United States Air Force Implements Sustainability on Bases Across the Nation-


Air Force personnel all across the globe are joining millions to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day, which falls on April 22nd each year. Earth Day magnifies ecological appreciation and promotes awareness to the masses, in the hopes of creating a greener, more sustainable planet. The aged expression, “make every day Earth Day” is encapsulated in the Air Force civil engineer’s policy for an interdepartmental revamping of sorts, in which officials are assigned to construct environmentally sustainable installations and incorporate energy-efficient improvements in day-to-day operations. In fact, this summer the Air Force will become the first in the United States and in the Department of Defense to utilize a mobile plasma waste to energy facility which will aid in energy generation. The project is currently in development at Hurlburt Field in Florida, and will produce electrical energy and marketable byproducts from waste using patented plasma arc technology. Waste to energy uses the high temperatures of plasma to gasify and vitrify – or turn to glass – basically any kind of refuse with no adverse contaminates; and a W2E generator employs the synthetic gas to produce electricity and hot water.

Travis Air Force Base in California is a pioneer for sustainable environmental cleanup, also known as remediation. Recently, engineers at the Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment introduced three initiatives which considerably lowered the environmental impact of Travis’ groundwater remediation systems while supporting sustainable procedures for the treatment of chlorinated solvents. Additionally, Tyndall Air Force Base is readying to open a new ultramodern fitness center in June, which is anticipated to become the first facility in the Department of Defense to reach the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Platinum level – the highest possible ranking under the Council’s green building rating system. The new $16.6M gym is approximately three times larger than the current fitness center but will consume 20 percent less energy. Furthermore, administrators at the Air Force Facility Energy Center have helped execute roughly 34 on-base renewable energy projects with many more in the works; and, by December 2011, officials at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona plan to maintain a solar array on 116 acres that will produce 17 MW of electricity. Wind turbines are presently in operation on four bases and seven more wind installations may be added within the next five years. Engineers at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California are in negotiations with the local power utility to build up to 24 wind turbines, which would potentially produce up to five times more energy than currently generated by 700 solar panels at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.