USA — Army Announces New Policies on Energy Efficiencies

WASHINGTON, Oct. 27, 2010 — Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of the Army for Instal­la­tions, Ener­gy and the Envi­ron­ment Kather­ine Ham­mack issued today a new pol­i­cy mem­o­ran­dum to improve high-per­for­mance green build­ings stan­dards for the Army.

“Ener­gy secu­ri­ty, sus­tain­abil­i­ty and effi­cien­cy are nation­al secu­ri­ty imper­a­tives,” said Ham­mack. “This pol­i­cy sup­ports the Army’s glob­al mis­sions in a cost-effec­tive, safe and sus­tain­able man­ner that will ben­e­fit Army sol­diers, fam­i­lies and the entire nation.” 

The Mem­o­ran­dum for Sus­tain­able Design and Devel­op­ment Pol­i­cy Update (Envi­ron­men­tal and Ener­gy Per­for­mance) (Revi­sion), changes the way the Army will approach effi­cient design of Army facil­i­ties. Require­ments through­out the plan­ning, pro­gram­ming, bud­get­ing, design and build­ing stages will strength­en the Army’s sus­tain­abil­i­ty, ener­gy secu­ri­ty and ener­gy inde­pen­dence through more respon­si­ble con­sump­tion and planning. 

Incor­po­ra­tion of sus­tain­able design and devel­op­ment prin­ci­ples, fol­low­ing guid­ance as detailed in Amer­i­can Soci­ety of Heat­ing, Refrig­er­a­tion, and Air-Con­di­tion­ing Engi­neers Stan­dard 189.1, will reduce water and ener­gy con­sump­tion, opti­mize ener­gy effi­cien­cies and per­for­mance, and reduce neg­a­tive impacts on the nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment. Through strate­gies such as sit­ing, cool roofs, solar water heat­ing, storm water man­age­ment and water effi­cien­cy, the Army will reduce its impact on the envi­ron­ment. Options will be inves­ti­gat­ed and doc­u­ment­ed for each project to eval­u­ate the Army’s abil­i­ty to uti­lize renew­able and alter­na­tive pow­er sources on its instal­la­tions in a fash­ion that is com­pat­i­ble with train­ing mis­sions. Com­mis­sion­ing, mea­sure­ment and third-par­ty ver­i­fi­ca­tion also are required to track progress and iden­ti­fy oppor­tu­ni­ties for fur­ther improve­ment. Life­cy­cle-cost analy­ses will be manda­to­ry to pro­mote best busi­ness practices. 

The Army’s com­mit­ment to sus­tain­able design and devel­op­ment extends beyond con­struc­tion or ren­o­va­tion sav­ings, Ham­mack said. “High-per­for­mance build­ings are crit­i­cal to cost effec­tive life cycle man­age­ment of our infra­struc­ture and nation­al ener­gy secu­ri­ty,” she con­tin­ued. “Main­tain­ing access to vital resources, includ­ing ener­gy, water and the envi­ron­ment is vital for accom­plish­ing the Army’s glob­al missions.” 

While the over­all ben­e­fits gained through effi­cien­cies and reduced con­sump­tion will vary based on loca­tion, build­ings in com­pli­ance with the new pol­i­cy are expect­ed to yield sig­nif­i­cant ener­gy sav­ings for the Army over cur­rent con­struc­tion stan­dards. Pre­lim­i­nary analy­sis by the U.S. Army Corps of Engi­neers indi­cates ener­gy sav­ings over cur­rent design of 45 per­cent or greater. 

Ham­mack also issued today a Mem­o­ran­dum on the Uti­liza­tion of Effi­cient Light­ing to reduce ener­gy con­sump­tion and reduce adverse impacts to the envi­ron­ment. The memo estab­lish­es pol­i­cy and guid­ance to use only effi­cient light bulbs that meet stan­dards out­lined in the Ener­gy Inde­pen­dence and Secu­ri­ty Act of 2007. EISA requires the man­u­fac­ture of ener­gy effi­cient light bulbs, with effi­cien­cy stan­dards phas­ing in between 2012 and 2014. It also requires the use of ener­gy effi­cient light­ing fix­tures and bulbs in build­ings con­struct­ed by the Gen­er­al Ser­vices Administration. 

The Army also announced that all light bulbs acquired for use in facil­i­ties and struc­tures owned, leased or con­trolled by the Army must meet high­er ener­gy effi­cien­cy stan­dards. The goal is a com­plete replace­ment of all incan­des­cent light­ing on Army instal­la­tions with­in five years. New effi­cient light­ing will use 3–5 times less elec­tric­i­ty than an incan­des­cent bulb over the same period. 

“Light­ing effi­cien­cy improve­ments present a clear oppor­tu­ni­ty to decrease ener­gy con­sump­tion, which is a pri­or­i­ty for the U.S. Army, the Depart­ment of Defense and for the entire fed­er­al gov­ern­ment,” said Ham­mack. “It’s been over 130 years since Thomas Edi­son gave birth to the world’s first prac­ti­cal incan­des­cent light bulb, and we’re unde­ni­ably over­due for a jump forward.” 

In order for the Army to cap­ture ener­gy effi­cien­cy sav­ings con­sis­tent with these pro­vi­sions, the new pol­i­cy requires the use of the light bulbs as soon as pos­si­ble. When installed bulbs fail and exist­ing inven­to­ry is deplet­ed, only effi­cient light bulbs may be pur­chased. Com­pact flu­o­res­cent lights require sig­nif­i­cant­ly less ener­gy to pro­duce the same amount of light, and need replace­ment six times less often. This means a pro­found reduc­tion in elec­tric­i­ty, main­te­nance and labor costs 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs) 

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