Sustainability
On October 5, 2009 President Barack Obama signed Executive Order EO 13514, Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy and Economic Performance. (EO) 13514 established "an integrated strategy towards sustainability in the Federal Government" by requiring all Federal agencies to achieve a series of sustainability goals "in order to create a clean energy economy that will increase our Nation's prosperity, promote energy security, protect the interests of taxpayers, and safeguard the health of our environment."
Accomplishing the United States Mint's mission of manufacturing and distributing circulating coins, precious metal and collectible coins, and national medals to meet the needs of the United States and achieving the President's sustainability goals go hand-in-hand because the production of coins is a natural resource intensive process. Sustainability projects that reduce the United States Mint's energy, water and material use during coin production will cut costs. These sustainability projects will have the added social benefits of reducing air pollution, water pollution, solid waste, and greenhouse gas emissions.
The United States Mint's 2011 Sustainability Report is the first time the United States Mint has published a sustainability report, which updates the bureau's stakeholders on its performance in achieving the Executive Order 13514, Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy and Economic Performance, sustainability goals. It also provides the United States Mint's first detailed, public disclosure on workforce health and safety.
Over the past few years, the United States Mint has made significant progress towards achieving its sustainability goals, including reducing direct greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption by 36 percent and 17 percent respectively, and increasing solid waste diversion rate to 94 percent. Last year, the United States Mint had the following major sustainability accomplishments:
- The United States Mint at Denver purchased 100 percent renewable electricity and was recognized as the 10th largest federal purchaser of green power by the Environmental Protection Agency.
- The United States Mint at West Point was accepted into the Northeast Demonstration of Superior Energy Performance, an initial step to possibly becoming one of the first manufacturing facilities to obtain LEED
