Contact
Public Affairs Office
601-634-3188
VICKSBURG, Miss – ERDC recently received the Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) 2011 Education & Outreach Sustainability Award Honorable Mention citation for education and outreach in federally mandated fossil fuel reductions and renewable energy integration through its team efforts with Bioengineering Group, University of Virginia and Arizona State University.
In his letter noting this achievement, SAME Executive Director Dr. Robert Wolff wrote this award is given for outstanding efforts to meet the goals of the Executive Order 13154, which sets sustainability levels for federal agencies by 2020 to improve environmental, energy and economic performance.
These targets include increased energy efficiencies, reduction in fleet petroleum consumption, water conservation, waste reduction and support of sustainable communities.
“The Selection Committee felt that you were a close runner-up (to winner U. S. Army Medical Command, Fort Sam Houston, Texas) and therefore deserving of an honorable mention. Your name will be listed in the program for the Honors Luncheon at the 2012 Joint Engineers Training Conference in St. Louis, Mo.,” Wolff said.
According to ERDC Environmental Laboratory’s (EL) Research Physical Scientist Dr. Igor Linkov, the award submission outlined how ERDC identified gaps in standard decision methodologies.
“Our team developed leadership insight on the measurable benefits of understanding energy flow patterns, including recoverable energy losses. Multi-criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) was one of the new methods for selecting among energy security investments and strategies of installations,” Linkov said.
The team showed how typical energy audits for buildings can be enhanced to provide information that adequately supports installation specific programming requirements by integration of energy and infrastructure options with mission objectives and stakeholder preferences. The project team's improved approach enabled decision makers at Fort Belvoir, Va., and elsewhere to address a broad and varying range of emergent conditions in the energy environment, including mission criticality, regulatory and market forces, disruption of service, grid failure and infrastructure deterioration, among others.
“We could not have done this without the very strong team we put together with experts from government, academia, and industry. We are honored to receive this award from SAME and look forward to continuing our work with installations in meeting their sustainability goals,” Linkov said. “We could not have done this without the very strong team we put together with experts from government, academia and industry. We are honored to receive this award from SAME and look forward to continuing our work with installations in meeting their sustainability goals.”