Climate change will intensify existing threats on fish, wildlife, and the ecosystems that sustain them. In September 2010, the Service published its plan to address climate change.
In order to support the plan’s bold charge, the Service must adopt more sustainable business practices. Valuable efforts are already underway, and the Service must look to employees, partners and the business community for their expertise in refocusing energies and recalibrating activities.
Recommendation: Support and implement the goals in the Service’s 2010 Strategic Plan for Responding to Accelerating Climate Change as they apply to mitigation. Specifically, contribute to Goal 5 to achieve carbon neutrality by the year 2020.
Achieving carbon neutrality will require active steps, including the development of a tool to calculate carbon sequestered and the offset of remaining carbon balances on wildlife refuges.
Aligning the work of the Refuge System with its environmental values involves more than just contributing to carbon neutrality. First, the Refuge System should innovate to become itself carbon negative and contribute more than its share to the Service’s overarching goal of carbon neutrality. The Refuge System has the advantage of a land base where restoration activities can be prioritized within high priority landscapes that are effective in sequestering carbon. Second, there are a multitude of impacts to the environment and wildlife in addition to the emission of heat-trapping gases that come from Refuge System work and operations. The Service should consider and evaluate these impacts and take action to reduce them.
Recommendation: Develop a 5-year plan for greening the Refuge System.
The plan should build off of the Refuge System’s step down of the Service’s climate change strategic plan and its elements that apply to mitigation. The plan should address the breadth of Refuge System operations and propose solutions for meeting targeted goals for the reduction of environmental impacts. Such options should include:
● Reduce the number of facilities and other assets that the Refuge System owns and maintains.
● Reduce fuel consumption by evaluating old equipment against national or local emissions standards and converting to more efficient vehicles, tractors and equipment on all new purchases.
● Opt for replacement equipment that includes new technology, such as GPS, to increase precision and decrease fuel consumption when working or treating large areas.
● Reduce travel by making video and teleconferences the primary delivery method for trainings and meetings.
● Use sustainably renewable or recycled construction materials, with focus on those that have the smallest carbon footprint to manufacture and recycle.
● Recycle 100% of materials such as paper, glass, aluminum and tin. If recycling facilities are not readily available, wildlife refuges can work with local communities to develop a way to recycle.
For new construction and operations, the Refuge System must aim higher in its commitment to environmental sustainability. The Refuge System should:
● Utilize green technologies and water conservation systems in all deferred maintenance projects.
● Meet the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification standards for all new structures and when retrofitting existing structures.
● Require Green Seal certification for all Service facilities and contractors.
● Use innovative carbon neutral energy sources consistent with maintaining biological diversity, integrity and environmental health.
● Convert to clean and more efficient energy technologies like solar and wind power on existing and future infrastructure.
Comment below and/or move on to next section of Chapter 5 - Workforce of the Future
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This is a refreshing section as it focuses on what we as a System can do for ourselves. There is much more control here than much of the document which focuses on what we can do for others.
I wholeheartedly support an aggressive vision to achieve net negative GHG emissions, but the target of being carbon nuetral by 2020 seems beyond far reaching. There is no tool to consistently measure GHG emissions and developing a 5-year plan to green the System brings us to at least 2017. In the meantime, the System can look for financing options for renewable energies.
The Department of Energy’s “Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy” contains financing information at http://www1.eere.energy.gov/financing/, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory works closely with them — http://www.nrel.gov/applying_technologies/federal_energy.html. While these are large scale capital improvements, there are plenty of ways to conserve energy right now at the workplace — http://www.energysavers.gov/your_workplace/.
It feels better to try to change other’s behavior, but not so much when we try on ourselves. This is the leadership by example that is our influence. Keep on posting away in the comment boxes. We’re doing great things.
Our ability to fully achieve or surpass Service climate change, carbon reduction, and greening goals requires more than just following policy. We need to recognize that our “greenness” is the sum of all our decisions and choices – do I need to drive a 4wd vehicle or will a smaller vehicle serve my needs on this trip?, can we combine trips?, do I need to print this document?, do I need to print it on a new sheet of paper or can I use the back side of a piece of scrap?, should I use a single-use paper cup for my coffee or can I bring in a travel mug and reuse it indefinitely?, are we drinking shade coffee to better protect our migrant birds or do we buy a big cans of low-cost sun coffee (sun coffee = loss of tropical forest = declining songbird populations)? None of these things is covered by policy; they’re a result of conscious thought. We need to develop a culture of conscious thoughts and deliberate actions.
Green policy is necessary, but policy is not enough. To truly become green we need an empowered, conscientious workforce that continually seeks to fit more naturally into our local environments using fewer resources and less energy.
Yes, I wholeheartedly agree that the Refuge System needs to green the infrastructure, equipment, and operations. That means energy audits and financial audits on our buildings and our patterns of equipment use. It also may mean intentionally deciding to keep some key facilities and staff operational out near a remote refuge rather than deciding to consolidate and centralize. Decision- makers need to be carefuel of unintended consequences here – one “greening” decision that initially looks good on paper in a given year, and that results in elimination of a key building or group of buildings at a field station, may mean staff have to drive much further on may work days thoughout the year for many years into the future… Yes, think globally and act locally….and think about the consequences of both!
I am concerned about how we approach office and visitor center greening. Shouldn’t our first goal be to blend into our environment, use the natural world to cool and heat our buildings and use the outside world to teach others about our organization and conservation message? I see large two story visitor centers that do not use ambient light as efficiently as they might, depend on air conditioning instead of outside air/wind and protective porches and roofing for cooling. And finally, shouldn’t all of our offices and visitor centers include an outside interactive area for teaching? I worry that we are focusing on being part of the virtual world while saying we are concerned that children in particular do not get outside to interact with the real world. If their experiences with us are only virtual or in a visitor center haven’t we compromised our mission and goals and the very “heart” of who we are?
“Greening” is not a new technology. Many cultures around the globe have adapted to their environments in harmony without the need to install air conditioners, 800 Amp service panels, expansive parking lots and expensive building materials. There are buildings and structures on our refuges built of quarried native stone, hand hewn woods and thoughtfully constructed planning that stand today as they did 70 or more years ago. Having 2 foot thick walls they insulate and breathe better than contemporary structures built more recently. They make better use of natural lighting and are easier to maintain than their contemporary counterparts. As the previous commentor stated, the focus should be to bring educational attention about conservation outdoors, where natural interaction will foster deeper appreciation, rather than to go through the expense of trying to recreate a static environment indoors.
So how do we modify our business processes and take full advantage of environmental greening ideas and technologies? First, examine the work done during such building periods as the CCC period, and integrate those lessons into modern building codes and practices. Second, anticipate the future by examining trends in the environment, whether its climate change impacts or visitation, or the need to sequester carbon by the development of permanent environments. Third, look at other cultures and older generations for answers to common problems. Ask the question, how did my grandparents or great grandparents handle this type of situation. In the desert southwest, native Americans sought out answers to the daily heat by burrowing underground. Expand the box. Fourth, use the environment to your advantage. Go with the flow instead of fighting it. By understanding diurnal needs, adapt to the challenge by looking for opportunities. Understand the physics and chemistry of materials and employ those characteristics as you would assign a project to your staff, by placing your best person suited for the project out in front. Fifth, reduce your risks. By understanding that choices have consequences, we can reduce our risks, thereby reducing our overhead, thereby reducing the workload burdens placed on employees, thereby increasing the ability to get out on the land to accomplish those goals we stated in other chapters.
By getting intouch with the environment and allow the circumstances to teach us, may we be able to better serve the needs of the refuge.
Additional efforts to consider for five year plans include: reducing chemical use, looking for ways to reduce impacts of commuting, purchasing environmentally preferable products, improving energy efficiency in facilities and showing leadership in implementing greening mandates.