Its sheer size is perhaps its greatest asset in becom-
ing a world leader in sustainability. “DOD offers a
combination of local expertise and management and
high-powered national level financial and technical
resources ...” (Butts 1999, 123). Those three million
employees include experts in everything from arche-
ology to communication to water resource manage-
ment. They employ their expertise at sites in every
physiographic province from the arctic to the tropics.
DOD employees work in manufacturing plants, ad-
ministrative offices, wildlife reserves, and manage the
equivalent of small cities on various installations, bas-
es and posts around the world. Taken together, these
facilities use resources on a large scale and are always
an economic driver within their communities. This
largesse makes the DOD an excellent host for imple-
menting sustainability practices because there is sim-
ply more ‘bang for the buck’ when implementing ef-
forts at this scale. In addition, DOD facilities are often
highly visible within the larger community and offers
opportunities to serve as models for and/or partners
in implementing sustainability efforts off-base. While
all federal facilities are required to adhere to Execu-
tive Order 13514, Federal Leadership in Environmental,
Energy, and Economic Performance, DOD is in a unique
position to be the flagship agency in meeting the spirit
of this sustainability-driven mandate.
Globally, DOD’s expertise, technical capability,
and financial backing make it an obvious candidate
to become a leader in helping other countries develop
sustainable practices. This has both altruistic and self-
serving attributes. Assisting other countries develop
capacity has long been a function of the U.S. military,
and while critics (sometimes within DOD) acknowl-
edge this function may be better served by civilian
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