The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last week recognized five federal agencies for "going green" at their Bay Area facilities, including Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for cutting paper usage in half.

All five won the EPA's 2017 Federal Green Challenge Education and Outreach Award for the Pacific Northwest Region.

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said the federal agencies improved efficiency, saved resources and reduced costs estimated at $17 million across the federal government in 2016.

In addition to the Department of Energy's Livermore lab, the honored federal agencies and their Bay Area locations are:

- The Department of Veterans Affairs' Northern California Health Care System in Martinez for energy and water conservation.

- The Department of Agriculture's Forest Service Region 5 in Vallejo for reducing mobile fleet emissions.

- The Department of Labor's San Francisco Federal Building for increasing recycling and composting by 135% from 2015 to 2016.

- The Presidio Trust in San Francisco for its sustainable efforts of recycling, composting and alternative transportation at its large-scale outdoor picnic events that drew nearly 8,000 visitors in 2016.

The Federal Green Challenge is a yearlong effort to focus on efficiently managing resources to protect the environment and reduce costs of building operations, maintenance and supplies.

-- James Lanaras, Bay City News