Environment and Energy Resilience
Sustainability & Acquisition
Welcome
Our Mission / Purpose
Ensure DoD mission readiness with continued access to natural and man-made resources for test, training, sustainment and basing; continue to implement polices that protect personnel & the environment, mission-critical resources, and our communities through identification and management of evolving challenges in a changing world.
Team Overview
Responsible for ensuring DoD meets its sustainability mission by:
- Coordinate existing and emerging policy, develop tools, and provide oversight as DoD transforms how we build, buy, and manage electricity, chemicals, vehicles, buildings, and other operations to be resilient and sustainable within a compressed timeframe.
- Conduct mission accounting and supply chain engagement initiatives to drive decisions and sustainability metrics.
- Managing Federal sustainability reporting requirements for DoD including annual Department Sustainability Plans and Climate Related Plans.
- Enabling adoption of cost-effective, environmentally preferable technologies that increase operational efficiencies, reduce negative impact to human health and the environment, and are safer for the DoD workforce.
- Ensuring that Environment, Safety, and Occupational Health (ESOH) and sustainability considerations are integrated into acquisition processes across the Department.
DoD and Sustainability
- To successfully execute the Department of Defense (DoD) mission, our Military Departments must have the energy, land, air, and water resources necessary to train and operate in a world where there is increasing competition for resources.
- The Department pursues sustainability opportunities based on data that make the most compelling case in terms of mission, productivity, and long-term cost performance.
DoD’s Sustainability Vision
To maintain the ability to operate into the future without decline either in mission or in the natural and man-made systems that support
“When we operate more sustainably, we become more logistically agile and ready to respond to crises"
Secretary of Defense Austin,
Leaders Summit on Climate 2021
Relation of Sustainability to DoD Mission
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Potable Water Resources
- Essential for military operations, human health
- Reliability impacts base operations and fielding choices
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Vulnerability to Climate Change
- Can limit outdoor training
- Sea level rise affects infrastructure and diversity of training habitats
- Increases frequency & intensity of wildfires
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Energy and Reliance on Fossil Fuels
- Risk to forces delivering fuel
- Insecurity & volatility in supply & price
- Vulnerability of electrical grid
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Chemicals and Materials
- Equipment, weapon systems, and platforms depend on chemicals and materials
- Increasingly at risk from becoming non-available
Programs
Protect readiness, people, and the environment by identifying and managing risks associated with the chemicals and materials DoD uses.
Office Leadership
Patricia Underwood, PhD, DABT, MBA
Director
Natalia Vinas, PhD
Deputy Director
Engage with procurement and acquisition teams across the Department for the purchase of sustainable goods and services to reduce both life-cycle costs and the impact of DoD activities on human health and the environment.
Office Leadership
David Asiello
Director
Kari Meier, Ph.D.
Deputy Director
Reginald M. Mack, (USMC Ret.),
Executive MBA, CDP, DCM
Deputy Director
Combines an assessment of comprehensive life cycle cost and environmental aspects to identify and define decision parameters for product designs. Such assessments are critical to improving an improving mission readiness, affordability, and sustainability for the Department.
The Department of Defense (DoD) is committed to protecting human health and the environment, in an uninterrupted and cost-effective manner, while ensuring the success of its core mission. DoD strives to ensure effective and efficient compliance with all Federal, state, and local environmental laws and regulations, and provides guidance to the DoD Components for meeting those requirements, as necessary. Ensuring that the systems acquisition process considers risks and protects human health and the environment is critical to sustaining the DoD mission.
The Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy, Installations, and Environment (ASD[EI&E]), with support of Congress, and the White House Council on Environmental Quality, has recognized DoD’s Sustainable Technology Evaluation and Demonstration (STED) Program as a program of record within the Department of Defense (DoD) to facilitate broader awareness and increased acceptance of sustainable technologies across Military Services and other Federal Agencies.
Continue to develop and deliver DoD wide plans, strategies, policies and tools to inform the decision-making processes in order maintain the ability to operate into the future without decline—either in the mission or in the natural and built systems that support it.
Office Leadership
David Asiello
Director
Kari Meier, Ph.D.
Deputy Director
Reginald M. Mack, (USMC Ret.),
Executive MBA, CDP, DCM
Deputy Director
Integrate the Departments actionable GHG framework to inform DoD decision-making processes that increases resource efficiencies of use, reduce reliance on external resources, bolster supply chains. These actions support the department’s commitment to mission resilience, sustainability, and reduces its influence on climate change.
The Department intends to increase the Department’s efficiencies in its supply chain, enhance existing recycling infrastructure, establish municipal partnerships, and invest in quality-of-life improvement projects on all military installations to facilitate a greater adoption of regional recycling programs with municipalities.