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Environmental flight takes Secretary of Defense-level award

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Connie L. Bias
  • 92nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. --  Fairchild's Environmental Management subcommittee is standing proud, and for good reason. The team has won the 2007 Secretary of Defense Weapon System Acquisition Team environmental award, the highest award possible in its category.

The 92nd Civil Engineer Squadron team has been on the road to top honors for the past year. An Air Force-level award in January followed an Air Mobility Command flight award and three Governor's Awards for Pollution Prevention. These continual marks of success result from strong leadership and team effort, according to Diane Wulf, 92nd Civil Engineer Squadron pollution prevention program manager.

"It takes leadership and all the way down the chain to make these programs successful, and we really have that at Fairchild," said Ms. Wulf. "The success of our programs is measured by everybody out there being aware of the programs, being aware of environmental thinking and occupational health, and making these things a daily part of their jobs."

A number of significant accomplishments led Fairchild's environmental program to stand out above the rest. Many of those accomplishments highlight the correspondence between environmental awareness, occupational health and safety. The award package bullets Ms. Wulf prepared, for instance, touched on the subcommittee's 
- hazardous material management program that ensures hazardous materials used on the base receive environmental, safety and occupational health oversight; 
- fully compliant Environmental Management System that is committed to sustaining its pollution prevention program, with a particular focus on environmentally conscience acquisition; 
- evaluation and acquisition of equipment that has resulted in a 2,000-plus pound annual reduction in hazardous waste; and 
- new Green Procurement Program Plan utilizing in-house base personnel and Air force guidance to provide direction for incorporating green procurement in all forms of acquisition.

"Green procurement, or green acquisition, is a strong focus," said Ms. Wulf. "That has to do with not only reducing hazardous waste or materials, but also purchasing things that are clean - buying things made from recycled products and buying less toxic chemicals. What are we purchasing to reach environmental excellence?"

Striving toward that environmental excellence is a full team effort, she added; all of Team Fairchild can help. Communicating with vendors to buy the most environmentally sound products, learning new ways to decrease hazardous waste, and trying different products or equipment that are more environmentally sound are just a few ways base personnel can make the base more earth friendly. Fairchild's fuels shop, for instance, recently purchased a new fuel drainage tool that eliminated fuel leakage and personnel exposure, an initiative that reduced hazardous waste and greatly decreased safety and health risks.

"The key is first to continue what you're doing; we're doing a lot of the right things," Ms. Wulf said. "Then keep your eyes open and look for new ideas."

Those new ideas will, hopefully, lead to another record year for the Environmental Management subcommittee, the squadron representatives and Team Fairchild.

"This award is a great accolade to all the unit environmental coordinators across the base building these programs," said Ms. Wulf. "In our high operations tempo that environmental thinking is challenging. It's great that they're still doing it and being recognized."