Future of Green Open Conference Call with Daniel Kreeger from ACCO
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In March, the Association of Climate Change Officers (ACCO) hosted its Defense, National Security and Climate Change workshop. The motivation, as ACCO described it, was:
U.S. defense and intelligence communities are increasingly focusing resources on the operational and national security implications of climate change and energy. With the most recent quadrennial report identifying climate change as a global destabilizing force for the first time, an executive order from President Obama on sustainability across the Federal agencies, and an uncertain and unstable energy market, the challenges before American defense and national security communities to mitigate climate impacts and energy risks, as well as establish a leaner, more effective operational force in a down economy are clear.
It was a two-day workshop featuring a series of roundtable sessions concentrated on identifying best practices and innovative ideas on how to approach climate change and its effect on National Security.
The roundtables were split into six tracks; clean energy infrastructure, facilities management, non-CO2 GHG emissions, enterprise governance and strategy, supply chain and procurement, and national security; which echoed similar takeaways.
Takeaway 1: Leadership from Defense
Both participation and practice demonstrated that DoD is taking climate change very seriously. Former Senators John Warner and Gary Hart as well as senior staff from the Department of Defense, Army, Army Corps of Engineers, NASA and the White House participated and innovative practices being tested and deployed were discussed in all the tracks.
Takeaway 2: Life- Cycle Costs Must be Taken into Account
New technologies are often perceived as more expensive. However rarely are life-cycle costs, which could demonstrate long-term savings and environmental benefits, taken into account.
Takeaway 3: Create Universal Standards
Too many organizations and regulations are involved in the climate change debate. A universal standard of some sort must be created to provide a baseline for GHG emissions and set standards for energy efficient systems.
Notes from the ACCO Defense, National Security and Climate Change workshop are available online.
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