Employee Commuter Survey

To: All Department Employees

From: Kristen J. Sarri, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Policy, Management and Budget

Subject: Employee Commuter Survey

During October 17 - 28, 2016, the Department of the Interior (Department) is conducting our annual survey on employee commuting habits. The results of this short survey will help the Department measure and report our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as required by Executive Order (EO) 13693, Planning for Federal Sustainability in the Next Decade (https://www.fedcenter.gov/programs/eo13693/). While GHG reporting requirements are not new, the March 2015 issuance of EO 13693 required agencies to set aggressive new goals to reduce GHG emissions over the next 10 years. Conducting an employee commuter survey is one of the strategies we identified in our annual Strategic Sustainability Performance Plan to help us meet the goals of this new EO.

We are asking all Department employees (including full-time, permanent, seasonal, term, and part-time employees) to take a few minutes out of their busy schedules to participate in this important effort and complete the survey. Your participation helps the Department measure progress towards our GHG reduction goal and identify alternative commuting options and workplace flexibilities that the Department could offer to reduce commuter emissions in the future. The survey should take no more than 10 minutes of your time.

The General Services Administration (GSA) will once again administer this year’s survey on behalf of the Department. You should expect to receive an e-mail with a unique link to the survey from commutersurvey@gsa.gov on October 17, 2016. If you have not received an e-mail by October 18, 2016, please check your spam e-mail folder. If the e-mail is not there, then please contact commutersurvey@gsa.gov.

In order to ensure that only one survey response is received from each employee, the e-mail you receive will contain a survey link created specifically for you. Please do not send your unique survey link to anyone else, since each link can only be used once to complete the survey. Even though you will receive a unique survey link, please be assured that your response is completely confidential. The Department will not receive individually identifiable data from GSA. 

Thank you in advance for your help with this important data collection and analysis. A summary of the Department’s previous commuter survey results, as well as frequently asked questions about the commuter survey and the survey’s underlying methodology, can be found at: https://www.doi.gov/greening/transportation/commutersurvey. 

If you have any questions about the Department’s GHG reduction program, please feel free to contact Ms. Katie Chiang in the Office of Environmental Policy and Compliance at Kathleen_Chiang@ios.doi.gov, or 202-208-5939.