As a statewide entity, the South Dakota Army National Guard has more than 3,100 soldiers across 22 locations in their largely rural, geographically dispersed state.
South Dakota covers 250 miles north to south and 400 miles east to west with facilities in nearly every part of the state. There are only a couple recycling facilities at either side of the state to take common recyclables and transporting goods to those locations is or would be very expensive.
Despite this obstacle, the SD Army National Guard has built a cohesive and successful approach to improving sustainability across its operations, posting successes in waste stream reduction, increased waste diversion, reduced energy consumption, compliance training, and systems management.
“The ethic of sustainability is taking root throughout the statewide installations,” said Maj. William Domagall, the state’s environmental program manager. “Over the past two years, facility managers and unit environmental compliance officers across our organization have made great strides in improving our sustainability efforts, despite many logistical challenges.”
One of the more notable examples of success has occurred in waste disposal. The overall organization has set a goal of 60% waste diversion by 2025 – or reducing by 60% the amount of waste sent to landfills.
Last year, the diversion rate reached 52.97% overall, meeting the Army 2025 goal of 50% diversion. This was driven in large part through extensive communications and training efforts and an expansion of recycling efforts by the Environmental Office, operations and maintenance staff, Construction Facilities Management Office project managers, and maintenance shop and warehouse personnel.
In addition, the organization has developed activities to support diversion at the unit level, creating both awareness and increased commitment to the goals at all operational levels. SDARNG is on track to increase diversion rates by 5% each year for the next five years. In fact, in fiscal years 2021 and 2022, the statewide efforts produced a 9% increase in diversion.
“We are reaching forward toward the federal government’s goal of 75% waste diversion by 2030 and how we can attain that mark by then,” said Domagall.
Another related success story is the expansion of the Qualified Recycling Program, which has empowered statewide staff to seek out local recycling, and “out of the box” diversion options unique to their communities.
“Acting on the empowerment to address environmental sustainability, the shop chiefs, warehouse managers, maintenance managers, preventive maintenance manager, and operations and maintenance staff demonstrate the shared ethic of environmental stewardship that has grown across the organization in recent years,” said Domagall. “Our employees are thinking about how we can coordinate efforts and gain more waste reduction and diversion results. Keeping it simple for soldiers and staff to actually participate is very important to our success.”
Energy use reduction is also another area of emphasis, and success the SDARNG can point to in its overall efforts. The Planning and Programming Branch and the energy manager for the organization achieved an energy consumption reduction of 4.7% in FY21 – exceeding the target for the year as part of plans to produce an overall reduction of 30% by 2025.
In tandem with energy reduction plans, SDARNG has pursued integrating renewable and alternative energy sources. Passive Heating Solar Walls at five locations produced an estimated 215 million BTU in FY2021. This heat production is equivalent to the electricity used in two homes over the course of a year and represents an avoided annual greenhouse gas equivalent of 11 metric tons of carbon dioxide.
At the Huron Readiness Center, where live metering and reporting is in place, solar photovoltaic panels produced 73,066 kWh in FY21, equivalent to the energy consumed by 10 homes in a year or 52 metric tons of carbon dioxide. Geothermal ground source heat pumps have also been installed at several sites, resulting in approximately 30% energy savings over conventional HVAC systems.
Water consumption reduction is another area of both importance and success for SDARNG. As of FY2021, water use has been slashed nearly 41% from the baseline established in FY2007.
These notable success stories have resulted in SDARNG being selected to represent the Army in the Department of Defense environmental award competition.
The focused efforts by SDARNG also have the potential to create change within the state beyond basic armory and training site management.
“If the SDARNG’s championing of waste diversion and energy use reduction continues, it has the potential to shift perspectives in communities across the state,” said Domagall “In areas where recycling vendors are very small or non-existent, the demand generated by the SDARNG could make the difference in supporting or enabling local businesses to meet those needs.”
SDARNG staff are also sharing their sustainability knowledge, including presentations to local communities on green roof installations to lighting retrofits, based on the work ongoing at the installation and promoting the environmental accountability and sustainability practices.
“When we connect with the communities we are a part of, and show that what we can have a positive impact on the environment, I believe we will see change. We will see soldiers being proactive about what they do with waste and how much they generate.” Domagall said.
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