We value the comments of those we serve and appreciate any feedback you may have on our work. We will update this information regularly and, with your comments and lessons learned, we will review our vision statement.

Our Vision:A federal government that conducts its environmental, transportation, and energy-related activities in support of agency missions in an environmentally, economically and fiscally sound, integrated, continuously improving, efficient, and sustainable manner.

Our Mission: To promote sustainable environmental stewardship throughout the federal government to achieve this vision.

We define sustainable environmental stewardship to include those concepts, strategies, tools, practices, and approaches that lead to environmental improvement in a manner that is sustainable over time, considers the long term effects as well as the shorter term, more immediate effects, and that contributes positively, even if indirectly, to the social and economic condition.

The primary vehicle to implement this mission is Executive Order 13423, “Strengthening Federal Environmental, Energy, and Transportation Management.” This E.O. integrates a series of sustainable practices under one common vision for the Federal government.

• Encourage sustainable practices
• Identify and share success stories, best practices, and other tools to make sustainable practices easier to adopt and maintain
• Provide training, awareness, and outreach
• Assist in coordinating and advancing sustainability policies across agencies
• Publicly advocate and support sustainable practices and policies
• Measure and report on agencies' progress (working with the Office of Management and Budget on the scorecards)

Under E.O. 13423, the Federal Environmental Executive and the Office of Federal Environmental Executive work to provide clear national direction for federal agencies and help track the government's progress towards the goals and requirements of the order. The FEE chairs a Steering Committee composed of the Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the Administrator of the Office of Management and Budget's Office of Federal Procurement Policy, and senior agency officials.

OFEE advises the Federal agencies, makes recommendations concerning policy, facilitates implementation, provides a centralized focal point for assistance and direction, and helps educate and train people in the requirements of the E.O. The Steering Committee members are among the President's chief advisors on environmental and acquisition issues, underscoring that successful integration of environmental and energy considerations into an agency's daily operations requires close coordination by environmental, acquisition, and facilities staff.

The Federal Environmental Executive

On May 22, 2008, the White House announced that the President appointed Joe Cascio to be the next Federal Environmental Executive. Mr. Cascio previously served as a Senior Associate at Booz Allen Hamilton. Prior to this, he served as Vice President of the International Resources Group, Limited. Earlier in his career, he served as Vice President of the Global Energy and Technology Foundation.

From 1991 through 2003, he was chairman of the U.S. Technical Advisory Group and head of the U.S. ANSI delegation to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) committee that created the ISO 14000 series of environmental management standards. Mr. Cascio's earlier career stops included IBM (26 years) and four years as commissioned officer in the Army Corp of Engineers.

To contact the Office of the Federal Environmental Executive, please call us at (202) 343-9125 or e-mail us at task_force@ofee.gov.

The Office of the Federal Environmental Executive has its genesis in the issue of resource conservation. The Federal government has a long history of promoting conservation by recycling, extending at least as far back as World War II with the War Production Board's call to Americans to save scrap metal. The last three decades, however, have seen an increased attention to promoting energy conservation and recycling across America, as well as within the Federal government.

In 1976, Congress passed and President Gerald Ford signed the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Section 6002 requires agencies to develop affirmative procurement programs to purchase EPA-designated recycled content products. The Federal buy-recycled program is intended to create and sustain markets for materials recycled in our home and office recycling programs, as well as industrial by-products that otherwise would be landfilled.

In 1991, President George Bush issued Executive Order 12780, Federal Agency Recycling and the Council on Federal Recycling and Procurement Policy. This order created the Federal Recycling Coordinator (designated by the EPA Administrator), the Council on Federal Recycling and Procurement Policy, and agency recycling coordinators within each of the major agencies, all in order to increase the level of recycling and purchase of recycled-content products.

President Bill Clinton's 1993 Executive Order 12873, Federal Acquisition, Waste Prevention, and Recycling, created the position of the Federal Environmental Executive (designated by the President), as well as Agency Environmental Executives. These positions were specifically intended to bolster support for recycling and the procurement of recycled-content products. This order also set the standard that all federal office paper is to contain at least 30 percent post-consumer recycled content. President Clinton named Fran McPoland as the first Federal Environmental Executive.

In 1998, President Clinton issued Executive Order 13101, Greening the Government Through Waste Prevention, Recycling and Federal Acquisition, which built on the prior orders and also created the White House Task Force on Waste Prevention and Recycling.

On April 30, 2002, President George W. Bush appointed John L. Howard, Jr. as the Federal Environmental Executive. Previously, Mr. Howard was the Senior Associate Director for the White House Council on Environmental Quality; the Environment and Natural Resources Policy Director for then-Governor Bush; and an environmental attorney in Washington, D.C., and Austin, Texas. Mr. Howard returned to private practice in Austin in mid-2004.

Edwin Piñero was appointed by President George W. Bush in September 2004 to serve as the Federal Environmental Executive. Mr. Piñero had served as Deputy FEE since January 2003. Previous to this appointment, Mr. Piñero was owner of Piñero Consulting, an environmental management consulting firm based in Landisville, Pennsylvania. He also worked for then-Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge fr 1998 to 2001 as Director of the Bureau of Environmental Sustainability in the Pennsylvan Department of Environmental Protection, as well as serving as Pennsylvania's Energy Director. He is heading up a sustainability division at the Golisano Institute of Sustainability at Rochest Institute of Technology, helping industry with environmental management and sustainability practices, as well as having the opportunity to teach the next generation of practitioners.

OFEE's mission statement is "Promoting sustainable environmental stewardship throughout the federal government." OFEE is devote its time, talents, and resources to the tools and practices that expands its historical core waste prevention and recycling priorities into the broader area of sustainable environmental stewardship.