About Us

The Center for Environmental Innovation and Leadership is a nonpartisan organization designed to facilitate information and education exchange among government professionals charged with identifying, specifying, and buying green goods and services and with the vendors, contractors, and consultants that provide green goods and services.

CEIL provides an interactive environment for government and industry professionals engaged in green activities that includes educational events, a website, podcasts, webcasts, news and a web 2.0 networking community. Through social networking tools and groups, CEIL facilitates information sharing among government professionals charged with implementing green policies and purchasing green products. CEIL provides a neutral environment in which vendors can present information on goods and services that qualify for green purchasing. Finally, CEIL produces educational conferences and exhibitions where government professionals and industry experts share information and success stories, learn about the most up-to-date programs and products, and network face-to-face.

Mission

The mission of the Center for Environmental Innovation and Leadership is to inform, educate and enable federal, state and local government professionals charged with implementing green initiatives and policies. CEIL will address the critical issues needed to successfully implement the mandate to create a "Green Government," bringing together a community of thought leaders to exchange ideas, share solutions and solve problems.

The Center for Environmental Innovation and Leadership is funded primarily by industry sponsorship support of the website and the educational conferences and exhibitions. In November, CEIL is sponsoring GOVgreen Conference and Exposition in Washington, D.C.

Defining the challenge

The topic of "green technology" is vast and very broadly defined. It's been compared to the early years of the information technology revolution when the playbook and the technology evolved almost daily. Add to the complexity of green and sustainable issues the government's drive to go green and the result is a critical need for an information clearinghouse and a substantial opportunity to provide education, training, consulting and products.

The direct impetus to speed up government greening efforts is coming from President Obama. By Executive Order 13514, signed October 2009, each agency is directed to create a Sustainability Plan by June 2010. The President has supported this effort by designating approximately $80 billion in stimulus funds for green projects.

The key requirements of Executive Order 13514 require agencies to meet the following targets:

• 30% reduction in vehicle fleet petroleum use by 2020
• 26% improvement in water efficiency by 2020
• 28% GHG reduction by 2020
• 50% recycling and waste diversion by 2015
• 95% of all applicable contracts will meet sustainability requirements
• Implementation of the 2030 net-zero-energy building requirement
• Implementation of the stormwater provisions of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, section 438

These requirements impact all agencies and levels of government (federal, state and local) and will require significant changes in the way the government does business and in the ways that vendors selling to the government are selected.

Understanding the issues

Greening our government requires finding ways to reduce carbon footprints, save energy, improve recycling and develop from sustainable resources. The concepts are easy to articulate, but creating cross-agency programs to put those concepts into practice is complex.

Some of the issues agencies must address when developing and vetting Sustainability Plans include:

• Defining green within the context of each program
• Benchmarking consumption accurately
• Measuring improvement
• Coordinating inter-agency programs
• Defining accurate cost-benefit analysis to support green program implementation
• Defining and sourcing green products
• Validating green companies and partners
• Prioritizing green projects for funding
• Sharing information and, when applicable, coordinating programs with other government entities

Agency progress toward greening will be monitored by the Council of Environmental Quality's Office of the Federal Environmental Executive and the Office of Management and Budget. Annual targets must be established and submitted each June, starting June 2010.

The goal of the Center for Environmental Innovation and Leadership is to facilitate communication among the federal, state and local government thought leaders as the Sustainability Plans are developed and to further provide an independent source of information, education and training on key topics essential to implementing the Sustainability Plans.

Building thought-leader communities

To provide the highest level of education and leadership, the Center for Environmental Innovation and Leadership is forming an Advisory Council. The Council helps guide the educational content of the website, conferences and exhibitions, as well as identify key experts to develop and present programs most relevant to green government initiatives.

Realizing the business opportunity

The combination of green programs and government agencies represents an unparalleled opportunity. 30% of the Gross Domestic Product is government spending. An additional $80 billion of stimulus money is targeted to developing clean energy and improving energy efficiency. The volume of federal government property and services to be greened is vast, including:

• 500,000 buildings
• 600,000 vehicles

The opportunity is great — but the effort required to create and coordinate programs throughout the government is equally great. There is currently no organization focused both on green issues, products and programs and their application within the government.

The move to develop sustainable practices and products is no longer experimental and no organization or business can afford to "wait-and-see" what happens. The government's mandate to "go green" with a set of specific targets will create a sea change in products and practices. The Center for Environmental Innovation and Leadership's mission is to facilitate the change by providing an independent, interactive environment in which to address critical issues, exchange information and network.

2010 development plan

In May 2010, the Center for Environmental Innovation and Leadership launched ceileadership.org, a web 2.0 site aggregating green news about the government and private sector including blogs, groups, and forums where government professionals can exchange information and new product listing.

Annual Conference & Exhibition: The first annual GOVgreen Conference and Exposition (November 9-10, Washington, DC) will provide solutions for government employees tasked to green their agencies. This nonpartisan event brings suppliers and government employees together in one convenient place to discover optimal solutions for sustainability in our government agencies.

GOVgreen Conference and Exposition (GOVgreen.org) provides an independent forum where government professionals charged with greening the government can learn, network and problem-solve. Programming covers these critical areas: energy, transportation, conservation and facilities.