Welcome to AEPI (Director's Message)
AEPI assists the Army Secretariat in developing policies and strategies to improve or resolve environmental policy issues that may have significant short or long-term impacts on the Army. Since environmental issues continue to emerge as our knowledge and technology develop, AEPI constantly scans for and assesses future environmental challenges and opportunities for the Army.
Our overall objective is to support the triple bottom line of Army sustainability - Mission, Environment, and Community - as outlined in the Army Strategy for the Environment. Our initiatives help the Army to sustain readiness, improve quality of life, strengthen community relationships, and help reduce total costs of ownership by suggesting sound environmental investments for force transformation and installation sustainability.
Open Topics
Army Strategy for the Environment
The United States Army has long recognized that our mission is only accomplished because America entrusts us with its most precious resources - its sons and daughters. It is our obligation to ensure that our Soldiers today - and the Soldiers of the future - have the land, water, and air resources they need to train; a healthy environment in which to live; and the support of local communities and the American people… read more
Sustainability 2001 - 2008
The men and women of the United States Army are the Strength of the Nation, striving daily to protect our Nation and to ensure its future, both at home and abroad. The Army is committed to maintaining its position as the world's preeminent land power, a force trianed and ready at all times to serve the Nation and support its allies. We recognize that a trained and ready force for tomorrow requires a long-range vision today. This entails the application of transformational, systems thinking and sustainability priciples across the Army in all functional areas. This brochure chronicles highlights of our sustainability efforts to date… read more (PDF)
Army Sustainability Report 2007
In June 2007, Army Headquarters received one of three White House Closing the Circle "Sowing the Seeds of Change" Awards from the Office of the Federal Environmental Executive for the future vision established and implemented through our sustainability strategy—The Army Strategy for the Environment (ASE): Sustain the Mission, Secure the Future. Through this strategy, released in 2004, Army leadershp challenged all Army personnel to incorporate our 'triple bottom line' (TBL) of Mission, Environment, and Community into all of its plans, processes and actions. The principles laid out in the Strategy provide a compass, pointing to a true north, which will continue to guide us well into the 21st Century as we navigate the terrain toward sustainability… read more — publication (PDF) — brochure (PDF)
Army Public Involvement Toolbox
The Army has launched a website to help strengthen partnerships between the Army and the communities around its installations and ranges by providing practical tools, methods, examples, and information related to public involvement… visit site
DoD Environment, Safety and Occupational Health Network and Information Exchange (DENIX)
DENIX provides DoD personnel in the environmental security and safety & occupational health arena (a principal staff element of the OUSD(AT&L) mission) with timely access to environmental legislative, compliance, restoration, cleanup, and DoD guidance information. It is intended to serve as a central electronic "meeting place" where information can be exchanged among environmental professionals worldwide… visit site
What's New
ARMY WATER SECURITY STRATEGY
The project provides the results of the first comprehensive study of water security management in the Army and identifies the key issues on which Army leadership can focus to ensure that the Army has enough water of suitable quality for the foreseeable future. This effort builds a foundation for supporting water security in the Army. It is intended to assist the Army in identifying how water affects its ability to successfully accomplish its vital missions in support of U.S. national interests… read more (PDF)
Quantifying the Army Supply Chain Water Bootprint
Water is highly likely to become a focus of future competition and conflict sparked by increased demand and dwindling availability. Projected climate changes will likely exacerbate water scarcity in high-risk areas. Army policy does not address supply chain or indirect water use, and, suppliers and most of industry do not track their own indirect water use or water used to manufacture products. The Army undertook this water bootprint study as an initial step toward quantifying the amount of water used by suppliers to produce the goods and services it procures through the supply chain. A primary concern driving the study is that timely provision of critical goods and services could be at risk if water-intensive production lines suffered unforeseen water shortages. To calculate the water bootprint for the supply chain, the authors applied water-use factors to known quantities of purchased fuels and utility energy, and a high-level economic model that estimates water use per million dollars of activity by market sector to the remaining supply chain components. The latter includes data from requisition and acquisition databases, local purchases, and military and civil works construction and, international and interagency support provided by the US Army Corps of Engineers. The study findings will help the Army make supply-side policy decisions before water availability issues can adversely affect critical supplies and services, thus hindering operational readiness and training… read more (PDF)
Sustainability Report 2010
The Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment (ASA [IE&E]) is proud to announce the release of Army Sustainability Report 2010 (ASR 2010). In this third Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)-based public report, the Army describes its efforts and progress in 2009 to further integrate and coordinate sustainability Army-wide to protect reliable access to energy, water and other natural resources and to preserve strategic choice and operational flexibility into the future… read more (PDF)
Environmental Change and Fragile States: Early Warning Needs, Opportunities, & Intervention
Army doctrine recognizes fragile states as an emerging threat to global security and stability and the need for early identification to structure more successful interventions. Natural resources and the environment play critical roles in human and societal welfare. This report provides a detailed review of relevant missions and roles, key definitions and conceptual approaches, early warning systems capabilities, and sources of data. The report also proposes a fragility-based framework and functional architecture to better integrate environmental and natural resources factors in an effort to improve Army strategic early warning and operational planning needs… read more (PDF)
Army Foresight: Protecting Critical Benefits Received from Ecosystems
Ecosystem services are the benefits people receive from ecosystems, but their value are often underestimated or ignored, making them difficult to protect. Ecosystem services benefit the Army mission by supplying land and habitats for realistic training, filtering pollutants from stormwater, providing noise, safety, and smoke buffers, and providing valuable recreational opportunities for soldiers, their families, and community members. The report proposes a “no net loss” of ecosystem services policy would be consistent with regulatory approaches on wetlands, and is compatible with the Army’s “Net Zero” concepts for energy, water, and waste.… read more (PDF)
Analysis of Policy and Guidance Regarding Sustainability and Environmental Considerations in Overseas Contingency Operations in the Joint, Interagency, Intergovernmental, and Multinational (JIIM) Environment
An analysis was performed to indentify the existing regulatory, policy, doctrinal, conceptual, or guidance documents related to sustainability or environmental considerations that could be either directly or indirectly linked to contingency operations. Environmental considerations were included in order to assure that references to environmental sustainment were not overlooked with reference to operational sustainability. None of the documents are directed at implementing or developing sustainability as a driving factor in contingency operations.… read more (PDF)
Water Sustainability Assessment for Ten Army Installations
A key concern for the US Army is the vulnerability of military installations to critical resource issues. Water issues of concern, including adequate supply, increased cost of production per unit volume, quality, habitat degradation and salinity issues, already affect military installations and military operations in many locations within the nation and across the globe. There is a need to assess vulnerability of regions and installations to water supply and to develop strategies to ameliorate any adverse effects on military sustainment. These analyses, completed on a watershed level and projected over a 30-year time frame, include estimates of both installation and regional water demand. Assessments were completed for 10 Army bases across the United States. Results depict a range of installation water sustainability conditions that reflect the larger picture of water sustainability across the United States and around the world. The Army is applying the results of these studies to develop policies that will support sustainable long-term water supplies.… read more (PDF)
Army Overseas Water Sustainability Study
An assessment was performed of regional water supply and demand at three overseas Army installations. The assessment was used to determine the
vulnerability of the regions and the installations in them to water supply disruption and to develop strategies to ameliorate any adverse effects on military sustainment.… read more (PDF)
Water Reuse and Wastewater Recycling at U.S. Army Installations
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In the future, some U.S. Army installations may face water shortages. This reduction in available water resources will threaten the Army's ability to execute its mission. An assessment was performed to explore current and potential water reuse and wastewater recycling in the Army, including applicable laws and regulations, differences between regulations and guidelines, potable reuse considerations, and examples of water reuse at installations, and makes recommendations for policy changes that will increase water reuse on Army installations.… read more (PDF)
Methodology & Analysis for Energy Security in Military Operations (MAESMO)
Army releases Methodology & Analysis for Energy Security in Military Operations study outlining measures addressing critical operational energy security objectives identified in the Defense Science Board report, DoD Energy Strategy "More Fight - Less Fuel". Recommendations significantly expand the Army's analytic capabilities for strategic and tactical missions enabling better informed energy investments addressing recently enacted DOD requirements. Moreover, given the nexus between energy/water security MAESMO could support an Army enterprise-wide strategy for water… read more (PDF)
Executive Summary (PDF)
Fully Burdened Cost of Waste Report
A method and spreadsheet-based tool are presented to determine the fully burdened cost of managing solid, hazardous, and medical waste in contingency operations. Understanding that Army materiel costs more than the price charged at commodity procurement and that there are non-monetary risks and liabilities form the "fully burdened" cost (FBC) concept. The FBC method accounts for differences in waste management costs as military operations mature from initial deployment to stabilization and reconstruction. It begins with the waste as already generated and does not address materiel or operational decisions that influence the waste stream… read more (PDF)
spreadsheet (XLS)
Cleanup and Closure at Camp Navajo
AEPI War College Fellow, LTC Bill Myer, published an article titled "Cleanup and Closure at Camp Navajo" in the Environmental Engineering section of the January-February 2011 Edition of The Military Engineer: Society of American Military Engineers. The article is about the Army National Guard and their assumption of the lead role and responsibility for conducting the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Closure of Interim Status RCRA Permitted OB/OD operations at Camp Navajo. This article outlines the key lessons learned by the author as a program and project manager. (BAH)… read more
Environmental Factors in Forecasting State Fragility
The current state of both instability and fragility early warning systems were researched to assess their capabilities to account for environmental factors. An exploratory quantitative analysis of the effects of environmental variables on fragility indices was conducted
using fragility as the dependent variable. Alternative architectures were also evaluated that could be leveraged in a paired instability and fragility approach, utilizing quantitative and qualitative data, for use
in actionable early warning frameworks supportive of U.S. Army, defense, and national security missions. (BAH)… read more
Sustainability Report 2009
The Army offers its second annual sustainability report to both inform and engage its primary shareholders on progress to embody the principles of sustainability in 2008. full report (PDF)
Managing the Life Cycle Risks of Nanomaterials
The Department of Defense nanotechnology research, development, testing and evaluation programs are exploiting unique properties found at the nanoscale to enhance war fighter and battle systems capabilities. These advances are expected to deliver beneficial technologies for military as well as human health, environmental, commercial, and industrial applications. read more (PDF)
Review of United Nations Environmental Programme and Other Post-conflict Environmental Analyses
Following multiple recent conflicts, the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) examined the environmental effects of warfare and offered recommendations about means of minimizing these effects in the post-conflict period. As the UNEP gained experience and understanding of the environmental consequences of military action, it recognized that larger issues, notably the existence of environmental, natural resource, and civil infrastructure issues across the conflict lifecycle, can affect the course of the conflict and post-conflict periods. read more (PDF)
Fragile State to Functioning State
From Fragile State to Functioning State consists of a compilation of 17 articles that evaluates how countries may recover and return to a path of stable and democratic development. read more (PDF)
African Environmental and Human Security in the 21st Century
African Environmental and Human Security in the 21st Century combines ten original essays that discuss important non-traditional environmental and human security issues facing countries located in each region of Africa. read more (PDF)
AEPI Report — Green Chemistry and Engineering Opportunity
A sustainability framework is presented for green chemistry and green engineering. The framework is used to identify opportunties for environmental improvement and innovation within the U.S. Army. As a specific case study, the Army’s remediation activities associated with emerging contaminants are evaluated. Sustainability metrics are presented to assist the Army in evaluating various treatment technologies. read more (PDF)
Army Installations Water Sustainability Assessment
The U.S. Army is concerned that its installations face multiple critical resource issues, including water. Adverse water issues include supply, cost, and quality. Strategies are needed to mitigate these adverse effects. To develop these strategies, information was gathered from national watershed screenings and regional water budgets including supply and demand data from regions with Army installations. The information was then used to develop installation water demand projections that look beyond the fenceline and out 30 years into the future to identify the potential for water scarcity. read more (PDF)
Sustain the Mission Project: Casualty Factors for Fuel and Water Resupply Convoys
Resupply of fuel and drinking water for troops-in-theater costs lives. The purpose of this study is to develop a methodology for calculating casualty factors for fuel and water resupply convoys in theater operations and to demonstrate the methodology based on historical data from Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). read more (PDF)
Green Warrior: Army Environmental Considerations for Contingency Operations from Planning Through Post Conflict
A recently released AEPI-sponsored RAND report finds that environmental issues can play a pivotal role in U.S. Army contingency operations; and by effectively managing environmental issues during deployments, Army units and commanders can gain tactical and strategic advantage that can extend from combat into the post-conflict phase of operations. read more (PDF)
Sustain the Mission Project: Energy and Water Costing Methodology and Decision Support Tool
This report discusses the efforts conducted under "Sustain the Mission Project 2" (SMP-2). The purpose of the SMP-2 is further develop and expand the SMP energy and water costing methodology; update SMP-generated life-cycle energy and water cost factors for contingency operations and training; design and test a user-friendly decision support tool for cost-benefit analysis of energy and water investments; and work with appropriate Army agencies to apply the SMP cost-benefit tool to energy and water technologies considered by the Army for further development and fielding. read more (PDF)