CorpComms Magazine

The US navy is introducing a fleet of ships, submarines and planes powered entirely by biofuels as part of a Pentagon-wide initiative to reduce the defence department's impact on the environment.

Currently, the military is responsible for 80 per cent of the US government's energy consumption. But the Pentagon is not defensive about the need for change. Its strategic review earlier this year officially recognised global warming as a destabilising force and a national security issue.

In a bid to cut its carbon footprint, the defence department has set itself the target of obtaining 25 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2015. It is also aiming to reduce its overall water and energy use over the next decade, investing in portable wind turbines and also installing solar panels in a bid to make its base in Fort Irwin self-sufficient in the next ten years.

This week, the air force is test-flying one of the most ravenous fuel consumers in the US air fleet, the F/A-18 Super Hornet, with a 50 per cent blend of jet fuel and camelina oil seed.

Phyllis Cuttino, director of the Global Warming Campaign at the charitable trust, Pew Environment Group, said: 'Part of the military's job is to decrease risk, and that is their strategy behind investing in green energy. If the military is doing it, maybe the American people will think it's not so scary.'

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