The Greening of Industrial Ecosystems (1994) / Chapter Skim
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Preventing Pollution and Seeking Environmentally Preferable Alternatives in the U.S. Air Force
Preventing Pollution and Seeking Environmentally Preferable Alternatives in the U.S. Air Force
Pages 149-164
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From page 149... ...
MOREHOUSE, JR. To seek environmentally preferable alternatives to its current business practices, the U.S.
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From page 150... ...
Complementing Secretary Cheney's policy is the DOD Directive 4210.15, Hazardous Materials Pollution Prevention. It states that the Military Services are to "select, use and manage hazardous materials so as to incur the lowest life cycle cost to protect human health, the environment and long-term liability." While this is a basic and sound business approach, implementation is an enormously difficult and complex task.
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From page 151... ...
In the memorandum, they stated, "The Air Force is committed to preventing future pollution by reducing use of hazardous materials and releases of pollutants into the environment to as near zero as feasible. We must mobilize our whole team and find ways to move faster." HIGHLIGHTS OF THE AIR FORCE POLLUTION PREVENTION PROGRAM There are six objectives to the Pollution Prevention Action Plan.
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From page 152... ...
Under this objective, their maintenance and operations procedures will be revisited and materials and processes changed to environmentally preferable alternatives. As with the first objective, there are many subobjectives with milestones.
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Traveling teams from the Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence conduct regional training courses, in cooperation with the EPA, for all individuals at installations responsible for executing pollution prevention programs at the installation level. The Air Force Academy also offers degrees in environmental science and environmental management.
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From page 154... ...
This change in accounting procedures internalizes these costs to the installation and provides a financial incentive to reduce waste generation. This incentive becomes even more significant when considering that national regulations governing hazardous waste disposal have become more stringent and have driven the unit disposal costs up tenfold over the past five years.
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Organizational accounting procedures that force polluters to pay their own environmental costs, fines, and penalties are a powerful technique for reducing waste generation and improving the corporate bottom line. Performance Incentives The metrics for the Pollution Prevention Program are based on installations reporting their baseline figures and updating these figures annually.
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From page 156... ...
Although GSA has introduced a recycled products catalog, it cannot force people to order environmentally preferable products. Under the current system, each office across the government must make sure its own supply organization is ordering the products containing recycled content.
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48,000 lbs for 1,400 nm distance." The ability to influence the environmental performance of acquisition programs is limited by the ability to prescribe material or process selections or, alternatively, a methodology for making selections. Methodologies for making these selections are not very mature, but they are evolving.
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From page 158... ...
In the short term, contractors are being required to list components and end items that incorporate recycled materials. In the long term, changes to the Federal Acquisition Regulations that give preference to recycled products and that integrate environmental performance into source selection criteria may be required.
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This is the principle behind one of the Air Force Pollution Prevention Program initiatives, Proactive Procurement, designed to close this material loop. On September 25, 1992, the secretary of the Air Force and the chief of staff signed a policy memorandum establishing an Air Force policy to purchase and use products containing recycled materials when available.
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From page 160... ...
This trend will help the military services keep pace with the environmental ethic that industry is incorporating into manufacturing activities in response to customer demands, and free defense industries to move their processes closer to those in use in the commercial sector. Reviewing the experience of the military in phasing out ODCs is a useful study in the dynamics of the MILSPECS/MILSTDS system.
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From page 161... ...
Once a MILSPEC is established, however, specific program offices are not bound to apply the specification as written. Because program offices are responsible for delivering the prescribed number of products or weapons systems that meet performance requirements, on time, and within budget, the program offices have the authority to use whatever technical requirements documents they deem appropriate.
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From page 162... ...
One small step that would help those contractors eager to move toward environmentally preferable alternatives would be to allow them to adopt MILSPEC and MILSTD changes enacted since the contract was awarded simply by notifying their program offices, without the need for approval. To move toward environmentally preferable alternatives, program offices must be receptive to new design ideas, manufacturing processes, material choices,
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From page 163... ...
As a large consumer, the federal government should be an informed and responsible environmental consumer and use contracting incentives to stimulate markets for environmentally preferable products. As a large and sophisticated research organization, the government can provide new seed technologies for the private sector to incorporate into environmental products and services for a global commercial market.
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From page 164... ...
It exploits opportunities to choose environmentally preferable alternatives presented by each of the roles it fulfills in society. It also exploits the opportunities government has to find and support environmentally preferable choices through a comprehensive program of educating team members about the opportunities presented by their jobs, establishing internal goals and objectives designed to improve the environmental performance of Air Force operations, instituting a series of metrics and scorecards to measure performance, and implementing an investment strategy.
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