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Sustainable Building for Military Infrastructure

Topical Workshops

... development which meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations
to meet their own needs ...

Contents Contact Information Relevant links Participating countries Armenia Belgium Canada Czech Republic Denmark Finland Georgia Italy Latvia Lithuania Moldova The Netherlands Norway Poland Romania Slovak Republic Slovenia Sweden Switzerland Ukraine United Kingdom United States Contact person M r. M. GIJSBERS mg.gijsbers@mindef.nl.

1. In 1999 the Department of National Defence of Canada and the Ministry of Defence of the Netherlands agreed to organise a NATO CCMS short-term project on the environmental and economic benefits of applying sustainability concepts to specific elements of defence infrastructure. 

2. Phase I of this initiative included an investigation to find out to which extent principles of sustainable building were already being applied in the different countries, and culminated in a seminar at Delft, the Netherlands, in March 2000, where 17 countries participated.  A full report is available under CCMS Report No. 246.

3. The value of continuing and expanding the sustainable building short-term project was captured in the principles developed at the March 2000 conference, namely that:

• NATO/EAPC countries working together can guide and improve environmental practices to foster sustainability thereby promoting broader peace and security objectives.  Ministries of Defence would thus be seen to be supporting national interests by encouraging environmental stewardship.
• Sustainable building requires integrated early planning and management practices.  It requires dedicated effort to achieve improved environmental performance and reduced life cycle costs.
• By assessing the environmental performance of our buildings and lands and by sharing lessons learned, participating countries can better understand the extent of sustainable activity now in place and establish benchmarks for future action.

4. In Phase II, which lasted from October 2000 to February 2003, more information on Sustainable Building policies, programs, methods, tools and examples was gathered. A web site with a database for the exchange of information and a network of experts was set up.  In March 2002 a second seminar was organised in Brussels, Belgium, in which 22 countries participated.  The seminar is reported on in CCMS Report No. 263.

5. The second phase of the project has been successful in:

• Consolidating and expanding the network of participants active in the knowledge transfer within the target community;
• Establishing a framework within which ongoing knowledge transfer on sustainable military infrastructure amongst participants can be achieved;
• Establishing a Sustainable Building site within the NATO CCMS web site to facilitate ongoing knowledge transfer.

6. Fully appreciating the project’s success as a forum for the exchange of knowledge, the participants gathered at the March 2002 conference expressed keen interest in follow-up seminars.

7. In September 2005, a third seminar took place in Oslo, Norway. The proceedings of the Oslo seminar can be found in CCMS Report No. 275. In the final plenary session the future activities on Sustainable Building were discussed. The participants were enthusiastic about the level and variety of the information given during the seminar and found it desirable to continue this exchange of knowledge and experience. The usual two-year interval between seminars will be maintained. The 2007 seminar will have a somewhat more narrow scope and choice of topics, in order that some matters can be studied more extensively.

OBJECTIVES

8. In accordance with the principles developed and appreciating the project’s successes and the participators’ wishes, the Dutch Ministry of Defence together with the Swiss Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sports (DDPS) therefore offers to conduct the fourth follow-up seminar on “Sustainable Building for Military Infrastructure”.

9. The seminar will be respecting the original objectives of the short-term project, which include:

• surveying and presenting information on the implementation of sustainable building in the participating countries;
• exchanging experiences concerning policy, strategies and implementation processes;
• exposing examples of sustainable building projects;
• providing information on design and decision-making tools available on the market;
• expanding the network of experts;
• establishing plans for future action.

10. The scope of this seminar will be focussed on three different topics:

• energy saving, energy efficiency and sustainable energy issues in buildings
• maintenance of buildings
• multi-purpose use of military areas as a part of the social aspect of Sustainability.

A survey will be carried out among the participants prior to the seminar with the goal to establish the state of affairs in the participating countries on the three above mentioned topics.

SCHEDULE

11. The 3-day seminar will take place in Thun, Switzerland, on September 19 – 21, 2007.

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