Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune Sustainability Services

North Carolina

The U.S. Marine Corps Installation East—Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune is the largest U.S. Marine Corps installation on the east coast. Michael Baker was contracted by the installation’s Environmental Management Division (EMD) to promote environmental awareness for the installation’s 137,526 military and civilian staff, their families and visitors. To meet this goal, we developed a comprehensive Strategic Sustainability Performance Plan (SSPP), which enlisted Commanding Officer support essential to effecting base-wide behavioral change. The SSPP also provided a framework for a robust sustainability program, outlined metrics to measure progress towards goals and supplied recommendations on outreach initiatives to educate staff, their families and visitors on compliance, pollution prevention and sustainability.

We worked closely with the EMD and developed outreach materials for the installation’s robust solid waste and recycling programs. Flyers, brochures and training manuals increased participation and provided education on all aspects of the program, from what could be recycled to where items needed to be delivered. For the installation’s recurring recycling education programs—which were critically important for the installation’s transient personnel and their families—we created teaching materials and user manuals.

Our team developed an environmental-standards guidebook for Marines and other installation residents titled, Overview of Camp Lejeune Environmental Programs, as a go-to reference that detailed the camp’s environmental goals and the programs in place to achieve them. We also developed a guide which included best practices that contractors and tradespeople working at the installation need to follow to comply with Camp Lejeune’s environmental stewardship mission.

For the past five years as part of the annual Earth Day Expo, more than 1,000 students from pre-school to high school visited 19 environmental stations and participated in interactive, hands-on activities. We connected with subject matter experts to serve as presenters, worked with school officials on the logistics of transporting students to the Expo, developed learning materials and activities and provided “day of” support.

Also notable, the barracks achieved LEED®-NC gold certification.