FORT EUSTIS, Va. –
The 733rd Civil Engineer Division earned the 2013 Virginia Governor's Environmental Excellence Gold Medal Award April 10 for the success of their sustainability program.
The award, granted on behalf of Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, recognizes the division's significant contributions toward environmental protection and conservation in the sustainability category through its Environmental Management System, an International Standard for Organization 14001 initiative designed to drive and track progress through measurable objectives and targets.
Arba Williamson, the 733rd CED Pollution Prevention Branch chief, said the current sustainability program began in 2004, and since has produced continuous improvement in reducing pollution, energy and water consumption, and solid waste production while increasing recycling.
In partnership with the Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Eustis closely monitored recent facility expansion and renovations to construct twenty Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified (LEED) buildings. As a Chesapeake Bay Partner, the installation has initiated storm water best management practices, and has inserted Low Impact Development (LID) aspects into many construction and paving projects.
Additionally, the sustainability program has ensured healthy forested lands, initiated efforts to control invasive species and balanced wildlife and ecological factors to protect the installation's training areas, which are integral in fulfilling Army and Department of Defense-level training requirements.
The sustainability program's accomplishments include:
- Water conservation efforts decreased water usage 17.5 percent from fiscal year 2009 to FY 2012.
- Air emissions decreased 43.8 percent from FY 2008 to FY 2012 and remain well below permit limits.
- The overall municipal solid waste stream decreased 29.9 percent from FY 2008 to FY 2012, and most dramatically in FY 2012. Fort Eustis also increased the recycling and diversion rate significantly from 39 percent in FY 2008 to 51 percent in FY 2012.
- Since 2009, operational hazardous waste generation has steadily decreased by 26.1 percent.
- Total electricity usage decreased 53.6 percent from FY 2009 to FY 2012.
- Gasoline usage decreased 22.7 percent from FY 2007 to FY 2012. Diesel usage decreased 19.9 percent from FY 2007 to FY 2012.
- Partnership with the Army CoE to construct one LEED Platinum facility, two LEED Gold facilities and 17 LEED Silver certifiable buildings, contributing to further water, energy and other environmental improvements.
- Integration of LID apparatuses into base-level projects, notably a storm drain filter system, swales, retention ponds and 10 rain gardens.
- Since 2007, the 733rd CED improved 125 acres of forested land, treated more than 725 acres of invasive plant species and protected 100 percent of the post's more than 2,000 acres of wetlands through delineation and designating buffer areas.
Williamson said the EMS is driven through three cross-functional teams comprised of 733rd CED experts and representatives from organizations across the installation. These teams meet to establish sustainability and conservation goals, and representatives take findings back to their organizations to determine how they can improve resource usage.
"They go back and say, "We can do a better job. We have environmental responsibilities; we can turn off the lights, and we can use less water,'" he explained. "They work together to do those things that contribute to sustainability."
Emma Watterson, a pollution prevention support specialist to the EMS, explained how metering resource usage is one of the division's primary vectors in continuing their success in sustainability.
"All large buildings on post will have meters. Our new buildings already do, and we will retrofit older buildings with meters," she said. "These meters allow us to go to a commander or director and tell them how much water, gas and electricity they're using and develop ways to reduce usage."
"Our thrust here is to follow DOD and Air Force sustainability philosophy and policy to conserve resources - water, air, fuels, energy -- and reduce wastes of all types, as well as recycling and reusing materials," Williamson said. "We're doing all that we do to ensure that Fort Eustis is here and healthy for as long as the DOD needs us to be."