The cornerstone of the Army’s strategy for sustainability and energy security is the “Net-Zero Initiative,” which aims to achieve net-zero energy and water consumption, along with net-zero waste production, for its facilities. As David Williams, energy program manager at USACE Headquarters, explained, the Army has established 21 pilot installations for this initiative: six focused on achieving net-zero energy, six on net-zero water, six on net-zero waste, two focused on achieving all three, and one on achieving net-zero energy statewide for the Oregon National Guard. “The Installation Management Command has let the other installations know that they need to be trying to work toward net zero as well,” Williams said, “even though they’re not identified as pilot installations for this initiative.”

One of the ways in which USACE is assisting net zero is through planning, implementing, and managing the Army’s metering program, which ultimately will provide the Army a definitive way to measure, monitor, and make decisions that will more effectively reduce energy consumption. The Army also is developing a single network (Meter Data Management System) for this purpose. But much of the sustainability achieved in support of the Army’s Net-Zero Initiative is not related to technology – which costs money, itself a scarce resource in today’s budget environment. Alternate methods of financing and contracting services, Williams explained, have proven critical to the Army’s efforts: energy savings performance contracts, utility energy service contracts, power purchase agreements, and enhanced-use leases have all been used to leverage resources and create efficiencies at Army installations.

In using such sophisticated financial instruments, USACE is following the Army’s lead, as Antonia Giardina, USACE sustainability program manager, explained: “Basically, a contractor comes and evaluates the facilities for the energy and water improvements, implements those that are determined to be economically viable, and then gets paid back out of the savings generated by those improvements. That’s a powerful tool that we’re trying to utilize, rather than trying to do it all with appropriated funds.”

 

Focusing the Plan

While sustainability isn’t new to USACE, EO 13514 introduces a structure that requires the organization to reforge these independent sustainability-related activities into a systematic approach, focused on a series of short- and long-term goals and sub-goals that will be evaluated in terms of established metrics: Under the order, agency achievements are graded on a scorecard by the Office of Management and Budget in greenhouse gas emission reduction (Scope 1 and 2 and Scope 3), energy intensity reduction, use of renewable energy, reduction in petroleum use, water intensity reduction, and green buildings.

To USACE, Coho said, devising a plan to meet these metrics has been both an opportunity and a challenge. “We’re reporting data on roughly 600 facilities, Corps-wide,” he said. “And about 583 of those facilities are civil works projects. The numbers are kind of mindboggling.” Under the federal requirements, the plan must focus particularly on the facilities that account for 75 percent of the organization’s total energy consumption. “We did the number crunching,” Coho said, “and found out that 75 percent of our energy is consumed at just 46 of our facilities.”

The USACE sustainability plan, first devised in 2010, is a dynamic document, due to expand and change as USACE refocuses activities throughout its 600 facilities and its fleet of vehicles – and works to achieve the sustainability goals of its customers – in a way that conforms to EO 13514’s targets and metrics.

Before it can implement the actions needed to meet some federal targets, however, USACE has work to do in gathering data needed for decision-making. While it has completed an in-depth analysis of its non-tactical vehicle fleet and formulated a plan to right size and right position the fleet by 2015, the organization is still in the process of gathering and refining information about consumption at its facilities.

“We’re focused on getting our energy and water evaluations done,” Giardina said, “basically audits that help us figure out where we have opportunities to make improvements in efficiency.” Within the metering program that was mentioned earlier, advanced metering is another near-term priority for USACE, as it is currently training the energy managers who will execute both the audits and the metering at its largest facilities, in order to ensure that the goals and subgoals are met.

Another near-term priority, stated by Darcy in a June 29, 2012, policy statement, is sustainable acquisition: the purchase of environmentally preferable products, such as recycled or bio-based products, and making purchasing decisions in a way that takes into account the cradle-to-grave life cycle, from raw materials to disposal or recycling.

USACE focus areas for FY 2012 and FY 2013 include:

• Leveraging $2.5 million in performance-based contracts for energy and water efficiency in USACE-owned facilities.
• Implementing the Non-tactical Vehicle Fleet Management Plan.
• Creating and implementing the USACE Sustainable Acquisition Program.
• Expanding the High Performance Sustainable Buildings Program to encompass Civil Works and USACE-owned buildings.
• Completing energy and water evaluations of covered facilities pursuant to the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, Section 432.
• Creating and implementing the USACE national policy on sea-level change for coastal projects and developing and deploying a national policy on adaptation measures for inland hydrology adaptation as described in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 2011 Climate Change Adaptation Plan and Report.

It’s been a steep learning curve, and while USACE has not yet met the reporting targets imposed by EO 13514, its efforts to lay the groundwork – establishing the data and management systems that will ensure rapid future progress – have gained considerable momentum in the past year.

“It’s all about making sure we are walking the talk,” Giardina said. “As we advise others on sustainability, we want to make sure we’re doing it for ourselves, too.”

This article originally appeared in U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: Building Strong®, Serving the Nation and the Armed Forces 2012-2013 Edition.