JBLM units battle for sustainability

  • Published
  • By Christina Carmen Crea
  • Northwest Guardian
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. --  With a chance to win $10,000, the Net Zero competition is back for round four of competitions at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

The Net Zero competition provides a monetary incentive for service members on JBLM to exhibit more sustainable behaviors and actions to help save money, protect training lands and enhance air and water quality.

"The first one we had was April of 2013 and we are doing it twice a year, so we are working on the fourth one right now," said Miriam Villacian, JBLM sustainability outreach coordinator.

Registration is open for the next competition until Jan. 26. The contest starts Feb. 1 and runs for four months until May 31.

Entry into the competition starts with a "Commander's Pledge" that commits units to simple conservation concepts that follow JBLM guidelines to be practiced throughout the competition period.

At the conclusion of the competition period, units submit their portion of the evaluation scorecard and worksheet. After data is collected, the winners will be analyzed and calculated.

"The money for this comes from our recycling proceeds," Villacian said. "For us in the sustainability in the program, this competition is key to engage in the military to be environmentally conscious. Obviously, when you say there's a chance to win $10,000 it catches on. Also, many of them had good recycle habits beforehand, so this helps recognize their good work, incorporates more tips and can help them do their job. This helps get awareness out about our program."

Also, since there are five categories for prizes in first, second and third place, Villacian said everyone has a good chance to win something.

Madigan Army Medical Center won first place last year in the "Super Large" 700-plus personnel category, winning $10,000.

"When we found out we won, we felt like we had accomplished what we set out to do," said Michael Kyser, supervisor environmental health service at Madigan. "It was well deserved. We put the work in and, to us, it was well-deserved and we were very excited about it."

The funds went into Madigan's morale, welfare and recreation fund to be used when needed. However, this isn't the first time they have participated in the Net Zero competition.

"In the years prior, we have placed second and fourth place," Kyser said.

In 2005, Madigan established a multidisciplinary Green Team consisting of environmental, safety, clinical staff, facilities maintenance, materials management, infection control, nutritional care, and operating room staff.

Since then, they have won numerous environmental awards and continued making environmental issues a priority.

"One reason we are successful is we have had a cultural change over the years in terms of how our staff supports our environmental movement," Kyser said. "We do it in each section ensuring we have alternate coordinators, conduct training class on recycling and have various recycling areas."

Recycling areas include drop boxes for cardboard, wood, metal, surgical waste, plastic bottles, cans, paper and food composting.

"Our housekeeping contract provides pickup services for the various recycling methods we have been doing for years," Kyser said. "It helps make it successful and user-friendly. Our Green Team has quarterly meetings to keep up with sustainability goals and ideas."

As far as competing again, Kyser said Madigan will participate in the next Net Zero competition, and probably more to come.

"We were pushing out environmental factors before 2005, but getting our Green Team together and starting initiates really put us on the map."

The 373rd Training Squadron won $1,500 for first place in the "Small" 25-99 personnel category.

"The money went into our MWR unit fund that we used for a holiday party," said Tech. Sgt. Karl Max, from the 373rd Training Squadron. "We had about 40 people in our unit at the time that participated."

Max said everyone should play their own part in recycling.

"We went around our building and saw what we could do to cut down whether it be electricity or water waste," Max said. "We researched and started a better recycling program for our unit,"

They also created an adopt-a-tree program to help take care of trees planted near their building.

"We learned how to be more sustainable on JBLM," Max said. "This is our first time doing it, and I initiated it for our unit and did most of the required paperwork for it but everyone in the unit helped out."

In the last competition, there were nine units and approximately 3,000 personnel who participated.

The packet for the Net Zero competition can be found at http://go.usa.gov.

For more information about being sustainable on JBLM, visit their Facebook page at facebook.com/SustainableJBLM and YouTube page at youtube.com/user/SustainableJBLM.