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2008 Outstanding Program Awards
Each year The National Association of Chief Administra tors (NASCA) is proud to recognize innovative state agencies, organizations or individuals and state agency and private partnerships that have demonstrated outstanding leadership skills in innovation, originality, effectiveness and applicability.
NASCA is pleased to announce Massachusetts as the winner and Michigan as the Honorable Mention of the 2007 Outstanding Program Awards.
Winner: Massachusetts EnviroCalc: Environmental Benefits and Energy Cost Savings Calculator for Purchasers
Over the past several years, numerous federal agencies, state and local governments, colleges and universities and private companies have incorporated environmentally preferable products (EPPs) in to their purchasing practices. Purchasing EPPs is a proactive means of addressing such environmental concerns as climate change, energy and water conservation, waste minimization and toxics reduction. To the delight of many engaged in these purchasing initiatives, EPPs are also resulting in significant cost savings across a broad range of products.
In order for these programs to succeed agencies need to be able to measure the effectiveness of their choices and document the impact of the product’s use. Until recently, this tracking and quantification of information was difficult at best. As a result, creating a mechanism to accurately present quantifiable data is vital to the success of the overall program development, performance measurement, marketing, and educational outreach efforts. The tool developed by the Massachusetts Environmentally Preferable Products Procurement Program (the EPP Program) will also assist purchasers in:
For more information, contact Marcia Deegler at 617-720-3356 or marcia.deegler@osd.state.ma.us.
Honorable Mention: Michigan’s Process Structure Increases Efficiencies
The State of Michigan’s Department of Management and Budget is comprised of four administrative divisions devoted to providing cost effective business services to state government. One of these administrations, the Workforce Development and Retirement Administration (WDRA), has adopted a private sec tor model that has experienced great success. WDRA abandoned the traditional bureaucratic organizational structure common in public organizations to become a "process enterprise.” As a result, though staffing has been cut by as much as 25 percent and workloads have doubled, its administrative costs are half that of peer systems nationwide and retiree satisfaction ratings are consistently in the 90-95 percent range.
WDRA has become an innovative, flexible, cus tomer-focused organization with a proven record of success. Whether judged by the change in reputation, formal cus tomer rankings, or measurements of timeliness and quality, service improvements have been dramatic. In spite of its size and complexity, the most recent independent benchmarking reports show WDRA is providing service comparable to its peer systems, but at 50 percent of the cost.
For more information, contact Laurie Hill at 517-322-6088 or hilll1@michigan.gov.