Integration of Sustainable Practices into Standard Army MILCON Designs

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) works to integrate sustainability and energy efficiency into military construction (MILCON) projects. This project originated with an effort to determine funding levels needed for MILCON project budgets to support planning, programming, design, and construction that meets all current and near-term energy and sustainability mandates. The project team assessed current practices and costs, emerging technologies, and performed analyses of five standard designs to develop a set of ideas to help meet net-zero energy, water, and sustainability targets. The objectives of this research were to investigate building features, construction methods, and materials to optimize standard designs for FY13 and beyond MILCON projects for purposes of energy reduction and sustainability, and to ensure that those standard designs meet all the applicable energy reduction and sustainable design policies. Building features, construction methods, and materials determined viable based on feasibility and life-cycle cost analysis are recommended for inclusion in the appropriate standard design for the FY13 program and beyond. Standard design updates could begin with recommendations from this project, and follow-on effort to add feasible, cost-effective ideas into the standards are recommended. As sustainability strategies are perfected, they should be applied to other Army building types. The original document contains color images.