Sustainability and Environmental Programs (SEP) provides policy, guidance, training, technical support, and Department oversight through coordination with DHS Components and consultation with the public. As a result, energy and resilience, sustainability and environmental compliance, and environmental planning and historic preservation programs are appropriately integrated throughout activities, operations, and programs of DHS and its stakeholders.
Sustainability and Environmental Programs (SEP), part of the Office of the Chief Readiness Support Officer, leads DHS operational readiness and resilience. SEP enables the people, assets and facilities that safeguard the American people, our homeland, and our values.
Through leadership, collaboration, advocacy, stakeholder engagement, and compliance efforts, SEP enhances DHS mission readiness and resilience by ensuring that energy and environmental programs are appropriately integrated throughout activities, operations and programs of DHS.
Implementing the environmental priorities of DHS, SEP plays an important role in securing the nation from the many threats we face. SEP is an essential aspect of OCRSO efforts, and makes an impact through the following areas with overlapping scopes of responsibility:
- Energy, Resilience, and Sustainability
- Environmental Compliance
- Environmental Planning and Historic Preservation Programs
The Department of Homeland Security leads the federal government in smart business solutions, approaches, and technology. DHS is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, energy, water, and waste, and operating high-performance, sustainable buildings and fleets. At DHS, a full life-cycle-basis sustainable approach integrates costs, schedules, operations, maintenance, and employee wellbeing considerations.
Sustainability is the multidisciplinary integration of our mission and environmental considerations, balancing economic and environmental performance from beginning to end. DHS has three strategic sustainability goals:
- Leadership in sustainable law enforcement,
- The Strategic transformation toward sustainable business processes, and
- Human capital investment to raise awareness of sustainable practices and how employees can support the Department
DHS uses the Scorecard on Sustainability and Energy as a benchmark to identify and track the best opportunities to reduce pollution, improve efficiency, and cut costs. Based on this benchmark, DHS updates its Sustainability Plan. The DHS 2022 Sustainability Plan document referenced below provides information on recent sustainability achievements, program challenges, and strategies.
The DHS community contributes to America’s energy security by cultivating sustainable energy practices to strengthen energy independence, promote resilience, and foster environmental and fiscal stewardship. The Department is committed to energy efficiency strategy, reducing fleet petroleum consumption, conserving water, reducing waste and greenhouse gas emissions, leveraging federal purchasing power to promote environmentally preferred products and technologies, and accelerating our robust, sustainable buildings program.
The Department’s strategy is to implement energy and water conservation measures through alternative finance contracts as available, assessing facilities every four years through comprehensive energy and water evaluations, tracking utility use through our Consolidated Asset Portfolio and Sustainability Information System, Sustainability Performance Management program, and deploying new tools, such as the DHS Building Assessment Tool to facilitate comprehensive and standardized facility assessments across the Department.
The DHS uses the Office of Management and Budget Scorecard for Efficient Federal Operations and Management as a benchmark to identify and track the best opportunities to reduce waste, cut costs, and enhance the resilience of federal infrastructure and operations.
For more information on current and past DHS energy performance, visit the Sustainability.gov.