By Eric Lindeman
In continuous conflict for eight years now, the U.S. Army is making strides to further recognize sustainability as an organizing principle–aligning its mission with environmental stewardship and community well being, as well as reaping the economic benefits of reduced waste and increased efficiency.
The Annual Sustainability Report, issued Aug. 6 by the Army Environmental Policy Institute, highlights the Army’s energy and environmental achievements and milestones in support of its sustainability concept and goals.
“Army leadership has come to understand the potential for sustainability to strengthen national security,” said Under Secretary of the Army Joseph Westphal, who serves as both the Army’s senior sustainability official and chief management officer.
“What had previously yielded benefit through environmental initiatives is emerging as an important tool for countering the destabilizing effects of emerging challenges from competition over limited and diminishing resources, as well as population movements, pandemics and other climate change-related events.”
According to the 2010 report, “The Army recognizes that sustainable practices reduce the true cost of doing business. The Army’s current business transformation initiative acts together with sustainability to drive and accelerate Army innovation, measured in reduced total ownership costs, as well as reduced environmental and community impact. As a federal entity, the Army is responsible to the American public to use resources wisely.”
Indeed, the first goal of the Army’s “Strategy for the Environment’ first goal is “to foster a sustainability ethic,” the new report said. “Sustainability requires integrating programs from throughout the base and involving those that may not identify themselves as having environmental or social missions.
For example, since 2008, 28 Army installations have undergone Integrated Strategic and Sustainability Planning (ISSP), which requires long-term sustainability plans and goals to meet future mission and community needs.
An ISSP allows installations to bring together stakeholders from throughout the installation to think proactively about future challenges to sustainability. The result of the planning process is a strategic plan that addresses not only the physical and environmental components of Army installations, such as buildings and natural resources, but also management practices and community involvement.
An ISSP covers a 25-year period and reviews life-cycle, cost-effective investments to meet future missions and community goals. Fort Bragg in North Carolina was the first Army installation to conduct and implement an ISSP and was recognized with a 2008 Secretary of the Army Sustainability Award.
Also since 2008, all new Army construction has been designed to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver minimum standard. Efforts are now underway to ensure that all new Army acquisition programs include the “fully burdened cost of energy” in the selection process to maximize the productivity of energy needed to meet operational capabilities.
“The Army is currently in the midst of its eighth year of protracted conflict,” said Gen. Peter Chiarelli, vice chief of staff of the Army. “With an eye toward rebalancing the force, sustainability has proven an effective tool for meeting operational requirements, while sustaining facilities and ranges, improving quality of life and reducing the burden on the natural and manmade systems on which we depend.”
Tad Davis, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for environment, safety and occupational health, added, “The results we are now seeing from the Army’s sustainability programs and initiatives directly support our mission and the well-being of our soldiers, civilians, families and communities.”