DoD has released its annual Strategic Sustainability Performance Plan (SSPP), which outlines the Department’s goals and sustainability performance expectations through FY 2020. For the first time as part of this update, an adaptation roadmap identifies the steps DoD will take to ensure the sustainability of its operations and infrastructure under climate change.

As reported by FoxNews.com, a novel cold spray technology successfully demonstrated by ESTCP will help save corroded Black Hawk helicopter parts from premature retirement. The coating system has been approved by the Sikorsky Aircraft Company and the Army Program Office for use on one UH-60 Black Hawk component with future approvals anticipated for the entire H-60 helicopter family.

As part of a joint departmental effort to strengthen the nation’s energy independence and reduce military utility costs, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar have signed a memorandum of understanding detailing the use of withdrawn military lands, as well as onshore and offshore lands near military installations, for development of renewable energy.

A new white paper developed by SERDP identifies key policy questions that need to be addressed to ensure that climate change vulnerability and impact assessments are conducted effectively and that assessment findings are appropriately used to inform decisions. The paper draws on the work of four SERDP-funded research projects that are developing and testing information, models, and tools necessary to examine the potential climate change vulnerability of and impacts on military installations along the coast.

The Department of Defense (DoD) has released a Climate Change Adaptation Roadmap (CCAR) that details the Department’s plan for managing the effects of climate change on its operations and infrastructure in both the short and long term. This roadmap, a key element of DoD’s annual update of its Strategic Sustainability Performance Plan (SSPP), specifically calls out SERDP’s work to develop climate change assessment tools for DoD’s installations.

ESTCP released a solicitation on February 12, 2013, requesting proposals for demonstration of installation energy technologies. FY 2014 funds are available through a competitive process to Federal and private organizations. The due date for all pre-proposals is Thursday, March 28, 2013. More information about the solicitation is available at www.serdp-estcp.org/Funding-Opportunities/ESTCP-Solicitations/Installation-Energy-Solicitation.

An Office of the Secretary of Defense effort is under way to establish a sophisticated turnkey repair station for magnesium alloy aerospace components using the highly successful cold spray technology developed with ESTCP support. The novel coating system represents a low-cost, environmentally friendly method for combatting corrosion and reclaiming otherwise unsalvageable magnesium components. The repair station will be the first single facility with the capability to perform all the operations required to restore these salvaged parts and will reduce repair time by up to three months.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in collaboration with SERDP has released a report on global sea level rise scenarios out to the year 2100. The report, written by contributors from 10 federal and academic science institutions, lays out four risk-based scenarios describing potential future conditions. These scenarios can be used to analyze vulnerabilities and impacts from sea level rise and take action to minimize them.