Construction Engineering Research Laboratory and Partners Awarded for Sustainability Efforts

U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Public Affairs
Published June 18, 2016
The Corps of Engineers is committed to ensuring that sustainability is not only a natural part of all our decision processes, but should also part of our organizational culture. We define sustainability as an umbrella concept that encompasses energy, climate change and the environment to ensure that what we do today does not negatively impact tomorrow.

The Corps of Engineers is committed to ensuring that sustainability is not only a natural part of all our decision processes, but should also part of our organizational culture. We define sustainability as an umbrella concept that encompasses energy, climate change and the environment to ensure that what we do today does not negatively impact tomorrow.

The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Construction Engineering Research Laboratory in Champaign, Illinois, was presented with two U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sustainability Awards for their collaborative efforts to improve sustainability and installation planning.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sustainability Awards Program provides the opportunity to mark significant contributions the Corps is making in implementing energy efficiency and sustainable solutions to reduce our impacts to the environment and surrounding communities, and preserve the quality of our natural resources.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Green Dream Team award was awarded to the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center's Construction Engineering Research Lab for their partnership with U.S. Army Garrison Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, on the installation's sustainability program.

The ERDC-CERL and the U.S. Army Garrison Fort Leonard Wood have worked together to ignite a commitment to sustainability among a broad group of team members.

The team gained expertise from collaboration with approximately 15 directorates and departments at Fort Leonard Wood. The Construction Engineering Research Laboratory provided diverse expertise from civil, mechanical, and industrial engineers, to community planners and agronomists.

Team collaboration quickly expanded to include local and state agencies, academia and nongovernmental organizations outside of Fort Leonard Wood as well. The interagency participation brought together the cities of St. Robert and Waynesville, Missouri, the Missouri Department of Agriculture, the Missouri State Historic Preservation Office, the U.S. Forest Service, Missouri University of Science & Technology, and regional sustainability partnerships like the Sustainable Ozarks Partnership and the Pulaski County Shelter Workshop. Various elements of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers also have participated by specifying and overseeing individual engineering projects.

“Fort Leonard Wood keeps the process running through facilitated quarterly sessions where stakeholders and team members work together to address plan updates, project status and accomplishments, new project development, and next steps,” said Sue Bevelheimer, ERDC-CERL Project Manager. 

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Green Innovation Award was awarded to "Net Zero Planner & CAMPS Tool Integration," a partnership between the Corps’ Fort Worth District and the Construction Engineering Research Laboratory. A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers team developed and demonstrated new sustainability planning technology at two pilot installations, integrating for the first time two proven software tools.

Fort Worth District developed an analytic tool at Fort Hood called the Comprehensive Army Master Planning Solution Dashboard. It began as a mapping program to better use space to meet new mission requirements. CAMPS gives Fort Hood real-time data on how to track people and places across the Army post. CAMPS has already been integrated with area development plans that guide future land use at Fort Hood. The plans detail where new growth will be directed, where some buildings will be demolished, and how regulations restrict what can and cannot be built. These are critical factors for Directorate of Public Works planners who develop sustainment, restoration and modernization work plans to allocate base capital investment.

The Construction Engineering Research Laboratory’s Net Zero team meanwhile developed a processes tool for life-cycle energy use analysis and forecasting. More recently, it added water and solid waste capabilities and was renamed Net Zero Planner. Net Zero Planner gives installation planners a holistic view. It provides a building-by-building or project-by-project analysis that is augmented with a broader, installation wide vision that incorporates master planning. Net Zero Planner combines conservation of waste, water and power with the installation’s supply and distribution.

The Combined Tool identifies sustainability and energy implications in base planning, and automates identification of energy efficiency measures. The Combined Tool, generates a list of energy projects to meet energy goals in an analysis of alternatives. All of this is done in a way that reduces the cost and time for energy planning.

"The NZP Tool/CAMPS integration was a very exciting and rewarding project for the entire team. We learned a tremendous amount during the integration phase and are very grateful to ESTCP for funding the project,” said Dr. Michael Case, ERDC-CERL Project Manager. “We're also very appreciative of the time, effort and enthusiasm of the installation personnel at Fort Hood and Joint Base Pearl Harbor/Hickam. The really exciting part about this project was the enthusiastic buy-in by the installation team members as they worked with the combined tools and were able to visualize the alternative investment strategies available to them to meet their mission goals cost effectively.”