ALL Consulting

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ALL Consulting was recently selected to provide technical support as well as knowledgeable facilitators to plan for, participate in, and facilitate the FORSCOM/Fort Polk Environmental Sustainability Conference; to assist FORSCOM and Fort Polk to develop a comprehensive Environmental Baseline Document, and to establish 25-Year Strategic Goals and Teams to accomplish these goals.

What is the Installation Sustainability Program?
A New Approach to Environmental Management... For the past 30 years, environmental management in the United States (and the Army) has been compliance-based, with the ultimate goal of any environmental program being to reduce releases of pollutants and avoid costly and painful violations. Yet while compliance with the law may provide the environment with some level of protection, it does NOT protect the ability of the Army to train and deploy soldiers. The modern Army installation requires, among other things, thousands of acres of undamaged training lands, a secure, plentiful source of drinking water, and affordable energy services to power its buildings and vehicles. An installation subject to severe training restrictions or a rapidly increasing cost of energy or water may not be able to maintain readiness. A Sustainable Installation is an installation that plans proactively for these issues to ensure that they never affect readiness and the mission.

How does the Installation Sustainability Program work?
Meeting The Needs of The Present...In these unstable times, the nation's military is as important as ever, and as such, the first priority of the Program is to ensure that each installation can train and, if needed, deploy, the best fighting force in the world. The FORSCOM installations are some of the most powerful in the world, home to units such as the 101st Airborne and the 1st Armored Cavalry. Combined, FORSCOM installations maintain over a million acres of diverse training lands and ranges and are home to over 100,000 active troops and their families. Each installation is, in effect, a city unto itself.

Without Compromising The Needs of The Future...ALL Consulting is helping FORSCOM installations take a proactive approach to planning for the long-term viability and integrity of the mission. Through it, installations will attempt to reduce their total use of resources, preserve the integrity of their training lands, and improve the quality of life for soldiers and surrounding communities.

ALL's trainers at Fort Polk have delivered an environmental training program that enhances the overall awareness of environmental issues and emphasizes personal responsibility for compliance.

The Environmental Training Program at Fort Polk is designed to:

Ensure that individuals understand their roles in controlling pollution, in protecting the environment, and in achieving environmental goals and objectives.
Ensure that environmental factors are given proper consideration, along with mission and economic factors, during the installation planning and decision-making process.
Encourage the individual soldier to participate in projects that produce environmental benefits, particularly those that aid in development of military skills.

Fort Polk's Environmental Compliance Officer (ECO) training and certification program is at the forefront of Army environmental education. Each unit and organization on the installation has a primary and alternate ECO responsible for day-to-day compliance issues. To ensure an adequate background, nominated individuals participate in a 40-hour ECO training program to get a working-knowledge of federal, state, and Army laws, regulations, and policies and "how to" aspects of their environmental duties. A certification is then issued which must be updated annually. Commanders are encouraged to designate additional personnel, who may command or supervise personnel involved in environmental activities, to attend.
Specific topics included in the Environmental Management Training course for ECO certification are:

Environmental compliance applicable to motor maintenance operations and field exercises.
Hazardous waste management.
Waste disposal procedures.
Recycle program.
Satellite collection point operation.
Spill contingency planning.
Emergency spill response.
Problem solving and acquisition of resources applicable to pollution control.
Conducting environmental training at the organization level.
Cultural resource protection.
Endangered species protection.
Wetlands protection.