NATO Support and Procurement Agency: Best Practices on Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency for the Defence Industry

“Since its inception, NATO has done more than any other multilateral organization to promote democracy, peace, and security in Europe and the broader transatlantic community with benefits that have rippled out to the broader global community. Ensuring that NATO can face the challenges of the 21st century while safeguarding and vitalizing collective defense – the heart of the Alliance – is the charge of the upcoming reflection period.”[i]

 — Luke Coffey and Daniel Kochis, The Heritage Foundation

Introduction

Entering 2022, with the pandemic creating a renewed sense of urgency and tensions at their highest peak since 2014 in Eastern Europe, the Alliance certainly faces problems that are different from yesteryear. One such problem, which will certainly only get worse and likely aggravate others, is that of climate change, identified now as one of the “defining challenges of our times” by NATO in its newly minted Climate Change and Security Action Plan.[ii]

To this effect, the Alliance is clear in its approach to the overall issue of climate change moving forward. Comprising goals for the Alliance, specific tasks for its organizations, and mechanisms to be developed to monitor overall progress. NATO’s steps forward include increased overall awareness, climate change adaptation and mitigation, and enhanced outreach with partner nations and organizations.[iii]

Now, understanding the current role of the defence industry within NATO’s ability to react to various crises, the need for its agencies and partners to remain flexible towards growing demands remains a cornerstone to its future success. With climate change emerging as a threat multiplier concerning many current and potential future conflicts around the world, the need for development of industry best practices is now only exponentially growing, faced with the issue of balancing timely, effective results, while also remaining conscious of the operating environment for future, sustainable use.

Within the sphere of these various defence industry partners, one specific example is the NATO Support Procurement Agency (NSPA), which has consistently demonstrated an ability to fulfill Alliance requirements, while also maintaining a purview of environmental consideration within its actions as a NATO agency. Accordingly, in consequence to the growing impact posed by climate change as a threat multiplier, this article will seek to highlight defence industry environmental best practices moving forward, using the NSPA as the example for what can be considered the ideal contribution to NATO’s Climate Change and Security Action Plan.

An Overview of the NSPA

Within the scope of its operational framework, NATO has always required logistical support and service provision as the foundation of its footprint. Accordingly, various organizations and agencies have existed since 1958 such as the NATO Maintenance Supply Services Agency, the NATO Maintenance and Supply Organization, and the NATO Support Agency.[iv] Subsequently, it was at the 2010 Lisbon Summit that the Alliance agreed to reform the majority of its existing agencies, particularly seeking to streamline programs into procurement, support, and communications.[v] The goal of such reform was thus to enhance operational efficiency, including the effectiveness in the delivery of capabilities and services in the face of changing requirements based on the spectrum of warfare.

At the Lisbon Summit in November 2010, NATO Heads of State and Government agreed to reform the 14 existing NATO Agencies, located in seven member states. In particular, Allies agreed to streamline the agencies into three major programmatic themes: procurement, support, and communications and information to enhance efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of capabilities and services. Finally, it would be on 1 July 2012, that the NSPA would be formed through the merger of three other NATO agencies, assuming the overall responsibility for NATO procurement and systems acquisition, while also inheriting the major contribution moving forward for NATO multinational logistics solutions.[vi]

Since its inauguration and, accounting for its parent organizations, the NSPA has brought together, in a single organization, acquisition, logistical, medical, and infrastructural capabilities, including operational and systems support, in service of the North Atlantic Council. As NATO’s primary enabler, its mission remains the provision of effective yet cost-efficient multinational solutions on a “no profit – no loss” basis. It is through this approach that the NSPA today holds 32 support partnerships, offering its services to the 30 member nations and dozens of partner nations alike. 

Considering the current atmosphere of the worldwide pandemic, the NSPA has continued to demonstrate flexibility in its approach to operational support. Examples include their delivery of medical supplies and equipment to partner nation Ukraine last year in face of the COVID-19 pandemic.[vii] as well as the provision of integrated solutions and real-life support to NATO-led operations in Afghanistan, embodied by the fully operational testing laboratory for Operation Resolute Support that became functional in May of 2020.[viii]

It is therefore through the provision of services regardless of the situation that NSPA demonstrates its inherent value as an agency. As such, with the NSPA firmly established as one of NATO’s leading partners in the defence industry, it is critical to underline that part of its basis for efficiency and overall success exists within the scope of the environmental protection and energy efficient services it provides. This again reflects the agency’s ability to face the challenges imposed not only to the defence industry but also to NATO itself as it seeks to provide solutions to the Alliance’s logistical and service provision dilemmas. Consequently, through seeking enforcement of environmentally sound and sustainable development on behalf of member nations in its services, the NSPA embodies the defence industry best practices regarding environmental standards, elucidated further below.

Environmental Standards Considered

Historically, NATO has addressed the topic of climate change in recent memory based on current needs of operations and its footprint as an organization. To this effect, the 2010 Strategic Concept emphasizes the challenge posed by climate change specifically, outlining key environmental and resource constraints that will shape the future of the security environment.[ix] Furthermore, the 2012 Chicago Summit saw member nations agree to work on improved energy efficiency as part of its force development, adopting the overall Green Defence Framework in 2014.[x] As part of this framework, further emphasis is to be placed on the reduction of environmental footprints in military operations, as well as investment in green technologies to improve resilience.

From a legal perspective, Article 3 of the Alliance has come to the forefront these past two years amidst the pandemic, citing the resilience requirement as a critical element for its ability to achieve collective defense. At its 2016 Warsaw Summit, NATO further committed itself to “continue to enhance resilience against the full spectrum of threats”, adding, “resilience is an essential basis for credible deterrence and effective fulfilment of the Alliance’s core tasks.”[xi] Accordingly, as part of this basis for resilience, it undoubtedly includes resilience to climate change through both adaptation and mitigation, as mentioned above. Consequently, NATO’s Science for Security & Peace Program continues to lead efforts within the Emerging Securities Threat Division to address climate change as a topic of interest.[xii] Further, the Energy Security Centre of Excellence in Vilnius, Lithuania, has been operating at working capacity since 2012, and the initial implementation for the Climate and Security Centre of Excellence in Canada is due sometime in 2023.[xiii]

Nevertheless, the basis for fostering resilience and climate change adaptation cannot be borne by the Alliance alone. The defence industry must inevitably play a part as one of the key partner’s in such an action plan. Accordingly, as of one NATO’s key procurement and logistical support agencies, the NSPA maintains its environmentally principled approach through its Environmental Protection and Energy Efficient Services office. Through this office, the NSPA is able to remain “committed to enforce environmentally sound and sustainable development in its cooperative activities with its stakeholders on behalf of the NATO nations.”[xiv] The Environmental Services office is capable of doing this through its two-pronged approach of initiatives & projects, and through the leveraging of its Environmental Management System (EMS).

From its onset in 2012, the office has managed a portfolio of various environmentally oriented projects for NATO and partner nations. This has ranged from operational support projects to various mission areas, to procurement of sustainable or environmentally conscious equipment based on provided specifications for future use. From wastewater management in Kosovo Force (KFOR) to environmental waste reduction in Afghanistan, the projects vary in scope but are always determined by the clients, which inherently represent NATO through its member and partner nations.

These projects generally focus on the key foundational topics of environmental protection divided along the lines of water, land, waste, sustainable energy models, and sustainable procurement. They can also involve administrative functions of environmental protection such as site surveys and closeout studies; all provided from the flexible office of the environmental protection and energy efficient services across the Alliance as required.

To manage such a portfolio, one of the foundational requirements that constitutes the NSPA’s second tenet of the approach is its accredited EMS. Using a typical Deming Cycle (as depicted below), the NSPA environmental services are able to remain “committed to enforce environmentally sound and sustainable development in the full range of its cooperation activities with its stakeholders.”[xv]

Methodology – the PDCA Cycle

To further bolster its environmental approach, the NSPA environmental services office holds the ISO 140001:2015 certification within the scope of its projects, an internationally recognized standard that “specifies the requirements for an EMS for an organization seeking to manage its environmental responsibilities in a systematic manner than contributes to the environmental pillar of sustainability.”[xvi]

As such, ISO 14001:2015 assists an organization such as the NSPA to achieve the intended outcomes of its EMS, which is inherently the desire considering its portfolio of projects. Consequently, using said EMS, value can be quantitatively defined for the environment, the organization itself, and other stakeholders, thereby consistently reinforcing the environmental policy prescribed by the NSPA in line with the Alliance. In other words, use of the EMS allows the NSPA to quantitatively assess how it provides value to the Climate and Security Action Plan.

Way Forward

From a logistic and service provision perspective, the defence industry can move forward through the pursuit of strategies with the goal of supporting the overall Climate Change Action and Security Plan for the Alliance. There are several initiatives based on those highlighted above from the NSPA that can therefore be implemented to address the issue from a holistic standing.

1. Implementation of an Environmental Management System

As previously mentioned, the overall management of an environmental approach must not be done in a haphazard fashion, especially as a specific model already exists with internationally recognized certification available upon meeting these standards. Through the establishment of a typical EMS cycle, defence industry organizations can demonstrate an overall capacity for management of projects in accordance with prescribed standards. Accordingly, through exercising due diligence and seeking the ISO 14001:2015 accreditation, organizations within the defence industry can demonstrate conformity to the internationally recognized standard, all while raising their pedigree with what is viewed as the industry standard for environmental conscientiousness moving forward.

2. Establishment of an Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency entity

Management of such a portfolio can be lofty, particularly for larger agencies that might manage more than one type of service provision or logistical aspect. To this effect, one of the decisions often made is that of placing the environmental services office within the scope of another division. Even within the NATO Command Structure, Environmental Protection is often placed within the Engineering Division or relegated to a secondary duty assigned to an otherwise employed staff officer. To this effect, understanding the rising importance of climate change as a threat multiplier, as well as the inherent difficulty that exists in managing an EMS in correlation with the size of the organization it is drafted for, it is recommended that the environmental services office be provided flexibility as its own entity. This will thereby maximize its efficiency in working cross-organizationally with the EMS, involving all stakeholders towards meeting the proposed environmental framework.

3. Understand the symbiosis of resilience and climate change adaptation

Emerging from the pandemic, NATO must now recognize that specific events such as health or environmental emergencies can aggravate security crises. As NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoană notes, “Resilient societies are our first line of defense. We have to put a much greater emphasis on resilience across government, the private sector, and civil society.”[xvii] As NATO seeks to invest in resilience through leveraging or strengthening its policies, programs, and partnerships, so too must the defence industry. Organizations must therefore seek to understand the relationship resilience has with overall climate change adaptation, how climate change affects the security picture of the Alliance, and how preparing logistics and service provision in consequence of said reality is the best way it can plan to support the Alliance moving forward.

Conclusion

As the initial quote from The Heritage Foundation members Coffey and Kochis indicates, since its inception the Alliance has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to adapt to the challenges presented as time moved forward. This includes the initial threats posed by the USSR during the Cold War, to the regional conflicts of the mid-90s and 2000s, now returning to a mixture of great power competition and regional-based asymmetric warfare today.

While 2022 moves full steam ahead towards the NATO Summit in June, delegates will receive the first Climate Change and Security Progress report, to be delivered as per the 2021 NATO Climate Change and Security Action Plan.[xviii] Accordingly, this will be one of the first quantitative reviews of where the Alliance stands regarding this emerging security threat. Thus, as climate change continues to deepen threats to the NATO domain within the scope of energy security, mass refugee movement, and large-scale natural catastrophes, the defence industry will have a part to play in supporting the upcoming action items.

Championing the NSPA in addressing both the environmentally responsible and emergency energy concepts, this article has sought to demonstrate the heightened importance of an environmental management system, outlining the environmental best practices to which the defence industry must defer moving forward. As such, partner organizations’ adherence to these leading practices will make a major contribution towards achieving the overall action plan and a secure future for generations to come.

Notes

[i] Luke Coffey & Daniel Kochis, “NATO in the 21st Century: Preparing the Alliance for Challenges of Today and Tomorrow”, The Heritage Foundation. 10 August 2020, accessed 28 December 2021, https://www.heritage.org/defense/report/nato-the-21st-century-preparing-the-alliance-the-challenges-today-and-tomorrow.

[ii] North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), “NATO Climate Change and Security Action Plan”, 14 June 2021, accessed 30 December 2021, https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_185174.htm.

[iii] Ibid.

[iv] "NATO Support and Procurement Agency, “History”, n.d., accessed 28 December 2021, https://www.nspa.nato.int/about/history.

[v] Ibid.

[vi] Ibid.

[vii] NATO Support and Procurement Agency, “NSPA Delivers Medical Supplies to Ukraine”, 25 August 2021, accessed 3 January 2022, https://www.nspa.nato.int/news/2021/nspa-delivers-medical-supplies-ton.d.-ukraine.

[viii] NATO Support and Procurement Agency, “NSPA Delivers COVID-19 Testing Laboratory to NATO-led RESOLUTE SUPPORT (RS) Mission”, 27 May 2020, accessed 3 January 2022,  https://www.nspa.nato.int/news/2020/covid19-testing-laboratory-rs-mission.

[ix] A. Uzumcu, T. Ildem, and F. Ceylan, “The New Challenge for NATO: Securing A Climate-changed World”, Atlantic Council, 20 April 2021, accessed 28 December 2021, https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/the-new-challenge-for-nato-securing-a-climate-changed-world/.

[x] Ibid.

[xi] Jaclyn Levy, “The best defense: Why NATO should invest in resilience”, Atlantic Council, 10 June 2021, accessed 8 January 2021, https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/the-best-defense-why-nato-should-invest-in-resilience/.

[xii] Ibid.

[xiii] Prime Minister of Canada, “Strengthening Transatlantic Defence and Security”, 14 June 2021, accessed 4 January 2021, https://pm.gc.ca/en/news/backgrounders/2021/06/14/strengthening-transatlantic-defence-and-security.

[xiv] NATO Support and Procurement Agency, “Support to Operations”, n.d., accessed 28 December 2021, https://www.nspa.nato.int/about/support-to-operations/epees.

[xv] Ibid.

[xvi] International Standardization Organization, “ISO 14001:2015”, September 2019, accessed 28 December 2021, https://www.iso.org/standard/60857.html#:~:text=ISO%2014001%3A2015%20specifies%20the,to%20enhance%20its%20environmental%20performance.&text=ISO%2014001%3A2015%20can%20be,to%20systematically%20improve%20environmental%20management.

[xvii] Jaclyn Levy, “The best defense: Why NATO should invest in resilience”

[xviii] NATO, “NATO Climate Change and Security Action Plan”

Image Credit: NATO Support and Procurement Agency

This publication was co-sponsored by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.