The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has made significant progress in recent years in improving its environmental and energy performance. To better coordinate this effort and build on it past success, USDA's Secretary issued SM 5500-002 – Implementing Executive Order 13423 Strengthening Federal Environmental, Energy, and Transportation Management (PDF; 25Kb) – which created the USDA Sustainable Operations Council to lead the way in reducing the Department's environmental footprint by developing new policies and procedures that will insure that USDA conducts its activities in an environmentally, fiscally sound, and sustainable manner in accordance with Executive Order (E.O.) 13423 (PDF; 105Kb).

USDA is the second largest landholder in the Federal government, occupying approximately 89 million square feet of office and laboratory space; operating over 23,000 buildings; and managing 193 million acres of land. In addition, the Department procures over $4 billion per year of goods and services and operates a fleet of over 46,000 motor vehicles plus other light and heavy motorized equipment. Operating an agency as large as USDA in a sustainable manner will have tremendous benefits to the environment and help reduce the country's reliance on petroleum based products.