Fort Lewis officials leverage system to lessen environmental impact

By Rachel YoungApril 18, 2008

FORT LEWIS, Wash. (April 11, 2004) - From composting and waste disposal to anti-idling campaigns and recycling, Fort Lewis is working to get all organizations on post involved in protecting the environment through its Environmental Management System.

Since 2005, Fort Lewis has been working toward the goal of every organization having an EMS, a system that allows an organization to evaluate itself and create a plan to lessen its environmental impact.

"EMS is all about evaluating your processes," said John Radzyminski, installation EMS and EOP coordinator for the environmental department of Fort Lewis Public Works. "In an organization that has EMS, they do the self-evaluation: this is what we do, here's how we impact the environment. In the military units, because they really don't have time to do all that, we do it for them in the EOP."

The EOP, or Environmental Operating Permit, was designed to be a document for military units on post, to help them develop a more environmentally friendly approach in their every-day activities. However, units have to focus on missions, training and deployments, which leaves little time for creating an EMS.

"We figured that, with what's required to set up an EMS, the military units could not do it," Radzyminski said. Instead, staff from the Army's Center of Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine West go in to each unit, talk to Soldiers, find out what they do and, with the unit command's input, tailor the unit's environmental goals to that battalion's individual mission.

"It is a unit-unique document," Radzyminski said. "It's intended to be a teaching tool for Soldiers to show them how to do things."

The EOP can contain a range of requirements, suggestions, regulations and checklists from recycling to waste disposal. The document contains regulations that apply to the unit and suggestions on what the unit can do to reduce its environmental impact and support the installation's sustainability goals. It also has functional-area specific guidance that can be copied and posted in that functional area.

The idea is to make it easy for Soldiers to support sustainability goals.

Then, once the EOP has been established, an EOP advisor is assigned to the unit to help implement the document by training Soldiers.

The 80th Ordnance Battalion, 593rd Sustainment Brigade is one of the first battalions to have a permanent EOP.

Master Sgt. Carolin Glendenning, battalion motor sergeant for 80th Ord. Bn., is in charge of implementing the EOP.

"What we had to do is we had to figure out what all the Soldiers work on in all the units," Glendenning said. After identifying what each company does and works on, CHPPM-West representatives were able to identify what the unit can do to be more environmentally friendly and put those procedures into EOP format which the battalion finalized in September.

So far, the EOP is working, Glendenning said. The challenge is keeping all Soldiers informed about the EOP.

"You always have a turn around with Soldiers, new ones come in and old ones leave, so you have to constantly make sure that the new Soldiers are aware of (the EOP)...and that they know how to use it."

Glendenning described the EOP as a living document that can be changed as the unit evolves. Processes can be added or removed as necessary as EOPs must be updated annually or within 60 days of a change of command.

Environmental is currently working to get other units EOPs also.

Meanwhile, on the civilian side, the Fort Lewis Commissary is working its EMS daily.

An anti-idling campaign requires that delivery drivers shut off their engines while waiting to pull up to the loading dock.

"We had the large trucks in the back that were idling in the morning waiting to pull up to a dock," said Janet Landon, commissary manager. The smoke from the trucks was so intense that it would even permeate the building. "Now we've stopped that. Now they shut off everything if they are sitting out there waiting," she said. "We did that for air quality."

To add to it, the commissary is working on implementing a ride sharing program for its employees, Landon said.

An ever-expanding composting program allows the commissary to keep produce, baked good and fat and bone from meats out of the landfill. These products are instead composted at Fort Lewis and used in landscaping projects to beautify the post.

"It's been a good program for us just in the fact that it's helping us get a lot of things out of our garbage that was going to the landfill," Landon said. "It comes out of our garbage so our costs are going down.

"It's just good for everyone," she said.

Rachel Young is a reporter for the Fort Lewis Northwest Guardian