NAVSUP WSS earned Secretary of Defense Environmental Award for sustainability

Photo By Matthew Jones | The Secretary of Defense Environmental Awards Logo  

MECHANICSBURG, UNITED STATES

06.24.2021

Story by Matthew Jones 

NAVSUP Weapon Systems Support

The Department of Defense announced Naval Supply Systems Command Weapon Systems Support as the winner of the 2021 Secretary of Defense Environmental Award in the Sustainability Individual/Team category.
NAVSUP Weapon Systems Support (NAVSUP WSS) formed a multifunctional team to develop the Navy’s Enterprise Wide Hazardous Materials Standardization and Minimization of General Use Consumables project and conducted pilots to demonstrate that U.S. Navy installations could increase the purchase of more environmentally friendly hazardous materials substitutions using new tools and procedures. The team consisted of representatives from Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) Environmental, NAVFAC Safety, NAVFAC Engineering and Expeditionary Warfare Center, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Commander Navy Installation Command Safety, and NAVSUP Fleet Logistics Centers. The team received additional support from NAVSUP Business Systems Center who helped develop a Hazardous Material Management web tool to standardize HAZMAT data-management processes across the enterprise and provide NAVSUP customers with valuable access to Navy Enterprise Resource Planning data leveraging NAVSUP’s Navy Data Platform.
Jeff Whitman, NAVSUP WSS Hazardous Materials and Pollution Prevention Department director, said the partnerships were crucial and everyone involved deserves credit for the award. “Without these partnerships, we simply wouldn’t have been able to pull this off,” said Whitman, who has served at NAVSUP WSS since 2008. “This represents years of effort coming together, so we’re proud to know we’re making an impact across the Navy.”
The project demonstrated a process that standardized procurement of consumable general use hazardous materials and tools that guided mission partners, supply personnel, safety, and environmental service providers in the selection of environmentally preferred products at shore-based facilities. The research and development project was funded by the Navy's Environmental Sustainability Development to Integration program.
NAVSUP WSS also created a new ordering process that uses the Weapon Systems Support Hazardous Material Management Tool to automatically approve the purchase of sustainable products from the Navywide Green Authorized Use List. One hundred percent of end-of-pilot survey respondents said that the new ordering system was more efficient than the normal ordering process.
“Normally if a Sailor wanted to order a new cleaning item, they would have to go through an approval process, which could take anywhere from three days up to a month in some cases,” said Todd Heintzelman, NAVSUP WSS environmental protection specialist. “Creating this Green Authorized Use List with preapproved sustainable environmentally friendly products incentivizes Sailors to use products that are safer for their health and safer for the environment.”
Ultimately, the team increased the number of Safer Choice products available for purchase by over 300 percent. They conducted market research and published a list of local vendors that carried Safer Choice items and created a quick-reference guide for Safer Choice cleaners. Safer Choice is an Environmental Protection Agency program to reduce, eliminate, or prevent pollution at its source by encouraging the use of safer ingredients in products. The EPA also awarded NAVSUP WSS its Safer Choice Partner of the Year honor for advancing the use of safer and more sustainable cleaning chemicals.
“Department of Defense policies demonstrate a preference for the use of environmentally safe products, but at the user level it’s not always easy to take those steps,” said Whitman. “Streamlining the process has made a big difference compared to past initiatives.” Additionally, Sailors may be concerned about the performance or effectiveness of the safer products compared to their more hazardous counterparts, but all Safer Choice products are tested against strict performance standards, Whitman said. “So we’ve made it simple: you know it performs, it’s safer for human health, it’s safer for the environment and it meets Department of Defense performance directives.”
Thomas Bagnell, NAVSUP WSS Hazardous Materials and Pollution Prevention Afloat Division supervisor, said there may even be a cost savings associated with the use of certain products. “If you’re limiting hazardous materials from your supply chain, then you’re limiting the cost of disposal of many of those products,” he said. “While this particular initiative didn’t measure those costs, there’s definitely a win there as well.”
Finally, the team’s Clean with Green community outreach program helped inform people about the benefits of purchasing Safer Choice cleaners over traditional cleaners. Pilot efforts reached upward of 34,000 personnel at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia and Naval Base Ventura County in California.
Heintzelman said the men and women of the Navy deserve the most credit for voluntarily opting to order and use safer products. “These projects are designed to inform and streamline processes, but the results rest entirely on the choice of the Sailors,” Heintzelman said. “We’ve found that they are increasingly choosing to purchase sustainable products over other options.”
To make the choice as simple as possible, the team had also introduced a green leaf icon to display alongside Safer Choice products during the purchasing process within Navy’s web-based ordering application. They are considering the use of another logo to help flag products containing EPA’s “chemicals of concern.”
Each year since 1962, the Secretary of Defense has honored installations, teams and individuals for outstanding achievements in Department of Defense environmental programs. These accomplishments include outstanding conservation activities, innovative environmental practices, and partnerships that improve quality of life and promote efficiencies without compromising the department’s mission success. A diverse panel of 47 experts representing government agencies, academia and the private sector evaluated nominees to select one winner for each of eight categories covering five subject areas: natural resources conservation, environmental quality, sustainability, environmental restoration and cultural resources management.
The Sustainability Individual/Team award recognizes individuals or teams for their efforts to prevent or eliminate pollution at the source, including practices that increase efficiency and sustainability in the use of raw materials, energy, water, or other resources. The sustainability award also recognizes energy efficiency and renewable energy practices, greenhouse gas reduction efforts, procurement of sustainable goods and services, waste diversion, electronics stewardship, and efforts to plan for adaptation and resilience. Sustainable practices ensure that the department protects valuable resources that are critical to mission success.
NAVSUP WSS is one of 11 commands under Commander, NAVSUP. Headquartered in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, NAVSUP employs a diverse, worldwide workforce of more than 22,500 military and civilian personnel. NAVSUP and the Navy Supply Corps conduct and enable supply chain, acquisition, operational logistics and Sailor & family care activities with our mission partners to generate readiness and sustain naval forces worldwide to prevent and decisively win wars. Learn more at www.navsup.navy.mil, www.facebook.com/navsup and https://twitter.com/navsupsyscom.

• Date Taken: 06.24.2021
• Date Posted: 06.24.2021 14:13
• Story ID: 399646
• Location: MECHANICSBURG, US