DoD is discovering if sustainability and better performance go hand in hand

Tom Temin And give us an example, I guess, of the kinds of contexts that you’re testing sustainable materials here. So give us the kind of universe we operate in.

David Asiello Well, just to give it some context. Sustainability in general is something the department has embraced for a while now. And what that really means, it’s sort of a mission imperative. If you look at the strategic nature of sustainability in general. We look at the vision of the department is to maintain the ability to operate into the future without decline, either in the mission or in the natural man-made systems that support it. And by that we mean the natural systems would be the air, the land, the water, the energy we need to do our jobs. And the man-made systems, of course, would be our weapons systems and platforms, and then the humans are the ones operating them. So bringing all this together in a sustainable way is a very important goal for the department. As we move up more in a tactical nature, we look at, well, what types of things can we do? Well, we can procure goods and services that are more sustainable, that improve mission readiness, are cost effective, achieve compliance, prevent pollution, ensure availability when things become more difficult to obtain due to various restrictions, and minimize the impact on the warfighter, negative effects. And do that, we have to test and ensure that these products work. And that’s what the show is all about.

Tom Temin And you’re looking at the types of consumables that might be in operational settings or tactical or combat settings.

David Asiello In some cases, yes. Often yes. They’re mostly consumables, as you said, they’re technologies that we can typically get and use in our operations and maintenance activities and in our buildings and other less tactical operations as well. So that’s generally what we’re looking at.

Tom Temin And in the military environment, you can’t just pick something out of a catalog and say, well, this is durable and just give it to the troops, because it’s too critical. That setup to be able to deploy it without thorough testing.

David Asiello Absolutely right. We have to make sure that the products work, that these technologies work. If they don’t work, we won’t pursue them. And more often than not, we find that sustainable technology works just as well, in some cases even better, with many intangible benefits that are not just about the environment and protecting the warfighter, but improving performance. Yes, that’s true.

Tom Temin And what is typical of the products this particular STED program deals with? Because the military is looking at grids that are self-sustaining for bases, really large types of strategic types of things or jets that can run on biofuels and so on. You look at more of the everyday kind of stuff.

David Asiello Yes, exactly. We have other programs. Look at major types of research and development. What we’re trying to do is take things that maybe even off the shelf that haven’t been proven in a military environment. Take them to warfighter, let them try it. Let them tell us, does it work? Do they like it? What doesn’t work with it? And then trying to implement that and go through the process, which can be time consuming and a little bit labor intensive to try to get those options into the system so that the warfighter has availability.

Tom Temin Well, give us an example of such a product.

David Asiello One that has been really successful recently as a cleaner lubricant preservative for firearms. It is a bio-based COP, and it has been tested for a while now in various installations. We worked with the military specification owner. It chose any arsenal, it controls and owns that specification, and over time working with our sister Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP) we can validate that those options work and even better. And then over time we could change the spec. It wasn’t easy, the spec is very, very restrictive, but we had to meet all the requirements to make sure we could get it into the system. And once we’ve done that, now we’re removing the non-bio based spec.

Tom Temin Right. And just a couple of detail questions here. Chemical lubricant, preservative, it’s a liquid that does all three of those things?

David Asiello Yes, sir. Years ago, the military decided that it was not logistically efficient to have three different chemicals or a cleaner, a lubricant and preservative in the 60’s. So they moved and developed a product that has all three of these qualities.

Tom Temin Right. And I guess it would be good for anybody then, if it serves, say, the Marine Corps or the Army in the requirements they place on guns, it’s probably good for the average hunter as well, I imagine.

David Asiello Absolutely. We’ve actually worked with the other federal agencies, like some of the security agencies for their weapons and the police force. And it is for all that and definitely outdoors. It is one of the products they like a lot.

Tom Temin We’re talking to David Asiello. He is the Director of Sustainability and Acquisition in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy, Installations and Environment. And once you find that something like this can be a commercial product, this special fluid that does all these things for weapons, then you have the challenge of getting it into the system. Would this normally be provided by the Defense Logistics Agency or does it fall under Ammunition Acquisition, which is not DLA, but some other branch?

David Asiello Yes. In this case, it falls under the Defense Logistics Agency, but there are a variety of other products, so we work very closely with our other agencies such as GSA. We provide many products to the department. In fact, not too long ago, my former deputy assistant secretary, Richard Kidd, signed an MOU with GSA, that if the products pass our tests in the STED program, GSA will fast-track them into the system so that they meet the requirements .

Tom Temin And if you just continue with this example, you go to the average gun store, there’s maybe 15 brands of this, that, and the other all doing the same thing. In terms of the volumes and the criticality of the supply and the reliability of the supply chain that the Department of Defense needs or the government needs, I guess you could say, if everyone adopts this product, what do you do to ensure that supply is sustainable from a volume and security of supply standpoint?

David Asiello Yes, good question. So in this case specifically, we wouldn’t move to a buyer of a sealed part until we had multiple qualified products. So the owner of the spec makes sure we have multiple products available. So it’s not the only source, we don’t have to rely on a company or a supplier to have that capability and capability, because we definitely can’t have our warfighter without the products they need to do their job.

Tom Temin And have you ever tried something under STED and the operational units that test it come back and say, no, this doesn’t work.

David Asiello Yes, actually, it’s true. It doesn’t work as well. It must work as well or better. And in some cases we go back to the manufacturer and give them the opportunity to reformulate or try again when the warfighter tells us what the problems were. And in some cases it doesn’t come off, but in other cases it has.

Tom Temin Anything else in the pipeline that is interesting.

David Asiello There are so many. We have a website, the Sustainable Products Center, which is open to the public. There are so many techniques that we have demonstrated over time. One that I think, it doesn’t sound super sexy or anything, but it’s the bio-based organs that are amazing. It has so many features that are great for if you have an engine pool or if you spill hydraulic fluid or oil engine oil when repairing your vehicles. It works much better than what we currently have been using, clay based organs and cat litter and other things that are harmful to human health. But it also reduces waste. It’s cost effective, it works better. There are so many of these examples, energy efficient doors that we have installed in many of our installations, bio-based hydraulic fluids. Here is an example if you have time. At a Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center out in California is where we do all of our cold weather training for the Marines. Mountains, they have things like snowcats and they use that to make sure they can train. Well, the colonel out there decided he would try the bio-based hydraulic fluid, received certification approval by Caterpillar and John Deere. Manufacturers tried it, there was an accident, a spill that happened. And because it was bio-based and this is one in cal EPA, it’s in a national forest, come in because it’s bio-based. They didn’t have to shut down their business, do a long-term cleaning, did a quick surface treatment and they were back to work. And it pays off in a couple of years. It is much more cost effective. So these are a lot of examples, and I could go into a little more time as we have to talk about them.