Fort Gordon leadership discusses post growth

By Sgt. 1st Class Kelly Jo BridgwaterMay 28, 2014

FORT GORDON, Ga. -- (May23, 2014) Remote controlled buses, energy efficiency, and a family-friendly downtown were a few of the ideas featured during a sustainability workshop May 13 - 15 at the Gordon Conference and Catering Center.

The challenge set forth to directorate representatives by the Garrison Commander Col. Samuel G. Anderson, was how will Fort Gordon move to the future and continue to grow sustainably with diminishing resources?

The first day of the conference featured a briefing by contractor Kevin Palmer who shared sustainability ideas and plans from other installations. This was followed by team sessions with members working to validate existing strategic plans and identify major objectives to pave the road to growth for Fort Gordon in the areas of communication, infrastructure and training. After reviewing the major objectives, team members worked to identify sustainability drivers such as environment, community, mission and resources.

Day two of the event found the teams continuing their work on their chosen major objectives and refining the subtasks specific to their area of expertise, i.e., infrastructure, and taking that information and turning it into a brief. The rest of the day was spent refining the brief and developing a final presentation that would be shared on the third and final day of the conference with the Garrison Command team of Anderson and Command Sgt. Maj. Kenneth Stockton.

Energy, water and waste were topics featured in briefings presented by team leaders to the Garrison Command team.

When asked what he thought about the conference Bruce Grant, Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization, and Security, range manager, who has worked at Fort Gordon for seven years, said the sharing of ideas from peers versus senior leaders yielded a fresh perspective when it came to identifying issues involving growth and sustainability.

"We didn't have the directorate-level people here," said Grant. "We had the more down division worker bees and I think that was a unique thing. I've done a lot of strategic planning over the years but this approach took it from 'what are your issues' and we talked about that for half a day."

Anderson lauded the efforts set forth by the team members and thanked them for their effort.

"Three days is a lot to ask of you folks and I think the old saying of if you don't have a plan any path will get you there is what we're trying to avoid," said Anderson. "That's what you all have taken a big part in is developing a plan that we can at least guide our efforts toward.

Though strategic planning and development is time-consuming with the end result not happening over night, Anderson was optimistic about the suggested plans shared during the conference.

"There are some things that I think we can actually get at right now independent of a whole bunch of long-range planning and resources that we're going to have to fight with every other installation in DoD to get," said Anderson. "I think there are some things here that we need to pull out of this planning effort and figure out what we can do right now and make improvements."

Anderson added, "And then there are those other things that we know are going to take a longer term approach. But I would ask for the folks here that represent units that you go back and talk to your units and your leadership about what was discussed here today and what these plans are and how important it is to have their involvement."

Sustainability as defined by the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment's website is a critical enabler in the performance of the Army's mission, as its importance and benefits cut across the entire Army enterprise. As a foundation, the Army is integrating sustainability into its four lines of operation -- materiel, military training, personnel, and services and infrastructure.

Additional information on the site includes Army Sustainability Reports from 2007 to 2012 and a breakdown of the Net Zero Initiative.

Information on the Army's Sustainability program to include sustainability reports may be found at: www.asaie.army.mil/Public/ES/sustainability.html.

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