By Jessica Rouse, DeCA public affairs specialist
NOTE: Watch https://vimeo.com/1076542111/dbb18de0a5.
FORT LEE, Va. – The Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA) continues its lengthy-standing dedication to minimizing its environmental footprint. As Earth Day approaches on April 22, the company is reflecting on the initiatives taken to protect the environment.
“It’s our responsibility to ensure that our agency and our customers have access to processes and products that help protect our environment and shrink the carbon footprint,” mentioned Steven Edlavitch, DeCA engineer.
DeCA’s environmental program emphasizes waste discount, useful resource conservation and group assist.
“DeCA’s Environmental Management System (EMS) is not separate from daily work,” Edlavitch mentioned. “The components of the system are embedded in the core functions of operating a commissary. From waste handling to energy use and product stocking, these environmental practices are standard operating procedures.”
To advance sustainability, DeCA has carried out a multi-faceted technique that features decreasing vitality and water consumption in its amenities by means of sensible expertise, infrastructure upgrades and lengthy-time period planning.
The company makes use of laptop-managed heating, air flow and air con methods that function at decrease vitality ranges throughout off-peak hours. Additionally, DeCA employs warmth-reclaim expertise to seize and repurpose vitality from compressor racks elsewhere in the retailer, optimizing vitality use additional.
“Refrigeration, a major energy consumer, has been a key focus,” Edlavitch mentioned. “We’ve installed glass doors on refrigeration units, incorporated new rack technologies to reduce energy consumption and replaced older systems with modern equipment that uses low global-warming-potential natural refrigerants.”
DeCA has additionally adopted water-saving measures. These embody repairing leaks, putting in low-circulate plumbing fixtures and leveraging different water-environment friendly applied sciences. Over the final 20 years, these efforts have resulted in vital financial savings – a 34-p.c discount in water utilization.
DeCA integrates inexperienced constructing practices into new and renovated amenities to improve sustainability and vitality effectivity. These embody prioritizing pure gentle, putting in vitality-environment friendly LED lighting, and utilizing movement sensors and laptop-managed methods to cut back electrical energy use in unoccupied areas.
Solar panels have been put in at two places, Los Angeles, California, and Ansbach, Germany, with plans for growth, supporting the company’s objective of a resilient vitality provide. Additionally, some shops characteristic low-upkeep flooring, which minimizes the want for chemical compounds, water and vitality-intensive upkeep gear.
To guarantee continued progress, DeCA conducts vitality and water audits at its amenities each 4 years, concentrating on the high 75 p.c of the company’s vitality use. The company’s annual objective is to cut back vitality depth by 2.5 p.c.
In addition to vitality conservation, DeCA focuses on recycling and decreasing meals waste. In fiscal year 2025, the company recycled 86.7 million kilos of fabric, reaching a diversion charge of 56.4 p.c. Since fiscal 2005, DeCA has recycled greater than 4.3 billion kilos of fabric.
DeCA’s meals donation program additional minimizes waste by offering edible however unsellable meals products to native meals banks. In fiscal 2025, the company donated over 5 million kilos of meals, and since the program’s inception in 2012, DeCA has donated greater than 52 million kilos.
Edlavitch highlighted the kinds of objects eligible for donation, noting they usually embody products with beauty injury to packaging.
“As long as the military food inspectors deem a dry item salvageable, we can donate it,” he mentioned. “This allows us to service food banks that assist families in need while diverting even more waste from our waste stream.”
Edlavitch emphasised the large-reaching affect of DeCA’s environmental initiatives.
“The first benefit is environmental stewardship,” he mentioned. “The core purpose is to reduce the agency’s footprint. Diverting millions of pounds of waste from landfills, conserving energy and water, and transitioning to cleaner energy help protect the environment for future generations.”
The applications additionally yield monetary and operational benefits. Revenue from recycling efforts contributes hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to DeCA’s surcharge fund, which helps retailer building, renovations and gear upgrades. Meanwhile, financial savings from lowered vitality and water consumption decrease operational prices.
Community assist is one other crucial element of those initiatives, Edlavitch famous.
“The food donation program demonstrates our commitment to the communities we serve by redirecting edible food to help families struggling with food insecurity,” he mentioned. “This is especially important for communities near military installations.”
DeCA additionally conducts strategic vitality assessments to establish alternatives for modernization. By analyzing components similar to insulation and gear efficiency, the company has created a roadmap for focused sustainability investments.
Commissaries are additionally making it simpler for patrons to reside sustainably. Stores provide environmentally pleasant products similar to natural produce, vitality-saving gentle bulbs, excessive-effectivity laundry and cleansing products, and lowered-packaging objects like paper towels and toilet tissue.
Additionally, DeCA options Full Circle Market, a commissary retailer model devoted to sustainability. According to the model’s web site, Full Circle Market products use all-pure substances and are farmed with out chemical remedies or processing practices that hurt biodiversity.
“Investing in intelligent supermarket technology delivers a triple win: enhanced operational efficiency, a superior customer experience and the actionable data we need to make smarter decisions,” Edlavitch mentioned.
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About DeCA: The Defense Commissary Agency operates a worldwide chain of commissaries offering groceries to army personnel, retirees, disabled veterans and different approved patrons and their households in a protected and safe purchasing environment. Commissaries present a army profit, saving approved patrons hundreds of {dollars} yearly on their purchases in contrast to related products at industrial retailers. The discounted costs embody a 5-p.c surcharge, which helps the prices of constructing, modernizing and sustaining commissary amenities. A core army household assist factor and valued a part of army pay and advantages, commissaries contribute to household readiness, improve the high quality of life for America’s army companies and their households, and help recruit and retain the finest and brightest women and men to serve their nation.
