Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vfjqv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-29T13:09:34.326Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEWS AND CASE STUDIES: Sustainability as a Force Multiplier in the US Army

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2010

Thomas H. Lillie  and
John J. Fittipaldi
Thomas H. Lillie*
Affiliation:
Army Environmental Policy Institute, Arlington, Virginia
John J. Fittipaldi
Affiliation:
Army Environmental Policy Institute, Arlington, Virginia
*
Address correspondence to: Thomas H. Lillie, PhD, Army Environmental Policy Institute, 1550 Crystal Drive, Suite 1301, Arlington, VA 22202-4144; (phone) 703-604-2321; (fax) 703-604-2344; (e-mail): tom.lillie@us.army.mil
Get access

Abstract

The United States (US) Army became the first agency in the federal government to apply the Global Reporting Initiative guidelines to its sustainability program in 2007. It fully reported on 28 performance indicators and partially reported on another 12 in its first annual report. The second annual report for 2008 fully reported on 25 performance indicators and partially reported on 22. For each year, the US Army achieved the Global Reporting Initiative Administrative Level B for its sustainability program. The US Army has established sustainability as department policy, developed courses to indoctrinate senior leaders to the concept, and made a commitment to practicing sustainability. This report describes the evolution of sustainability as a multidimensional management paradigm in the US Army, identifies the Army Triple Bottom Line, and explores next steps, including the use of sustainability as a force multiplier in contingency operations.

Environmental Practice 12:59–65 (2010)

Type
Features
Information
Environmental Practice , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , March 2010 , pp. 59 - 65
Copyright
Copyright © National Association of Environmental Professionals 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arnold, J.R., and Wiener, R.. 1989. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Natural Resources Management on Army Installations 1941–1987. Engineering and Support Center and Office of History, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Belvoir, VA, 120 pp. Available at http://140.194.76.129/publications//eng-pamphlets/ep870-1-40/entire.pdf.Google Scholar
Bemidji. 2006, July. The Bemidji Statement on Seventh Generation Guardianship. Available at Guardians of the Future, http://www.guardiansofthefuture.org/bemidji (accessed September 20, 2009).Google Scholar
Davis, A.D., and Hull, C.G.. 2004. Planning for the Future Force: The Sustainable Fort Bragg Story. Federal Facilities Environmental Journal 15(2):83–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, T. 2009. Beyond “An Inconvenient Truth”: The Army's March toward Operational Sustainability. Army Magazine, April, 27–32.Google Scholar
Eady, D.S., Siegel, S.B., Bell, R.S., and Dicke, S.H.. 2009. Sustain the Mission Project: Casualty Factors for Fuel and Water Resupply Convoys. Army Environmental Policy Institute Final Technical Report. Arlington, VA, 21 pp.Google Scholar
Earth Summit. 1992. UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), Rio de Janeiro, June 3–14. Available at http://www.un.org/geninfo/bp/enviro.html (accessed December 14, 2009).Google Scholar
Elkington, J. 1997. Cannibals with Forks: The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business. Capstone, Oxford, 402 pp.Google Scholar
Global Reporting Initiative. 2009. http://www.globalreporting.org/AboutGRI/ (accessed September 20, 2009).Google Scholar
Hawken, P., Lovins, A., and Lovins, L.H.. 1999. Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution. Little, Brown, New York, 322 pp.Google Scholar
Jefferson, T. 1789. Letter to James Madison. Paris, September 6, 1789. In The Letters of Thomas Jefferson: 1743–1826—The Earth Belongs to the Living. Available at From Revolution to Reconstruction, http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/P/tj3/writings/brf/jefl81.htm (accessed September 29, 2009).Google Scholar
Mosher, D.E., Lachman, B.E., Greenberg, M.D., Nichols, T., Rosen, B., and Willis, H.H.. 2008. Green Warriors: Army Environmental Considerations for Contingency Operations from Planning through Post-Conflict. Rand, Arroyo Center, Arlington, VA, 228 pp. Available at http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG632/.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Obama, B.H. 2009. Inaugural Address, Washington, DC, January 20, 2009. Available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/inaugural-address.Google Scholar
P.L. 91-190. 1970. National Environmental Policy Act, as amended.Google Scholar
President's Council on Sustainable Development. 1999. Presidential Blue Ribbon Panel Recommends Actions to Address Sprawl, Climate Change, and Corporate Environmental Responsibility. Final press release, May 5. Available at http://clinton2.nara.gov/PCSD/pressrep.html (accessed September 29, 2009).Google Scholar
Rand. 2008. http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG632/ (accessed September 28, 2009).Google Scholar
Schmidheiny, S., with the Business Council for Sustainable Development. 1992. Changing Course: A Global Business Perspective on Development and the Environment. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 374 pp.Google Scholar
United Nations. 1987. Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development. General Assembly Resolution 42/187, 96th Plenary Meeting, Agenda Item 82 e.Google Scholar
US Army. 2004. Army Strategy for the Environment. Army Environmental Policy Institute, Arlington, VA, 12 pp.Google Scholar
US Army. 2008. Sustainability Report 2007. Army Environmental Policy Institute, Arlington, VA, 60 pp.Google Scholar
US Army. In press.Sustainability Report 2008. Army Environmental Policy Institute, Arlington, VA.Google Scholar
US Army Sustainability Campaign Plan. In press.Department of the Army, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Wackernagel, M. 1994. Ecological Footprint and Appropriated Carrying Capacity: A Tool for Planning toward Sustainability (PhD dissertation). School of Community and Regional Planning, University of British Columbia. Vancouver, Canada.Google Scholar