2010 SAVE Award

Even ideas that sound small can add up. Printing just one page of the Federal Register costs a little more than a penny, but when you amplify that across the whole of government, suddenly your talking millions of dollars. We expect to save the vast majority of those dollars – at current costs that could be up to $4 million dollars per year -- by limiting print distribution to those who need it.

2010 Winning Idea

Trudy Givens, Wisconsin
Bureau of Prisons

The Federal Register is currently mailed to her workplace and approximately 8,000 Federal employees every workday. Most of the interested public now accesses the Federal Register online. While statute requires that hard copies be available, allowing recipients to opt-in for hard copy delivery could yield savings associated with printing and postage. When a similar “opt-in” (with fee) option was offered to the public, the number of hard copies mailed was reduced from roughly 25,000 to 500 recipients.

2010 SAVE Award Additional Finalists

Paul Behe, Ohio
Paralegal Specialist for DHS

Paul suggests advertising property seized by Customs and Border Protection -- such as counterfeit watches and purses -- online instead of in newspapers. As Paul notes, "In addition to the immense cost reduction for the ads, DHS would be able to save the cost of storage, for the seized items that are at the contractors, awaiting adjudication."

Marjorie Cook, Michigan
Food inspector in USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS)

FSIS inspectors ship 125,000 samples to labs each year using “Express Next Day” service. Those labs use the same costly shipping method to send empty containers back. As she put it, "We could save a bundle by having those boxes shipped back through regular ground service."

Thomas Koenning, Colorado
MSHA’s Information Technology Center

Currently, mine operators are mailed paper forms in order to report important quarterly data. Koenning suggests requiring mine operators to use online forms to save money on costly form production and postage, reduce input errors, and decrease the time it takes to analyze this data important to MSHA’s efforts to protect the safety of America’s mine workers.

All 2010 SAVE Award Ideas

View all of the ideas submitted as part of the 2010 SAVE Award.