Foresight: Searching for Sustainability
A Publication of the Army Environmental Policy Institute

Welcome to Foresight! In this series, we focus on a topic of concern from our "radar screen"--topics of concern to the AEPI in particular and to the Army overall--presenting key points from our preliminary research in a short report. These reports support our mission, which is to help the Secretariat develop policies and strategies that anticipate and address environmental issues that may affect the Army.

Foresight is the ability to look forward. We deliberately, methodically gather intelligence to follow trends and identify emerging issues. Foresight extends 3 years and more into the future--offering directions, not making predictions. The issues of concern will affect the Army's ability to achieve its mission: they need attention now.

Foresight helps achieve sustainability by improving policy today to prevent current undesirable trends from becoming future intractable issues. It includes three components: systematically scanning trends, encouraging participation and buy-in, and building vision to improve policy. Foresight is ongoing. Topical specialists continuously track issues and offer topics for discussion, recognizing the current and creatively considering the future.

Each brief report introduces a topic, discusses its significance to the Army, and delineates key areas for further study. We don't recommend specific policy or suggest that we know the final solution. We offer these reports to interested parties to solicit comment, encourage sharing, and improve understanding on complex issues. They are designed to generate discussion and invite collaboration with our military partners, as well as potential collaborators in science, academia, industry, and other organizations. The reports summarize the topics, but they contain hyperlinks to relevant publications with the details that facilitate further research.

We invite you to join us on our journey in the search to sustain the Army mission and secure the future. To register your comments on this issue, please contact AEPI at 703-604-2305 or aepi.administrator@hqda.army.mil.

Foresight, July 2007: Climate Change and Army Sustainability.
Climate change is widely accepted by the world's scientific community. Numerous aspects of climate change remain under debate, but the basic premise - that the planet is warming due to increases in greenhouse gases in the planet's atmosphere - is widely supported...read this series (PDF)

Foresight, March 2007: Emerging Ecosystem Services and Markets.
The Army has made significant investments in protecting the ecosystems that provide critical natural resources to sustain military operations and the installations that support them. The 25 million acres of land under the stewardship of the Army and other DoD components harbor more threatened, endangered, and at-risk species per acre habitat than any other federal lands. These assets must be sustained to meet the needs of current and future missions...read this series (PDF)

August 06: Stability Operations Plans.
Stability Operations plans must include sustainability considerations that will help ensure we address both present and future needs while strengthening community partnerships that improve our ability to organize, equip, train and deploy our Soldiers as part of the joint force. ¹ Department of Defense (DoD) Directive 3000.05, "Military Support for Stability, Security, Transition, and Reconstruction (SSTR) Operations" was issued November 28, 2005, to establish policy and assign responsibilities for planning, training for, and preparing to conduct and support SSTR²...read this series (PDF)

Nanotechnology: The Next Industrial Revolution.
Federal investment in nanotechnology research is approaching $1 billion in FY05. Nanotechnology could play a key role in shaping Army transformation, changing a wide spectrum of Army operations and processes from the Soldier's uniform to military logistics and environmental technology. How will sustainable Army harness the potential of nanotechnology while ensuring compatibility with natural and human systems?...read this series (PDF)