Guns And Green Buildings
By Scott Kriner, Green Metal Consulting
As I’m writing this column, President Obama is preparing to address the nation on the end of our combat mission in the Iraqi theater. Let us remember, however, that our nation is still at war and our military presence is felt in all corners of the world. If you can remember back to the post 9-11 days, our nation was displaying patriotism like we hadn’t seen since WWII. Where have all of those flags, signs and phrases gone? One thing is for sure—even if our level of displayed patriotism has waned, we recognize that our men and women of the armed forces are our nation’s best. As Americans we can all be proud of them for their service and sacrifice for our country.
The military machine is far more than just troops and officers. In fact, the military overall is a big fan of metal. The materials used by the military to do their job include enormous amounts of tanks, armored vehicles, ammunition, missiles, bombs, battleships, aircraft carriers, aircraft, and other equipment. All of those necessities for our defense use a large amount of metal, for obvious reasons. But let’s not lose sight of the importance of metal in the significant number of buildings used by our military as well. By most accounts, the Department of Defense (DOD) has the largest inventory of occupied aging buildings in the US. These are buildings for offices, barracks, hangars, warehouses, security forces, and other uses. Metal roofs and walls have long been a preferred building material by the DOD and in particular the Army Corps of Engineers. Even the infrared reflective pigments now used in cool paint systems for metal roofing have their origin in the military. The special pigments were originally developed in the 1960s for camouflaging of equipment and uniforms to avoid detection through thermal imaging.
Our men and women in the military have been the beneficiaries of many advances in weaponry and firepower, to maintain the USA as a military super power. New technology and amazing research and development have kept our defenses strong and well ahead of the enemy in many ways. But the DOD has also been keeping up with the times in terms of what’s been happening to the building industry.
In 1995 the DOD established the ESTCP program. As you may have noticed, the military likes to use acronyms for just about anything. ESTCP is the “Environmental Security Technology Certification Program”. This initiative was created to promote the transfer of innovative proven technologies to the field or production use. ESTCP helps to address the DOD’s environmental requirements which they consider high priority. Part of their directive is to also reduce energy consumption in all forms.
On an annual basis the DOD solicits proposals from academia, industry, military services and other federal agencies for this demonstration and verification program. Earlier this year, the metal construction industry responded to the ESTCP Call for Proposals. The subject of the proposal was a fully integrated retrofit metal roofing system to be installed on a military facility demonstration site. The system includes a retrofit of the existing roof, added insulation, passive solar cooling and heating, solar water heating, solar power generation and rainwater harvesting. Fortunately, the initial proposal was approved and elevated to the next level of consideration. Later this month a presentation of the project details will be made to DOD personnel and a decision to move forward will be made shortly thereafter.
It’s refreshing to see that the federal government has embraced the green building initiatives, and even put them into law with regard to federal buildings. The DOD is no exception to these mandates and they are taking steps to make their buildings even more energy efficient, environmentally responsible, and most importantly, safe for our military personnel living and working within their building community.
Scott Kriner, MCA's Technical Director, is the president and founder of Green Metal Consulting Inc. He is a LEED Accredited Professional who began his career in the metal construction industry in 1981. His company is a member of the U.S. Green Building Council, the California Association of Building Energy Consultants and the Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET). Scott can be reached by email at skriner1@verizon.net, or by phone at (610) 966-2430. You can also visit him on the web at www.greenmetalconsulting.com.
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