{"id":3842,"date":"2008-11-17T20:39:42","date_gmt":"2008-11-18T02:39:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=3842"},"modified":"2008-11-17T20:39:42","modified_gmt":"2008-11-18T02:39:42","slug":"us-army-releases-first-annual-sustainability-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/us-army-releases-first-annual-sustainability-report\/","title":{"rendered":"US Army Releases First Annual Sustainability Report"},"content":{"rendered":"
Challenges still exist, of course. Among them:<\/p>\n
As this is the Army’s first attempt at such a report, it used the Global Reporting Initiative’s sustainability reporting framework<\/a>, the standard for corporate sustainability reports (and the first use ever of the GRI framework by a branch of the federal government). Additionally, the Army adapted other sustainability concepts to fit its mission: the corporate “triple bottom line” of profit, people and planet became “triple bottom line — plus” of “Mission, Environment, Community, plus the economic benefits that sustainability provides by reducing costs and impacts, and accelerating innovation.”<\/p>\n While the report notes that traditional notions of national security will remain paramount, environmental concerns, such as access to resources, has become an integral part of its mission.\u00a0 It also notes that future conflicts may well arise from competition for scarcer resources. We won’t look for uniforms made from hemp, or tipis as housing anytime soon, but it’s good to see that the US military not only recognizes the role the environment and ecological systems play in maintaining national well-being, but that reducing it’s own “bootprint” could (in theory, anyway) play a small part in lowering global environmental stress… and the conflicts that arise from that stress.<\/p>\n