INT] – tracking tools. For implementing cost reduction measures, we’re [INT] – power it down implementation plans, renewable [INT] – Are you hearing me better?

KN: It just keeps cutting out. I don’t know why. Are you on a headset maybe?

KB: I’m not on a headset, I’m on a regular phone. 411717

KN: Okay.

KB: Let me try to change my – because I grabbed somebody else’s phone so I could mute it, but I’ll change to my other phone.

KN: Okay, thanks Kayli, and thanks everyone for your patience. [LONG PAUSE] Thanks everyone for hanging in there through the technical difficulties. I think Kayli will be right back. [LONG PAUSE] So thanks again, everyone. Kayli’s now going back in. Emily, did you – was that you?

MOD: No.

KN: Okay, she should be back in just a minute.

MOD: And she’s back.

KN: Okay. Are you ready, Kayli? Yes, that’s great. Thanks so much. [APPROXIMATELY 3 MINUTES SILENCE]

KB: -- on our progress and provided training and direction to leadership, Sustainable Operations coordinators and energy managers. Next slide.

So how the plan can help all of you, it’s going to avoid duplication and achieve organizational efficiencies. The members of this plan are working to provide more web based tools to support actions such as utility cleanup efforts, to track costs and consumption utility data, faster and more accurately; to support success of sustainable operations goals and getting to ‘yes’ on the Climate Change Scorecard; and to provide a platform to engage leadership in efforts that have been made and to garner support for continuing efforts in our energy cost and consumption. Next slide.

And how you can help is to continue to engage in the energy conservation efforts that I’m sure many of you have participated in, with utility bill cleanup, the Scorecard Action Items, micro grants, personal commitment to conserve, and to empower others. And the energy reduction plan is a living document, and if you have ideas for further efficiencies, conservation and renewable actions, I encourage you to email me on, my email’s on the next slide, and we’ve, we can definitely take some of those ideas and incorporate them into the plan. And it’s the actions of everyone that this plan started in the first place, so continue to provide feedback to the Sustainable Operations group.

KN: Thanks so much –

KB: I’ll turn it back to Katie.

KN: Thanks so much, Kayli. I appreciate your time. And Laurie too. So we have to time for just one or two questions. If you guys have questions for Michelle, Laurie or Kayli, please press *1 on your phone or type it into the notes and we can take one or two. Emily, are there any questions over the phone?

MOD: I am not seeing any questions.

KN: Okay. I don’t see any over the notes either. So Kayli are you available to stick around till the end and answer questions if there are any?

KB: Absolutely.

KN: Okay. Thanks so much. Okay. So now I’ll move on to our next topic, the Greenhouse Gas Tracking Team Tools and Pilot. The speakers are Michelle Parker who you heard earlier, and then Lara Polansky, the Acting National Sustainable Operations Program Manager. And I believe Lara will be speaking first, so whenever you’re ready?

LP: Great. Thanks so much, Katie. Go ahead and flip to the next slide please. So we’re going to tell you a little story now, it spans about two years plus worth of time. Starting with some background information, walking you through some initial pilot work that was done, and finally leading into the description of three new pilots that are building on the initial pilot. So you’re going to hear about two sets of pilots that, you know, they span multiple years.

So in response to growing scientific concern over the increase in greenhouse gas emission, and the negative impact on the environment, we saw the two [UNINT] orders come out – 13423, 13514. Need for [UNINT] to begin focusing on greenhouse gas emissions within the federal sector. Those of you who work within Sustainable Operations even as a [UNINT] these executive orders. Next slide please. 411717

So Executive Order 13423, [UNINT] the Bush administration, was titled ‘Strengthening Federal Energy and Transportation Management.’ That was signed on January 24, 2007. And then in 2009, President Obama signed Executive Order 13514, which said, agencies must quote establish and report to the White House Council on Environmental Quality, or CEQ as you will often hear it, Chair, and Offices of Management and Budget or OMB Director, a comprehensive inventory of absolute greenhouse gas emissions. So that means scope one, scope two, and scope three. So I want to decode this language a little bit for those who are not quite greenhouse gas gurus.

First of all, absolute emissions? Means your overall quantity as opposed to relative emissions, which would be normalized by sun factor. So sometimes you hear, x metric tons of CO2. Or sometimes you hear x metric tons of CO2 per full time employee or per gross square foot. Here we’re just talking about the absolute value. Scopes one, two and three are depicted in the figure at the bottom of the screen. So your scope one are your direct emissions. Scope two are indirect, so that would be an example where you purchase electricity, you’re using it within your facilities, you aren’t actually producing that electricity, nor do you have the property or control over where it is, but you are using it, therefore it becomes part of your scope two profile. And scope three you can think of almost as indirect indirect emissions. But they’re still within our footprint. So this would be something like employee commuter travel. Or air and a [UNINT] business travel. These are things that employees do but generally outside of the office walls. Next slide please.

So I mentioned that we were going to talk a little bit about pilot studies. The Forest Service completed National [UNINT] Greenhouse Gas inventories in fiscal year ’10 through ’12. But most of this data reported in these inventories, such as air and ground business travel, and aggregated regionally or nationally. And so it’s sufficiently (granular), it’s not detailed enough to daylight unit level trends. So this meets our requirement under Executive Order 13514, but it doesn’t help a unit, a forest or grassland, or a district, understand what their emissions profile is, and therefore develop an [EDISA]plan that is specific [UNINT]. In response to this need, in fiscal year ’12, the Greater Yellowstone Area or GYA, and the Tongass National Forest, partnered with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory or NREL to conduct a pilot study of three greenhouse gas inventory tools in a play space scale. And here you see the pilots screen the three tools. So one was a GSA carbon footprint tool. Another was this pilot leadership in parks or CLIP tool that had already been used by the National Park Service. And then the final was called Greenhouse Gas Track, GHG track, and this was a tool for [UNINT] carbon solutions. Next slide please.

So why a pilot. Well, our pilot partners identified a need for a play space study for the following three reasons. One was that their past experiences with greenhouse gas inventories indicated a need for one tool to be used across land management agencies in order to consistently report greenhouse emissions. You can imagine that each one of these tools has different assumptions that are happening behind the scenes. Different emissions factors that go into the quantities that you see essentially spit out on the other end of the black box. And so there’s some value to standardization. A second reason is that annual data collection is quite frankly burdensome, and reporting is resource intensive. So in order to streamline the process, and this is number three, and ease the burden, an effective tool was sought for [UNINT] agency greenhouse gas accounting. So rather than be trying to gather data in multiple streams, some from the field, some from our corporate databases, just kind of bundle it into a massive Excel spreadsheet, is there another way that we could be compiling this information. Next slide please.

Which is where the initial pilot idea came from. So if you’ve ever wondered about the size of your unity’s carbon footprint, you might look into the Lessons Learned document that was prepared by NREL. This was a document that was also worked on by the Greenhouse Gas Tracking Team under the SusOps Collective. And in it you get a whole set of lessons learned about each one of the tools that was just discussed a couple of slides ago. The pros and the cons, the types of data fields that exist, and the lessons learned document is posted at, actually at a hyperlink you can get to through this slide, and these slides will be posted within one to two weeks on the Sustainable Operations SharePoint site. Next slide please.

So this is an example of the top down greenhouse gas inventory approach. I mentioned before, there is a, the 411717

National Greenhouse Gas Inventory is conducted in a top down manner. All the pilots that we just discussed focus on enhancing the process of bottom up recording. But for the top down you see here, totally US Forest Service Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Metric Tons, CO2 Equivalent, by Fiscal Year. And you’re actually seeing a downward trajectory between fiscal year 2010 and fiscal year 2012, which is a story that we do like to share visually, with the caveat that the information that goes into this top down inventory is imperfect and is from some data sources in corporate data systems that were not initially designed for the purpose of this inventory. So it’s important to remember those nuances behind the scenes. And with that I’ll hand it over to Michelle Parker as our Greenhouse Gas Tracking Team Co-lead.

MP: Next slide, please, Katie? Thanks, Lara. So this slide also shows the top down greenhouse gas inventory of the national fiscal year 2012, and you can see by this, the highest category is building energy. Actually it’s fleet. Fleet is the highest category with 37.6% and 136,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. Second is building energy. And third, employee commuting comes in at almost a fourth of our emissions. Next slide please, Katie.

So what are some of our data challenges in the top down greenhouse gas inventory? Well, a lot of the reporting reflects on data that we have historically tracked in our corporate databases. Our financial systems were designed in the 1970s as accounting systems. They’ve been used for decades to track agency energy costs and consumption, but they don’t always give us the exact data that we’re looking for. So they’re unable to meet all of our needs. Another challenge is that there isn’t really a system out there that can track employee commuting in a way that allows us accurate reporting, so we’ve relied on surveys to do that. And then once we have the data, it’s really difficult to aggregate the national data down to the field level to where it can really be useful. Next slide please.

So that’s why we’re looking at doing this bottom up pilot, the Greenhouse Gas Inventory. We’re looking at doing it at a facilities level where we can gather the data from local acquisition and billing records, conduct our data entry and calculations using greenhouse gas inventory tools. And we’re going to be piloting the GSA carbon footprint tool, we’ve already been started collecting our data for the fiscal year ’12 inventories. And the three pilots are the Stevensville Ranger District on the Bitterroot National Forest, the Northern Research Station on the Chequamegon, and the Ketchikan Ranger District on the Tongass. And as we talked about earlier, the Tongass also did a forest wide inventory for fiscal year ’08 and ’11, using the GSA carbon footprint tool. For fiscal year ’12 we’re just going to look at the Ketchikan Ranger District. Next slide please.

So our objective in conducting this pilot, comparing the top down results from our national inventory with these bottom up, we hope to compare results where we are able, but more importantly we want to be looking at the processes for getting that data. We want to identify data gaps and barriers so we can improve the accuracy of play space greenhouse gas inventory tracking. We want to strengthen the connection between the field level and the national inventories. And we want to promote two way information sharing. Next slide please.

So what’s in it for you? Well, all forests are being asked to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and learning from a greenhouse gas inventory pilot will directly help support us in accomplishing Climate Change Scorecard Element number 10. And specifically we can look at one of the action items, under Sustainability Leadership Action Item number 12, which asks, has your unit computed the greenhouse gas emissions associated with one unit leadership team meeting, and used this information to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for subsequent meetings? Next slide.

Also developing mitigation plans is a great tool. This shows an example of what the Tongass National Forest did, a fact sheet that they put together on doing that, just figuring out the greenhouse gas emissions from one meeting. The Tongass has meetings four times a year. This meeting was held in Hoonah, Alaska with 20 different employees. So we calculated the greenhouse gas emissions for that meeting, and then we looked at how they could use that information to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of future meetings by having more virtual meetings, picking central locations, staying at a bunkhouse, sharing a room. Tips such as that were given in this fact sheet. Next slide.

And here’s Lara and mine information for any questions that you might have after this webinar. Thank you. 411717

KN: Thanks so much, Lara and Michelle. That’s great information. I can’t wait to see the results of the next pilot. So we have time for a couple questions if you guys have questions for Lara and Michelle about the greenhouse gas tracking team. Press *1 on your phone to ask a question over the phone or type it into your notes on the computer. Emily, are there any questions over the phone?

MOD: I am not seeing any questions at this time.

KN: Okay. We have a quiet bunch today. So I think Lara has to sign off if I’m correct, is that right Lara?

LP: That’s correct, Katie. Thanks so much for the opportunity to speak today.

KN: Yup, thanks for your time. And Michelle will be here to answers questions about this at the end if you guys have any questions for them. So the next topic is LISO, Leadership in Sustainable Operations. And we have once again Michelle Parker presenting today. Sarah Baker is the co-lead on the LISO team with Michelle but she was unable to be here. So Michelle, thanks for speaking so much today. Whenever you’re ready.

MP: Sure. Next slide, Katie, please. So welcome to LISO, Leadership in Sustainable Operations. LISO provides an online platform that employees can use to post or view sustainable operation projects. You can do this through a combination of self-reporting and success stories. So LISO allows a unit to self-report their progress in all six of the footprint areas. You can obtain a LISO rating of either gold, silver or bronze. You can develop reports and action plans. You can also use this tool to share sustainability success stories. And we will not be discussing that in this webinar but I just wanted to throw it out there that you can also do that. Next slide please.

So why should you use LISO? Well, it would be great if all units did use LISO, because a need exists to better define what constitutes a yes versus a no, when you’re filling out Climate Change Scorecard element number 10 for sustainable operations. Summarizing the responses would be a lot easier and more meaningful if all the units responded consistently using a tool such as LISO. And we’ll talk about how you can do that later on. So LISO includes those Climate Change Scorecard element number 10, those 66 action items, plus many more. So let’s find out how you can start using LISO today. Next slide.

So here’s a screen shot of LISO and the web address is down at the bottom. So once you log in you have the option of choosing self-reporting or sustainability story. And so those, let’s say we chose self-reporting. That would bring up this screen, ‘Getting Started,’ and this shows you all the different options you have then within self-reporting. You can input progress here for your unit, that’ll allow you to answer those action item questions for all six footprint areas. You can look at another unit’s progress. You can search region, stations, areas, look down to the district level to see how another unit is doing. You can access tools for any green actions. If you need help with a particular action you can link to tips, resources, manual direction policy. You can find out how the Green Point scoring works. Or other information about the Climate Change Scorecard. You can also develop or look at action plans. There are templates there as well. And you can report. There are numerous reports that we’ll talk about later, looking at your unit’s progress or how you rank against your peers. And then there’s a FAQ section that gives you answers to frequently asked questions. So next slide.

Okay, so let’s say that we did the self-reporting and now we’re going to input progress to report for our unit. So we would take that, next slide. And LISO would ask you then to select a fiscal year for your reporting, so if we’re reporting for this year we can put 2013. Select your region, station or area. For myself, I selected the Alaska Region. Select forest, unit, I put down the Tongass. And since I’m going to be reporting at that forest level, the Tongass, I’m going to leave the district or subunit blank. And then you hit continue. Next slide please, Katie.

So then that brings up where you need to log in to LISO because you’re going to be reporting data. So this user name and password is what you use for your Lotus Notes, or same time user name and password. So you enter that, and hit log in. Next slide please. So then that brings you to the screen shot of LISO’s self-reporting. So here you have the six different footprint areas, the tabs at the top. It starts off on energy. If like for the Tongass I have filled out LISO before so I have results from fiscal year ’12, I can choose to duplicate my previous fiscal year responses. 411717

And this is a really huge timesaving thing and it’s great, but that’s part of LISO right now. So I would probably choose to do that, but just know if you do, that it’ll overwrite any existing information that you had for this record. If you also need to make other changes or you’re starting from scratch, you can answer your questions by answering yes, your unit has completed the green action on or before the fiscal year; no, your unit has not attempted this green action this fiscal year; in progress means this fiscal year your unit took steps toward completing the green action but has not yet completed it; sometimes partial credit is available for certain green actions and those are designated with a star symbol. And you can also hit non-applicable, and that would be for green action items like under fleet and transportation for the Tongass, alternative fueling stations, if they’re not in your geographic area, you can hit not applicable. Next slide please.

Okay well that shows what we just talked about, the yes/no/in progress/not applicable. You also can specify actions or comments for each of these action items, and it’s really important that you hit that link once you hit the, specify actions or comments, it asks you to specify the actions, list the completion year, project scope and add or edit your comment. So if you want to come back and change what you wrote you’re able to do that or add more information to it. For example, the question number one has the initial utility bill cleanup been completed and has your unit identified the top energy facilities? You can answer yes to that, and then under specify actions or comments, you could add that yes, we’ve completed all of our, we’ve completed 20% of our utility, or we’ve completed all of our utility bill cleanup and have identified top energy using facilities. You can write the completion year, if you did that in 2009 and have done it each year since, so you could add through 2013. And under project scope, we would write the Tongass National Forest and so that would be our project scope. Next slide please.

So it’s really important, once you’ve answered all your questions, remember, we haven’t talked about this but you can choose to only answer the climate change scorecard action item, only those 66, and those are all marked with a ‘CC’ before them, or you can choose to answer all the action items. Once you’ve finished with one footprint area, it’s very important that you finalize that footprint area. So down at the bottom, you’re asked to finalize it. You hit the button and it’ll give you a message saying congratulations, your unit has completed the self-reporting for energy. And if you have problems when you run reports, go back and make sure that you have completed and finalized all the six footprint areas. Okay, next slide please.

So now we would go into reporting, so you would back up and hit reporting. And this shows you all the different ways you can report in LISO. There are I believe 12 different reports, and we’ll just go through them. The first one is an export data. It’s an Excel spreadsheet, which is really nice, that’ll give you all the raw data so you can manipulate it any way you want. The second one you can view your unit’s LISO progress. The third you can compare your unit with the average unit. The fourth is the Climate Change Scorecard element number 10 report. You can use this in lieu of Appendix G for submitting your responses on the Climate Change Scorecard reporting. The fifth is a LISO report which gives you details for your unit. Sixth is a Climate Change Scorecard progress report. Next slide, Katie.

The seventh shows you your Climate Change Scorecard progress averages. Shows you your average, specific climate change actions by fiscal year for all forests that have finalized reporting. The eighth is the Climate Change Scorecard performance analysis. This shows you a graph. And the ninth is the top ten climate change overall percentage yes by footprint area, so you can do the top ten performing units. The tenth report is the Climate Change Scorecard actions never attempted by reporting units, so that would, it’s a real good way to get some of this data to find out where units are struggling. The eleventh is green actions completed by most units, so you can view the top three most completed green actions, and they’re sorted by its footprint area. And then the last report that you can get is the green action plan.

So let’s look specifically at two of these reports. Next slide, Katie. So this is if you wanted to click on LISO report number four to view your unit’s Climate Change Scorecard element number 10 report, and that’s the report you can use in place of Appendix G. so the same thing, you’d select your fiscal year, region, station, area, and select your forest. And you can have it come out in a PDF, which is really nice for a report format, or an Excel file. And when the Tongass did this and submitted it for the 411717

Climate Change Scorecard, I submitted both formats, because it’s nice to have that report but it’s nice to have the raw data so that it could be manipulated easier by, like, the element 10 team. Next slide please.

So this shows you an example of what the report for the Tongass looked like for fiscal year ’12. It shows that yes, we have achieved a yes on the Climate Change Scorecard by reporting 79%, and it goes through all the Climate Change Scorecard action items per footprint area. It shows you the question, our response, and then the comments that we listed. So it’s a really nice document. Next screen.

And then this looks at LISO report number eight, the Climate Change Scorecard performance analysis report. And this report would show all forests that have finalized reporting, but since the Tongass was the only unit that had, this shows how the Tongass reported on the six different footprint areas. So instead it would show an average of all the forests. Next slide.

And then last I wanted to talk about action plans. You can also develop or look at action plans for your unit. So you can go back to the self-reporting tab but click on action [UNINT]. It gives you the option to develop or to look at an action plan, and you can also look at template action plans. We have three for fiscal year ’13 through ’15. If you’re not sure what to do on your unit you can check those out. Next screen.

Those you’re seeing the same information, you put your fiscal year, region, station, area, and your unit, and then click continue. So that’s the screen that comes up, with the view develop and the templates. Next screen. So if we chose to develop our action plan, and if you had previously developed an action plan, it’ll show responses from the last fiscal year. So you can see things that you’ve already checked and maybe they’re annual actions that need to keep happening, so you want to check them again, or maybe they’re one time actions that you’ve completed and you don’t need to include them when you develop your action plan and share it with management again. So it’s really handy to be able to see what you chose before. And you can go through and check. It also will give you a rating by LISO showing you if you’re a gold, silver or bronze. If you fill out all the action items when you report, and not just the Climate Change Scorecard items, LISO will give you a rating of gold, silver or bronze. And some of the reports will tell you how much further you have to go, for example going from a silver to a gold. So if you needed 15 more points when you’re developing this action plan, you could try and make sure that you, you know, target those 15 more points say in fleet and transportation to obtain a gold rating. Next screen please.

So there again is the LISO web site address, and we want to encourage all units to use LISO when reporting on a Climate Change Scorecard for element number 10, and to use it for all the action items in the future. And if you have any questions, Sarah and I are the co-leads of this team and we’d be happy to help you or walk your unit through using LISO when you first try it. But I really encourage everyone to give it a try, because as you can see we just touched on some of the capabilities, and it’s really a great system. Thanks, Katie.

KN: Thanks so much, Michelle. And I just wanted to highlight the next Peer Learning Series is Wednesday, May 1st, and we’ll be covering the Green Purchasing Tool Kit and Green Leasing and Realizing Cost Savings. And then I’ve put a link to the Peer Learning schedule for the rest of the fiscal year on the screen as well. And I wanted to just mention if you guys have ideas or topics that you’d like to cover on these webinars please feel free to shoot me, Katie Newcomb, an email. And now we’ll take questions for all of the speakers that have shared today, so if you have a question over the phone press *1 or type it into then notes.

MOD: And I do see that we have our first question.

KN: Okay, thanks.

MOD: [Satgar] go ahead.

MV: Hello, Katie. This is [Satgar]. My question is to Kayli and [UNINT] presentation. My question is about how the Forest Service, energy use [UNINT]. I heard on the slide that it is going to be used in [UNINT]. Is that correct or is that [UNINT].

KB: Hi [Satgar]. I just wanted to make sure I heard you correctly. Were you talking about the $27.5 million spent in fiscal year ’12? 411717

MV: Yeah, yeah, the slide said that we used that much in the buildings.

KB: Yeah, that, that – that number is based on what was spent on utilities in buildings.

MV: On buildings or total?

KB: I think it might be total. I, [Satgar], I have your email address. I would have to double check on that and I could get that answer to you.

MV: Okay. Thank you.

KB: And there may be a way to post that with the Climate Change Scorecard. I don’t want to answer incorrectly, I would have to look into that a little bit further.

MV: Welcome, thanks.

KB: I know that they did use, they did get that number, achieve that number by determining how much was spent and then there was some different calculations that were done by, for the greenhouse gas reporting, by dividing by an average energy cost number to get consumption, but what, one of the goals of the plan is to get some better capacity in determining what our consumption is, not just by, on what we spent, but by advance metering, this new program through NFC and other, some other, the utility bill audits. Those are how we really get our consumption data for different buildings. And, and Katie, I had an email that was a question. Would it be okay for me to go ahead and read that question and answer all this?

KN: Yeah, that’d be great, thanks, Kayli.

KB: Okay. I won’t name the person in case they didn’t want to say it in front of everyone but this says, my green team has found it fairly difficult to acquire utility bills from the companies, but they’ve now made contacts to do so on a regular basis and have a rigorous ongoing tracking process. Will the new automated system be made easily accessible at the ranger district level? I want to say congratulations to you for ongoing, doing an ongoing tracking process, because I think that’s really an important component to keep the momentum going on our energy savings. That is a really great question on whether or not this is going to be accessible on a ranger district level. The capabilities of this new system were it just got awarded, we’re in the conception stage of determining how we can best use that system as an agency, and that’s one of the reasons that we have this working group started. So that we can identify how we can use it with our other systems that we have in place. The, from what I’ve read about the vendor and what they’re capable of, a utility bill will be sent to them, they’ll run it through an automated system with the recognition software, they’re going to get the cost, the consumption, the meter number, and then how I understand it, our agency will be responsible for connecting our buildings to those meters. And one of the ways that we’re going to do that is, you know, looking at the utility audits that’ve already been done by multiple ranger districts and multiple forests. But, we, part of the energy reduction plan is defining, you know, what the best step is to use that new program to the best of its capability. And the work that we’ve already accomplished through our utility bill cleanups to make those connections so that in the field that it is easy to access, access that cost and consumption, so that we can identify more energy reduction measures.

KN: Thanks, Kayli.

KB: Sure.

KN: And then it looks like we have one more question on the phone?

MOD: No, that is the same person.

KN: Oh, okay. So I –

MV: I’m [UNINT] unmuted, I’m still unmuted.

KN: Did you have another question, [Satgar]?

MV: No, I did not, but I thought about that, but I noticed that I’m unmuted. I did not back click on that. I had, I mean, one question for Michelle on the LISO tool. I could not quite read it but on the audit of 20% of the buildings, I think I read that it’s [UNINT], 20% of the covered facilities had been audited. And I was wondering if that means they’re in [UNINT] requirements, because the Scorecard elements, they [UNINT] of all of them. 411717

MP: Yeah, so that’s action item number two, under energy, has your unit conducted comprehensive energy evaluations of covered facilities, is the Climate Change Scorecard question. And the Tongass had, we conducted 20% each year starting in 2009. So we do 20% each year and then that repeats.

MV: Oh, okay, so that has changed, [UNINT] asking. Michelle, I’m just curious, what is your next step now you know you are being [UNINT] emissions, you will start doing some projects?

MP: What projects are we moving forward on?

MV: No, I’m wondering, I mean, now you know in the more, in depth, for your unit, where your unit has [UNINT], and then, because the reduction [UNINT] has required some sort of action. So I’m wondering if the next step is, [UNINT], are you going to –

MP: Yeah, we, with our action plan we’ve looked at these energy and water audits that we’ve been conducting of our facilities, and so we’re moving forward with recommendations from those audits. Different ECMs that we’re doing on our buildings. You know, changing light fixtures, going to solar, biomass. We’re doing, working with our facilities and our energy managers on the forests and moving forward with items.

MV: And that’s – yeah, thank you.

MP: Sure.

KN: Thanks, Michelle.

MP: Yes.

KN: And again if you have a question press *1 or type it into the notes on the screen. Emily, are there any phone questions.

MOD: I am not seeing any further questions.

KN: Okay. And well thanks again to all of our speakers, you guys gave great presentations today. And for all of the participants this webinar was recorded and will be available in a couple of weeks on the SharePoint site. The link is included in the Peer Learning Series announcement. So thank you everyone for participating and thanks again to our speakers.

MOD: Thanks to our presenters and thanks so much for joining us today. This concludes our program. You may now disconnect.