The Fight Against Climate Change is Going Digital
Photo by John Prettyman courtesy of U.S. Army Reserve
By: DDS Climate Action Team
Digital service experts are lending their expertise to address the threats of climate change and help strengthen national security.
Conversations about climate change and its threats to life on this planet are more ubiquitous than ever. Many of us are talking about how to address it in classrooms, town halls and at dinner tables across the country. But we are only now beginning to understand the repercussions of our decisions in the way we live and how it’s affecting earth — this includes the cost of inaction, measured in lives lost, property destroyed and money wasted. The same is true at the Department of Defense — the federal government's largest agency and one of the most complex organizations in the world. At this scale, the stakes are even higher with the costs measured by the integrity of our national defense. That integrity is being threatened, so we at DDS are now taking action in order to preserve it.
Earlier this year, Deputy Secretary of Defense, Dr. Kathleen Hicks announced that the DOD is facing a growing climate crisis that impacts U.S. national security. DDS has already begun exploring where we can bring the perspective of our multidisciplinary team to bear on climate-related lines of effort that would hugely impact the DOD.
Information and data are power, and we see an opportunity to help empower the DOD with the information that’s hiding in plain sight. For instance, there may be two organizations doing similar work in parallel silos without visibility of each other’s efforts; we want to fix that. Data may be generated and not acted upon; we want to find the insights in that data and craft plans for action accordingly.
One thing reinforced in our early research was how the DOD needs to emphasize mitigation more. We can think about tackling climate change in two ways: adaptation and mitigation. Adaptation is focused on responding to the effects of a changing climate. Mitigation is about reducing our contributions to climate change in the first place, thereby reducing the amount of costly adaptation that will be necessary down the road. Currently, all of the DDS’ lines of effort emphasize mitigation.
Our efforts have been primarily focused on DOD energy consumption – specifically, improving how energy usage is reported as a first step towards DOD locations becoming more energy-efficient. Installation energy accounts for one third of DOD’s greenhouse emissions, so there is tremendous impact that can be made here. The adage “what gets measured, gets managed” is especially relevant as we help to lay the groundwork for the future of energy management at the department.
As we have researched the energy landscape at DOD, our collaboration with installation resource managers has led to the establishment of a community of practice that allows these individuals to gather monthly and share their experiences and best practices with each other. These convenings help to break down the information silos that are common in DOD, and have the added benefit of providing DDS with a better understanding of the pressing issues this group faces and the potential for us to assist and add value.
Another critical area where we are focused is on installation-based microgrids and their cybersecurity. A microgrid is a localized energy system fueled by renewable sources (e.g. solar) that reduces the emissions of greenhouse gases and minimizes reliance on the traditional grid. The expectation is that the DOD will install a greater number of microgrids to meet climate resiliency goals. We plan to be ready to provide cybersecurity expertise during the earliest phases of this implementation.
A common need echoed across the DOD is to raise awareness about the impact that a changing climate is having on force readiness and what can be done to help. In response, our team is developing the means to amplify data and the stories it tells to inform better decision-making. The following examples illustrate the wide range of insights that will inform DDS’s work:
Rising global temperatures and their correlation to the declaration of Black Flag Conditions that require the adjustment and minimization of training exercises across the services;
Significant installation energy usage is reported during off-duty hours;
Walkability and bikeability rankings illustrate how reliant an installation is on the automobile - impacting resource allocation, air quality, and consumption and CO2 emissions from fossil fuels.
Each of these lines of effort enable DDS to train a lens on the practices that have become commonplace in the DOD, and to think about them critically. As the DOD continues to study the effects of climate change on force readiness broadly, DDS will continue to look for ways to elevate that critical component of mitigation, not only to increase resilience, but to help the department become more effective protectors of the homeland.
This is just the beginning of DDS’ work to address climate action. Keep an eye out on this blog for future updates as we make progress and share the lessons learned!
