Achieving resiliency through energy security and sustainability

By Katherine Hammack, assistant secretary of the Army (Installations, Energy and Environment)October 5, 2015

The Army is focused on ensuring readiness and resiliency in our Soldiers and our installations. Through Energy Security, Water Security, Sustainability, and efficiently managing the land and facilities entrusted to us, we can ensure the Army and our Soldiers are ready and resilient to fight tonight and well into the future.

Over the past year we have enhanced resiliency of our Army installations through increases in Energy Security. Investments in energy use reductions, efficiency, reliability, and renewable energy all contribute to increased resiliency. We have adapted the efficiencies and lessons learned in our contingency bases through experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have examined our required infrastructure capacity both in the United States and overseas, which will enable us to reduce our footprint without degrading strategic or operational capabilities.

The Installation, Energy, and Environment Strategy 2025 lays the foundation to guide the Army's management of our installations and resources well into the 21st Century. This strategy will drive innovation on our installations and optimize sustainable use of our resources. In the months to come, we will continue to evaluate our infrastructure capacity to position ourselves to implement a new Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) when authorized by Congress. The Army recognized that this is a proven method to address the Army's excess infrastructure and focus our resources in a cost-effective, transparent, and equitable manner.

ENERGY SECURITY

We are celebrating our increases in installation resiliency with the Army's most successful year in implementing energy efficiency. In fiscal year 2014, the Army issued a record number of Energy Savings Performance contracts representing over $325M worth of investment in energy efficiency and security. Together these contracts will save the Army 1,201,465 MBtu's, which is more energy than that consumed by Fort Riley in one year!

By leveraging a wide variety of contracting mechanisms, we have completed or broken ground on more than 150 megawatts of renewable energy projects in the last 12 months. This is enough energy to power over 43,000 American homes. In fiscal year 2013 and again in fiscal year 2014, the Army doubled renewable energy consumption on our installations. We are on track to do so again in fiscal year 2015.

The Office of Energy Initiatives is seeking to diversify and secure access to multiple energy sources with large-scale renewable energy projects. Large projects are already producing electricity for Forts Huachuca and Drum. In Georgia alone, projects are under construction to produce 30 megawatts of solar power each for Forts Stewart, Gordon and Benning.

These projects bring the Army closer to meeting its commitment to the President of deploying one gigawatt of renewable energy by 2025.

Looking to the future, the Army's Energy Security and Sustainability Strategy (ES2) documents a turning point for the Army: from considering resources as constraints on operational effectiveness, to today's perspective recognizing the critical roles of energy, water, and land resources as mission enablers. The ES2 Strategy expands and replaces the 2009 Army Energy Security Implementation Strategy, including operational energy and sustainability while strengthening the focus on resource management for our installations. It focuses on building the overall resiliency of Army installations through the implementation of five goals: Informed Decisions; Optimize Use; Assure Access; Build Resiliency; and Drive Innovation. These five strategic goals interrelate with existing Army programs and initiatives, including Net Zero, large-scale renewable energy, contingency basing, energy and water security, and climate change adaptation. The strategy's goals, focus areas, and associated metrics are now being integrated into future policies, campaign plans and supporting guidance.

SUSTAINABILITY

The Department of Defense (DoD) vision of sustainability is to maintain the ability to operate into the future without decline - whether in the mission or in the natural and man-made systems that support the mission. Across our installations, we are assuring access to energy, water, and land resources through innovation, increased efficiencies, reduced demand, new power storage solutions, and the development of diversified renewable energy systems.

The Army's sustainability progress through Net Zero Energy, Water, and Waste Pilot Installations is clear as they strive to meet the 2020 Net Zero Goals.

For an instance, Fort Hunter Liggett is beginning the final part of a multiyear project to deploy solar covered vehicle maintenance yards, power storage, and micro-grids. This will enable the installation to meet its resiliency, energy security, and Net Zero Energy targets. In addition, the waste water treatment plant is being upgraded to not only improve efficiency, but also prepare the facility to house a waste-to-energy system that will generate electricity through gasification of waste products.

Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) continues turning organic waste resources into landscaping and soil amendment products. JBLM has been diverting wastes from off-base landfills and utilizing on-base recycling facilities. This has led to cost savings in the millions of dollars, and increased their overall non-hazardous solid waste diversion rate to 62 percent in 2014, up from 57 percent in 2013.

Tobyhanna Army Depot is upgrading its wastewater treatment plant to increase resilience and reduce risk. As a result of the upgrade, potable water use within the plant was replaced with reclaimed water. With this upgrade, a reduction of 3,780 Kgal of potable water was obtained in 2014, a 40 percent reduction from potable water used in 2013.

The United States Military Academy at West Point knows that its cadets, following their commissioning as Army officers, have the potential to become catalysts to drive new innovation and technologies critical to the military's future success in achieving Net Zero. To cultivate that potential, professors at West Point, in partnership with the West Point Energy Council, have instituted a core curriculum centered on energy that will increase cadet understanding of energy and ingrain energy conservation in not only the cadets, but also Academy faculty and staff.

The Army expanded the Net Zero pilot initiative to Camp Buehring, Kuwait. The Kuwait Energy Efficiency Project (KEEP) is replacing tents at Camp Buehring with re-locatable energy efficient shelters; centralizing power generation to improve energy efficiency by eliminating spot generators; and capturing energy consumption data to support future analysis. KEEP is on track to complete installation of a total of 72 two-story and 26 one-story shelters that can house 1,360 Soldiers by the end of 2015. Meters are installed to collect data on consumption before and after the improvements, allowing for verification of the projected savings and providing a baseline for future decisions on contingency bases.

This is just a small sampling of the Net Zero successes being achieved. The lessons learned through our Net Zero pilot installations are being incorporated into the ongoing revision of Army Regulation 420-1. Additionally, Training and Doctrine Command is developing training environments to assist current and future leaders in making resource-informed decisions as they learn why it is critical to mission effectiveness to embrace energy security and sustainability.

The Army addresses climate change through both mitigation and adaptation actions. Our energy efficiency and renewable energy efforts form the foundation of our climate change mitigation strategy. Adaptation efforts are aligned with the DoD's 2014 Climate Change Adaptation Roadmap. The roadmap assesses the Department's vulnerabilities to climate change, and then guides integration of adaptation strategies into our existing plans, programs, and operations to address those vulnerabilities. Efforts are focused in four lines of effort: Plans and Operations, Training and Testing, Built and Natural Infrastructure, and Acquisition and Supply.

MANAGING LAND RESOURCES

We work hard to not only protect our ability to fully utilize our training and testing ranges, but to divest ourselves of the land and resources that no longer hold military value. Over the past year, we successfully optimized our training and testing ranges while remaining good stewards of the lands and resources entrusted to us. This includes the protection of endangered species.

DoD has a greater density of threatened and endangered species than any other Federal agency. The Army reported 217 threatened and endangered species onsite at 92 installations, which include some of the Army's most critical training areas.

The presence of endangered species can restrict or place off-limits the use of certain weapons ammunition, pyrotechnics, training lands and ranges by decreasing the size, number, or type of training events permitted in order to minimize the impact on listed species. You may already be aware of the Desert Tortoise on Fort Irwin; the Red Cockaded Woodpecker on Fort Benning; the Golden Cheeked Warbler on Fort Hood; and the Taylors Checker-spot Butterfly, Streaked Horned Lark and Roy Pocket Gopher on Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

Our installation teams work hard to minimize impacts to these species and to the Army's training activities. The Army's Natural Resources Management plans include best management practices that balance land use needs with ecosystem recovery requirements.

As more species join the threatened or endangered species list (25 are currently pending) we are prepared to increase focus on partnerships with conservation organizations. By protecting threatened and endangered species and their habitat off Army installations, we will assure continued access to training and testing lands on our installations.

MANAGING INFRASTRUCTURE CAPACITY

In January 2013, the Secretary of Defense (SecDef) directed the Military Departments and Defense Agencies to conduct a European Infrastructure Capacity (EIC) analysis focused on reducing long-term expenses through infrastructure consolidations.

The Army's ongoing European Transformation Plan reduced infrastructure consistent with previous force structure changes. The EIC analysis was the first opportunity for all services and defense agencies to compare existing infrastructure capacities to requirements across the European theater.

The process produced beneficial outcomes for the Army and the Joint Force by significantly reducing costs and eliminating excess infrastructure, without degrading strategic or operational capabilities.

Many of the closures or transitions were in process before EIC, and were reevaluated to ensure compatibility with other possible DoD-wide consolidation alternatives. The approved EIC plans also validated the Army's previously announced closures of two large U.S. Army installations: Bamberg and Schweinfurt.

Implementing these actions requires a one-time cost of $358 million across fiscal years 2014 to 2020. Many actions have an immediate return on investment; by fiscal year 2021, the plan for the Army yields annual recurring savings of $163 million. The implementation period began in fiscal year 2014 and concludes in fiscal year 2023.

The Army has tools and authorities to identify and reduce excess capacity overseas. Inside the United States, however, the best and most proven method to address excess infrastructure in a cost-effective, transparent, and equitable manner, is through the BRAC process.

At a force structure of 490,000 Soldiers, the Army estimates it will have 160 million square feet of excess capacity. Costing an average of $3 per square foot per year to sustain, that excess translates to approximately $480 million in unnecessary and unaffordable costs. Further force downsizing only increases the carrying cost of excess capacity, as overhead costs are relatively inelastic. Base Operations Support (BOS) requirements do not decrease in a 1:1 ratio as installation populations decline.

An installation could lose as much as 40 percent of their military populations, as units inactivate, but its BOS costs may drop by only 5 percent or less. BRAC is crucial because it allows the Army to eliminate BOS requirements by closing a few of our lower military value installations. Essential functions on the closing installation are then realigned, allowing the Army to fully utilize any excess capacity it may have at its higher military value installations. This produces real savings in dollars and resources.

BRAC provides local communities with the planning and conveyance tools necessary to adjust and get excess property back onto the tax rolls. Without BRAC, some installations can become "ghost towns" when units are inactivated and vacant property remains in the Army's real property inventory. Surrounding communities will be affected by the loss of business and decrease in contributions to the local economy.

BRAC - 2005 resulted in many tangible benefits for the Army. In addition to saving the Army $1 billion per year in operating costs, BRAC enabled the Army to return over 46,000 acres of land to local communities to date. Our goal for fiscal year 2016 is to convey valuable property to the communities around Fort McPherson, Fort Monmouth, Fort Monroe, and the former Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The conveyance will generate over $100 million in cash and in-kind proceeds to the Army to use for environmental clean-up, and enable those communities to commence return to productive uses.

SUMMARY

Readiness and resiliency is increased by ensuring energy and water security, sustainability, and by managing land and infrastructure capacity. Successes in reducing energy use, developing new efficiencies through Net Zero, and investing in renewable energy resources have enhanced Energy Security and Sustainability on our installations.

We have demonstrated responsible stewardship of the resources and lands entrusted to us. We are vigilant guardians as we watch over the endangered species residing on our training ranges.

However, we must not only protect and fully utilize the resources we have, but we must have the authority to divest ourselves of what is no longer of high military value. For the Army to operate within current budget caps, major proposed reforms must be approved by Congress. The Army must be allowed to eliminate a half a billion dollars per year of excess infrastructure capacity through a new BRAC.

Through these efforts and future successes, we will continue to enhance installation resiliency, enhancing our Soldiers' ability to rapidly deploy, fight, and win wherever and whenever our national interests are threatened.