Christine Altendorf, Ph.D., chief of USACE’s Environmental Division, offers this example of the CoP’s matrix structure: “Say, for example, you have to form a team to build barracks at an installation and the only site available is on an old firing range near a historic Indian burial site. The environmental portion of the team would be composed of munitions experts, safety staff, NEPA [National Environmental Policy Act] experts, and cultural resource specialists. The design of the facility would require sustainability and energy expertise to obtain a LEED^® Silver rating. You would look within the USACE organization to find the professionals whose expertise you need, and then you would pull them together to form your team. They would have different supervisors, but they all bring their various skills to the table to complete the project.”

Because much of the environmental work done by USACE is performed on a reimbursable basis, the applied expertise creates opportunities for improved customer relations, which are typically performed through a project manager. Because of USACE’s matrix structure, Altendorf explained, this project manager may not be the direct supervisor of some of the experts at work on the project, a circumstance that has the potential to hinder information flow if lines of communication aren’t open.

Communicating in a way that enables project managers to respond to public concerns and inquiries is a top priority for Altendorf, who became chief in March 2012.

“It’s all about relationships,” she said, “so that when something’s not working properly, it’s communicated, gets immediate attention, and can be fixed quickly … internally, there are many checks and balances set up to make sure project managers get the support they need, even though they may not be the direct supervisor.”

One of USACE’s largest customers, of course, is the Army: More than 6,000 USACE environmental professionals are at work worldwide to help the Army meet its environmental mission. The unique resources within USACE’s Environmental and Munitions Center of Expertise, Munitions Design Centers, and laboratories help the Army to respond to existing and new environmental challenges. USACE’s Engineering and Support Center in Huntsville, Ala., for instance, continues to refine and implement the Army Metering Program, creating an advanced energy data network that will help the Army meet its ambitious energy efficiency and management goals.

USACE maintains $2 billion annually in environmental cleanup and compliance contract capacity to service the Army’s environmental projects. According to Altendorf, the work USACE does at its Civil Works sites, and for customers such as the EPA or the Department of Energy, helps sharpen its expertise and makes it better able to serve the Army’s environmental and energy initiatives. Applying lessons learned and skill sets among its different customers provides a kind of cross-fertilization, with one set of projects reinforcing another.

The Army and other customers know there are some things for which they will turn to USACE first – for example leading planned chemical warfare materiels responses – but Altendorf nevertheless wants to maintain a focus on the organization’s customers. “A lot of it is executing – doing really good work. We have excellent technical people. But we also want to focus on our relationships with our customers, whether [it is] the Army or other federal agencies. We want to let them know, through every interaction, that we want to continue to be the agency of choice for this kind of work.”

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