“To keep this economy strong, we must look at the role of state government
through the ‘business lens.’” – Governor Kathleen Sebelius
Current Efforts
Reduced Dues & Subscriptions to Save Over $1 Million: The Sebelius
administration required all agencies to eliminate 20 percent of their
dues and subscriptions to save $250,000 per year. Between 2003 and 2006, the move saved
the state $1.125 million.
Electronic Paychecks For State Employees Expected To Save Half A Million Dollars: Under
Sebelius, the state began notifying state workers of their automatically deposited paychecks
via e-mail rather than through the mail to save an estimated $500,000 in postage per
year. Between 2003 and 2005, this change saved $2.25 million.
Governor Sebelius Signs Bill To Save a Half Million Dollars Annually. In
April of 2007, Governor Sebelius signed legislation, which allows the Department of
Labor to make unemployment benefit payments by debit cards or direct deposit. This measure
is estimated to save the state $500,000 annually, by not printing and mailing checks
to beneficiaries.
Saving Energy To Save Money. Governor Sebelius signed
legislation to save on energy conservation and management in Department of Administration’s
buildings. These measures have resulted in utility savings of $1,111,273 over
the past 3 years and reduced energy usage 16% and natural gas usage by 30%.
- Doing night setback (55°F) and setup (85°F) in our buildings (essentially
turning off the heating and air conditioning at night).
- Installing occupancy sensors in Docking State Office Building to shut lights off
at night.
- High efficiency lighting retrofit in the Judicial Center.
- Installing control valves on the Memorial Building air handling units to reduce
over air conditioning.
- Steam pressure reset based upon the outside weather.
- Shutting steam off during periods of mild/warm weather in winter.
- Retrofitting the Judicial Center air systems from constant volume to variable air
volume.
- Waiting until mid-October to start the heat plant and shutting the heat plant down
in April.
Governor Sebelius implemented the following initiatives which will provide
the foundation of a vigorous efficiency and conservation effort that will place Kansas
State Government at the forefront of appropriate and effective energy and environmental
practices.
- Adopt a policy to require an energy audit on any facility being
considered as leased space and require the landlord to either make the necessary improvements
on the property or make them a condition of the lease before it is executed.
- Collect energy data associated with state-owned and leased
space and identify locations appearing to use excessive energy.
- The Department of Administration and the Kansas Corporation Commission
will evaluate the advantages for the State to become a member of the
Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX).
- Take necessary measures to ensure that the average EPA mileage
rating for automobiles purchased in 2010 is at least 10% higher than the 2007 average.
- The next contract with an auto leasing company will have
an average EPA mileage rating for cars provided under the 2010 lease that is at least
10% higher than the average for cars provided under the current lease.
- Enterprise Rent-A-Car added 10 hybrid vehicles to the Topeka fleet. The
hybrid vehicles are projected to increase the fuel efficiency by 20 miles per
gallon over the standard mid-size vehicle currently rented from Enterprise.
- Review purchasing practices to ensure 100% compliance with
existing requirements related to energy conservation and to develop or increase standards
using ENERGY STAR as a minimum standard.
- The Department of Administration is currently in the process
of working with vendors to develop energy conservation options in some state contracts
including lighting, the use of green materials in janitorial services contracts,
carpet, playground equipment and recycling bins.
- The state should no longer be purchasing traditional light
bulbs and instead will be buying more efficient and longer lasting florescent
light bulbs (only fixtures that can not be retrofitted will be exempt from this
policy).
- ENERGY STAR qualified bulbs
use about 75 percent less energy than standard incandescent bulbs and last up
to 10 times longer.
- Save about $30 or more in electricity costs over each
bulb's lifetime.
- Produce about 75 percent
less heat, so they're safer to operate and can cut energy costs associated
with home cooling.
- If every American home replaced just one light bulb with
an ENERGY STAR qualified bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than
3 million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs,
and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000
cars.
- All computers that don't have a technical or operational need
should be turned off at work stations when not in use for a period of four or more
hours.
- Expand the Department of Health and Environment’s recycling
program in State government to every State office by the end of 2007.
- Include information on fuel efficiency in the operation of
vehicles and include questions on this topic in the examination for all classes of
operator licenses for the Department of Revenue.
- Governor Sebelius expects to implement FCIP improvements in the
remaining state-owned buildings by December of 2010.
- Kansas is recognized by other states as having one of the
best energy savings performance contracting programs in the country, known as
the Facilities Conservation Improvement Program (FCIP). The Kansas Corporation
Commission's Energy Office has facilitated the implementation of energy efficiency
improvements in nearly half of the 40 million square feet of state-owned buildings.
As a whole, these projects are saving nearly $8 million each year in avoided
utility costs.
- The Kansas Energy Office will accelerate efforts to market
the FCIP to school districts and local governments.
Forming Partnerships With the Business Community to Reduce Energy Use -
Governor Sebelius and Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, chairman of the National Governors
Association, along with Google and Intel launched a nationwide initiative to get state
governments to reduce energy consumed by computers. Sebelius and Pawlenty said they
will commit their states to purchase high-efficiency computer equipment, and educate
state employees about reducing power use by computers. In a typical desktop PC, nearly
half the power from the outlet never reaches the computing components, but is wasted
as dispersed heat. By allowing a computer to transition to a sleep mode when not in
use in all 50 states could see a savings of $20 million nationwide in electric costs.
Equipment Maintenance Management Program – The program consolidates
current vendor maintenance contracts into a comprehensive program which will eliminate
cost and inefficiencies of multiple vendor service contracts.
Good Quality at a Reasonable Price - Since the beginning of the Sebelius
administration, the number of state employees has remained relatively the same. This
means that instead of growing the size of government by increasing the number of employees,
these funds instead have been re-invested in providing services directly to the people
of Kansas.
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