Army Green Building Effort Matures
Tri-Service Sustainable Design Team Emerges
Coordination for sustainability activities was initi-
ated among DOD services and across USACE from the
initial stages of rating tool development. A Tri-Service
Networking Workgroup was formed with Headquar-
ters USACE, OACSIM, Air Force, Navy and CERL
representatives that met quarterly to share initiatives
and issues. The services also participated in the Inter-
agency Sustainability Working Group (ISWG) which
is organized to share initiatives across all federal agen-
cies. At the working level, coordination across USACE
Districts and Installation Directorates of Public Works
began with the Sustainable Design and Development
(SDD) Training program, even before the adoption of
SPiRiT. First sessions were held in June 2000, with
all local federal agencies invited to participate. These
first training sessions were instrumental in establish-
ing a network of SDD contacts at Corps District of-
fices. While unofficial at first, the network grew into
an important base of SDD practitioners that numbers
in the thousands today. The network was formalized
by USACE in 2007 with each MILCON District now
required to have a designated point of contact for
sustainability and a LEED Accredited Professional as-
signed to each MILCON project. A USACE SDD Di-
rectory of Expertise (DX) was formally established in
2008 at the USACE Savannah District and supported
by the Center for the Advancement of Sustainabil-
ity Innovations (CASI) at ERDC–CERL. CASI was
formed in 2006 as a Corps of Engineers center to sup-
port Army sustainability goals.