Operationalize Sustainability Essay Example for Free

Operationalize Sustainability Essay â€Å"We must strive to become systems thinkers if we are to benefit from the interrelationships of the triple bottom line of sustainability: mission, environment, and community† (sustainability. army. mil). Welcome to the Army strategy for the environment. As one of the largest organizations in America, the Army has joined the movement towards sustainability. With 4 available resources, 5 functional areas and 7 programs and implementation tools, the Army is surging forward with applying sustainability practices. The purpose of this work is to divulge into the Army’s P2, or Pollution Prevention program, as well as giving alternate suggestions on preventing waste. Pollution Prevention (P2) is defined as the systematic effort to minimize, or eliminate altogether, process waste and other pollutants before that are generated (army. mil). P2 is a program that is just one tool to help achieve sustainability. This program can be applied to almost every aspect from field training, housing, family life, installation operations and munitions productions. To operationalize the P2 program, the Army has applied the basic principles of pollution prevention as well as developed the P2 hierarchy: reduce, reuse, recycle and dispose in an environmentally safe manner. The first priority in the hierarchy is reduction. The Pollution Prevention Act (PPA) defines this as â€Å"Any practice which 1) reduces the amount of any hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant entering any waste stream or otherwise released into the environment (including fugitive emissions) prior to recycling, treatment, or disposal; and 2) reduces the hazards to public ealth and the environment associated with the release of such substances, pollutants, or contaminants. The term includes equipment or technology modifications, process or procedure modifications, reformulation or redesign of products, substitution of raw materials, and improvements in housekeeping, maintenance, training, or inventory control† (army. mil) In the P2 program, this definition is applied to the broad goal of reducing or eliminating the environmental impacts of consuming resources and the waste that is generated from it. This waste can come from Army vehicle maintenance such as oil changes or leaving computers and lights on at the end of the work day. Reuse and recycle in hierarchy are meant for pollution that cannot be prevented. In this case, pollution should be treated in an environmentally safe manner whenever feasible. â€Å"The resources of a nation must be constantly managed: expanded then gathered, gathered then distributed each person or group sometimes gaining, sometimes losing, but always treated fairly and with respect. (O’Toole, 1993, p. 108) For example, Fort Bragg Army base in North Carolina has built an entire village out of materials recycled or diverted from the Fort Bragg landfill. This recycled â€Å"trash† village is used in training and preparing troops for deployment. If the first three actions cannot be taken, the last step in the P2 hierarchy is to disposal, removal and discharge of pollution into the environment should be employed only as a last resort and should be conducted in an environmentally safe manner. We will look at how these problems have arisen, and how they are all symptoms of a way of living that we have taken for granted, which has produced great progress but also growing side effects† (Senge, 2008, p. 10) While this program and many others are giving the Army advances in the right direction toward sustainability, there are other efforts that can be made to help prevent waste. In sustainability, waste is not reserved to trash alone. Waste can be the unnecessary use of, or degradation, of resources. For the Army, a suggestion for prevention can be monitoring the use of electronics. Each office in the military has several computers since the military communicates largely with emails, share drives and electronic training and personnel records. These computers are continuously on throughout the day, even after personnel go home. â€Å"U. S. organizations squander $2. 8 billion a year to power unused machines, emitting about 20 million tons of carbon dioxide†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Swartz, 2009) In some cases, such as hospitals with shift workers, there may be a need for active computers. In other cases, the Army can implement a timer, programmed for the end of a shift, to turn off all computers. The exception may be to leave one on for additional use of people working late, but the others would automatically shut off, saving the energy use instead of having computers in sleep mode throughout the night. â€Å"Simply shutting down PCs at night can save a company with 10,000 PCs over $260,000 a year and 1,871 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, the report says. (Swartz, 2009) The same goes for radios, printers, faxes, unnecessary machinery and all other excessive electronics. Another suggestion would be to create self-sustaining gyms. Exercise and the military go hand in hand. Exercise is directed and required to have a successful military career. Many people go to the gym, not just active duty but also dependent spouses, veterans, civil service workers and civilians with base access. The treadmill, elliptical, bikes and stair climbers are the most used equipment in the gym due to the diversity of patrons. Eco-friendly gyms have been popping up worldwide. † (Huey, 2008) This can be used to the Army’s advantage by using the energy output from the machines in use to generate the electricity for the lighting in the gym and operation of TVs. Instead of having TVs on and available at all times, have TVs operational only on the machine while it is in use, being powered by the operator. â€Å"A unique and key feature of green gyms is that they can actually use the energy generated from people exercising and use that to power their facilities. (Huey, 2008) Obviously this may not sustain an entire gym, considering air conditioning, heating and the size of the gym to include playing courts, but this can help to drastically lower energy usage. The Army also wastes equipment, which can produce pollution upon disposal. This equipment is the boots, jackets, uniforms, camel packs, Gerber tools, etc. that is issued to troops. When a troop completes basic training, or boot camp, the required initial equipment items are issued. When a troop deploys to an overseas location, new equipment is issued, even if the troop recently completed boot camp. This results in a double issue of equipment to the same troops, with no requirement to turn in unused or unneeded equipment. â€Å"While Soldiers have embraced the RFI process, they recently identified one noteworthy problem area in the RFI process: Their clothing records having duplicate items that were previously issued. † (Maj. Wright, 2009) Military members are also issued a clothing allowance every year for new uniforms. This results in money lost and equipment waste and abuse. Troops can throw away unused equipment without properly recycling the materials. To help put a check on equipment, the Army can implement a â€Å"turn in, tag out† system. This means troops will have to turn in old, worn out equipment, such as boots, to be issued new pairs. A â€Å"tag out† on issued items will be kept electronically in a database to ensure individuals are not being issued double items. Supply personnel can look up by name and determine if the troop has already received an item. With old equipment being turned into supply, the right people can properly and environmentally safely dispose or recycle used equipment. Also, by documenting equipment that is issued out and what equipment is being turned in, supply personnel will be better equipped in ordering new items efficiently rather than ordering excessive products and wasting money. Although the Army has taken many positive steps toward operationalizing sustainability, there are many more that can be taken. The Army may never be fully sustainable due to numerous training missions that use fuel, energy and natural resources, but every effort counts toward reducing, recycling and disposing of pollution properly. These advances can be applied toward other military branches as well. For instance, the Navy dumps thousands of gallons of fuel into our atmosphere to make the planes lighter and able to land on carriers at sea. While this maneuver is done for safety, the amount of gas put into the plane initially is known to be too much upon landing. This is an obvious area to improve on. Sustainability can be operationalized by every business, organization and company in the world. â€Å"What weve discovered on our journey is that implementing sustainability is a lot like implementing any other corporate change initiative. (Hitchcock, 2006, p. 167) The military is always changing and always adapting. In conclusion, the Army has many programs and tools that are operationalizing sustainability practices. The P2 program is a great start to handling systems that produce waste and pollution. The hierarchy of reduce, reuse, recycle and dispose of in an environmentally safe manner is the right mindset for sustainability. The Army also has areas that can be improved upon, as with any company. The Army is making progress towards sustainability, which is progress in the right direction for a better future. Bibliography http://www.greeniacs.com/GreeniacsArticles/Gyms-Get-Sustainable.html www.gdrc.org/sustdev/concepts/19-n-step.html http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/environment/2009-03-25-pc-power-company-costs_N.htm http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/about_ikea/pdf/sustainability_Report_2009.pdf