It seems that the Veterans Administration is busy being green. They even have a special office to manage their many programs: The Green Management Program Office at http://www.green.va.gov/.
And that office has several sub-departments, here are two:
http://www.green.va.gov/environment/
“The Green Management Program Office leads VA’s effort to keep our promises to Veterans through sustainability. We provide policy, guidance, training, outreach, and opportunities for national recognition in order to help VA’s workforce of more than 300,000 employees to be good stewards of the environment.”
I’m sure every veteran is worried about VA promises of sustainability, trouble is the VA is talking about environmental sustainability rather than the veteran’s sustainability.
http://www.green.va.gov/energy/
“VA has a goal to increase its renewable energy consumption to 20% by 2020.
VA has performed renewable energy studies to determine which facilities would be most ideal for investing in renewable energy technologies based on availability of renewable fuels, energy plant characteristics, and local utility rates.”
VA workers spend time vying for awards for being especially green:
http://www.va.gov/greenroutine/
A short, but scathing editorial in the Washington Times “Strange priorities at the VA” notes”
“VA facilities have become littered with every scheme to banish carbon dioxide short of requiring visitors to hold their breath. Calverton National Cemetery spent $742,034 on solar panels. Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery spent $787,308. Not to be out-greened, the Riverside National Cemetery spent $1.3 million on its solar system. At the Phoenix VA Health Care System, where 20 Americans died from incompetence and cover-up, the department spent $20 million putting solar panels on the hospital roofs. That would have been more than enough money to provide the veterans with the health care they deserved.”
Strange priorities indeed.