National Academy Panel Drives Changes at Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management

A new report highlights a National Academy Panel’s effort to protect the health of our communities by strengthening the federal government’s ability to clean up fifty years’ worth of nuclear weapons production. 

Since it was established in 1989, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) has overseen the cleanup of dangerous materials resulting from nuclear weapons production and nuclear energy research.  For 19 months, the Academy Panel, chaired by Howard Messner, worked interactively with EM leadership, which accepted nearly all of the Panel’s proposals and incorporated them into a comprehensive management initiative.  So far, EM has:

• Begun to clarify the roles and responsibilities of its headquarters offices and its senior leadership.
• Created a management analysis office to provide the analytic rigor needed to inform its management decision-making.
• Reorganized its Office of the Chief Operations Officer, and is adding needed staff capacity to carry out that office’s functions.
• Enhanced the role of its Consolidated Business Center, added staff capacity to carry out its acquisition activities and worked with DOE to streamline and simplify acquisition processes.

The Academy and DOE conducted a joint media availability to review the results of this work.  The highlights are available as a podcast.

Click here to hear DOE Assistant Secretary James Rispoli (left) discuss how EM is working to implement the Panel’s recommendations

Click here to hear Panel member Jonathan Breul (right) explain how the Panel compared staffing at EM to other government entities that deal with environmental cleanup

Read Office of Environmental Management: Managing America’s Defense Nuclear Waste

Read DOE’s statement on the report

NATIONAL ACADEMY RELEASES A GREEN COMPASS:  NEXT STEPS TO ADVANCE NATIONAL SYSTEM OF ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATORS

The National Academy has released a new report that recommends practical next steps for creating a national system of environmental indicators.  Over the past year, an Academy Panel has worked closely with a federal interagency team to explore institutional options to select and regularly produce environmental indicators that are reliable, relevant and trusted. 

The Panel, chaired by Hermann Habermann, recommended that the five federal environmental and natural resources agencies forego organizational changes and instead use a pilot to engage states and other key players, broaden support and build momentum for a national system of indicators through the transition to the next Administration. 

Read the report

Last week, the National Academy formally launched The Collaboration Project, an independent leadership forum on applying the benefits of Web 2.0 and collaborative technology to government.  The inaugural meeting, held at the Academy’s headquarters in Washington, DC, featured TSA Administrator Kip Hawley who spoke about mass collaboration projects underway at his agency.

With the participation of National Academy Fellows, subject matter experts and leadership, The Collaboration Project convenes members in person and through a virtual collaboration space to share best practices, “lighthouse cases,” white papers and leadership tools for implementation.

Hear TSA Administrator Kip Hawley discuss how success involves both technology and leadership

Click here for more on The Collaboration Project