[CPEO-MEF] Army Sustainability Report

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

In November, 2008 the U.S. Army released its first annual sustainability 
report, "Sustainability Report 2007: Sustain the Mission, Secure the 
Future." It summarizes Army efforts to integrate environmental 
management, as well as energy efficiency and renewables, into its 
principal mission. The report can be downloaded as a 9.4 MB PDF file 
from http://www.aepi.army.mil/. This is the first major federal agency 
report that conforms to the Global Reporting Initiative's sustainability 
reporting framework.

The document reports, for example, that all Army installations have 
Environmental Management Systems in place and that 31% are in 
conformance with ISO 14001 standards.  On the other hand, over a 
four-year period, Army generation of hazardous wastes increased by 35%, 
or 8% when indexed against operations. In 2007, 78% of the Army's 
military construction projects were built at least to LEED certification 
standards, and in that year it operated 30 renewable energy projects. 
Its Compatible Use Buffers protect more than 73,500 acres of land within 
the U.S.

The report includes some information - such as Army casualties in the 
Middle East - that some of us wouldn't expect in an environmental 
summary. On the other hand, it doesn't describe the Army's dispute over 
regulatory authority with EPA and some of the states. Furthermore, it 
does not describe the Army's costly, controversial program for 
demilitarizing chemical weapons.

Still, it's a good first effort. My point is not that the Army has a 
great environmental record or a poor environmental record, but that the 
Army Environmental Policy Institute has produced a report that will help 
the Army, regulatory agencies, Congress, and the impacted public monitor 
the Army environmental and energy successes and challenges.

Lenny

--


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org



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