Executive Order 13514: Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance
President: Barack Obama
Set government-wide targets for greenhouse gases energy water waste fleets and sustainable procurement across federal operations.
Status: Revoked.
Is Executive Order 13514 still in effect? No. EO 13693 expressly revoked EO 13514 on March 19, 2015; later federal sustainability policies did not reinstate this order.
What does Executive Order 13514 do?
EO 13514 made greenhouse-gas reduction a government-wide operating priority. Obama directed agencies to treat buildings, vehicle fleets, water use, waste, purchasing and employee travel as related parts of a sustainability strategy. Each agency had to establish emissions-reduction targets against specified baselines, inventory its emissions and prepare a multiyear Strategic Sustainability Performance Plan. Signed order.
The requirements were concrete. Large agency fleets were to reduce petroleum consumption by at least 2 percent annually through fiscal year 2020 against a fiscal year 2005 baseline. Potable-water consumption intensity had a 2 percent annual reduction goal against fiscal year 2007, while at least half of specified solid waste and construction debris was to be diverted by fiscal year 2015. Covered new contract actions had a 95 percent sustainable-acquisition target when qualifying products met performance needs. These were instructions for federal operations, with particular exclusions and national-security exemptions, not a household energy rationing rule. Signed order.
Before and after
Before the order
EO 13423 already covered federal energy, environmental and transportation management. EO 13514 expanded that approach to absolute direct and indirect greenhouse-gas emissions and integrated plans with budget review. It distinguished agency-owned emissions, purchased-energy emissions and indirect activity such as vendor supply chains or employee travel, rather than treating a utility bill as a complete inventory. Signed order.
After the order
Agencies needed measurable baselines, target approvals and annual updates instead of relying only on separate operational initiatives. OMB published performance scorecards, and CEQ coordinated the emissions targets and reporting methods. EO 13693 replaced and expressly revoked EO 13514 in 2015. Later administrations adopted and revoked their own sustainability frameworks; Trump's January 20, 2025 revocation of Biden's EO 14057 was another change in that succession, not restoration of the 2009 order. Signed order. Sources: EO 13693: express revocation; EO 14057: later sustainability framework; EO 14148: 2025 rescissions.
Who had to do what
| Agency / office | Action | Timing / position |
|---|---|---|
| All agency heads and Senior Sustainability Officers | Designate accountable officer; set emissions targets, inventory emissions, prepare and implement sustainability plans and operational goals. | Officer within 30 days; direct/purchased-energy target within 90 days; indirect-emissions target and first plan within 240 days; first inventory within 15 months, then annually in January. |
| OMB Director | Co-chair sustainability steering committee, approve plans, publish performance scorecards and issue budget instructions. | Plan review with budget review where feasible; scorecards periodically. |
| CEQ Chair | Co-chair steering committee, approve targets with OMB, issue reporting guidance and assess agency progress. | Government-wide direct/purchased-energy target within 120 days; indirect target within 270 days; adaptation progress report within one year. |
| Federal Environmental Executive | Develop implementation tools, monitor progress and create regional implementation plan. | Regional plan within 180 days; monitoring ongoing. |
| Energy Department / Federal Energy Management Program | Lead emissions-accounting recommendations and electronic reporting; issue fleet-management guidance. | Accounting recommendations and fleet guidance within 180 days; electronic capability within one year; accounting revisions every three years. |
| EPA | Assist emissions accounting; issue statutory federal-facility stormwater guidance and advise procurement emissions review. | Stormwater guidance within 60 days; emissions and procurement recommendations within 180 days. |
| Defense Department | Coordinate emissions accounting, sustainable location review and contractor-emissions recommendations. | Relevant recommendations within 180 days. |
| GSA | Coordinate emissions accounting; lead transportation-logistics and vendor/contractor-emissions recommendations; assist fleet guidance. | Relevant recommendations within 180 days. |
| Interior Department | Coordinate federal greenhouse-gas reporting and accounting recommendations. | Within 180 days. |
| Commerce Department | Coordinate greenhouse-gas reporting and accounting recommendations. | Within 180 days. |
| Transportation Department | Lead sustainable facility-location recommendations and assist federal transportation-logistics review. | Within 180 days. |
| Housing and Urban Development Department | Work through sustainable partnership on facility-location recommendations. | Within 180 days. |
| Homeland Security Department | Coordinate sustainable facility-location recommendations. | Within 180 days. |
| Treasury Department | Coordinate federal local transportation-logistics recommendations. | Within 180 days. |
| Office of Personnel Management | Coordinate federal local transportation-logistics recommendations. | Within 180 days. |
| OMB Office of Federal Procurement Policy Administrator | Receive contractor/vendor-emissions feasibility recommendations from GSA. | Within 180 days. |
| Director of National Intelligence | Exercise narrowly defined intelligence-activity exemption authority. | When necessary to protect intelligence sources and methods. |
What happened next
Obama signed the integrated sustainability and emissions framework. Official source
EO 13693 expressly revoked EO 13514 and established a replacement federal sustainability policy. Official source
Biden signed the later federal sustainability framework EO 14057. Official source
EO 14148 revoked EO 14057, without restoring EO 13514. Official source
Legal and source detail
How it works legally
The signed text operated within agency statutory authority and existing appropriations. It referenced statutory duties such as stormwater requirements under section 438 of the Energy Independence and Security Act, community right-to-know reporting and environmental review under NEPA. A presidential procurement target could not waive a mandatory statutory requirement or supply money Congress had not appropriated. The order normally applied to operations within the United States, with agency discretion over overseas application. Intelligence, undercover law enforcement, tactical fleets and certain national-security activities could receive specified exemptions. Those limits explain why its targets should not be described as identical obligations for every federal asset or every contractor. Section 20 characterized the order as internal federal management and created no enforceable private entitlement. Signed order. Sources: EO 13693: express revocation; EO 14057: later sustainability framework; EO 14148: 2025 rescissions.
Sources by type
If a source is unavailable, first check the cited publisher or another official repository. The cited publisher remains the authority.
Primary and official sources
Orders, laws, court records and official implementation material.
How we checked this
Last checked against the sources above on September 15, 2026. How we research →