Following last month’s presentation of the Navy’s conservation award winners, one of the Secretary of the Navy’s Energy and Water Management flags will come to rest at Lejeune Hall for a year. Marine Corps Base Quantico was ranked first among the Corps’ large, shore-based installations for efforts to reduce water and energy use during 2012.

Through a variety of programs, the base has reduced the intensity of its energy use by 31 percent since 2003 and of its water use by 48 percent since 2007. Intensity denotes the amount of water or energy used per 1,000 square feet of floor space.

“It’s a conservation effort through multiple, different channels,” said Patty Greek, water and wastewater manager for the base. She said the use of low-flow toilets and other water-reducing appliances, together with the installation of water meters on buildings aboard the base, are largely responsible for the reductions in water use. The meters just went into use this year.

Stefanie Kivelin, energy manager for the base, said Quantico started a project in 2010 to install about 200 electricity meters and 80 natural gas meters, as well as 130 water meters. She said the meters allow facilities personnel to compare use between buildings and identify where they have inefficiencies.

But she said this is just one way the base has reduced energy use. A number of older, less efficient buildings have been replaced with newer construction, much of it certifiable at the silver level for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. Nine new facilities opened on the base in 2012. Six were LEED-silver certifiable, one was LEED-gold certified, and two were not certified due to the building type.

The base has also made an effort to make sure that when old equipment is replaced, the new systems are more efficient, Kivelin said. And energy awareness and training efforts such as the recent Power Down the Base initiative have reduced individual energy consumption.

Last year, the base established an Environmental and Energy Management System Core Team, integrating energy management with pollution prevention, air quality, hazardous materials management and other environmental issues. The team, chaired by Col. David Maxwell, the base commander, and consisting of Kivelin, Environmental Management Systems Coordinator Dave Grose and the primary directors for base and tenant activities, meets twice a year to discuss and coordinate environmental and conservation efforts.

Each activity and tenant on the base is also identifying an energy conservation officer to act as a liaison between Kivelin and the building occupants and to encourage energy-efficient behavior such as keeping windows closed and shutting down computers.

Kivelin said next year’s energy conservation efforts will focus more on these sorts of education and awareness activities, as there is no longer much funding for new construction and technology.

Since federal conservation mandates were handed down, Headquarters Marine Corps established an energy investment program that funded many of the efforts over the last couple of years, she said.

“One federal mandate, which Quantico has met already, was to reduce energy consumption by 30 percent by 2015,” she said.

Infrastructure improvements won’t halt altogether, though.

“Moving forward, we just awarded a big contract to update the central heating and air systems in about 150 buildings around the base,” Kivelin said. “It’s a monster project.” The updated systems would be able to be set to run at lower levels when a building is unoccupied.

The top energy awards also carry cash prizes, and the base won $45,000 for its efforts. The money will be spent on future conservation efforts.

Greek said some of the prize might be spent to replace water fountains in some buildings with bottled water stations designed for refilling bottles. In addition to conserving water, she said, “It saves people money because they’re not going out and buying water because they want the convenience of having a bottle of water at their desk.”

Kivelin said prize money might also be spent on further energy awareness outreach. However, she said, the final decision will be up to Maxwell.

Last year, Quantico was ranked in the gold category at the Energy and Water Management Awards for its 2011 conservation efforts.

— Writer: mdicicco@quanticosentryonline.com