USS Carl Vinson Crew Going Greener For Earth Day

By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Byron C. Linder, USS Carl Vinson Public Affairs

USS CARL VINSON, At Sea (NNS) -- Sailors aboard USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) celebrated Earth Day April 22 by supporting this year's theme, 'Billion Acts of Green.'

In supporting that theme, which is based on the principle of small individual acts adding up to a larger impact, Sailors were challenged to make one alteration to systemically reduce their collective impact on the environment.

Led by the 'Green Machine,' a team of volunteer Sailors who strive to actively minimize the ship's environmental impact and protect the ocean's ecology, Carl Vinson Sailors set out to become more aware of the environment and how they can be good stewards of it. The team set up a forum on the ship's intranet for Sailors to share their Earth Day suggestions.

"We wanted to get ideas from the Sailors, everyone from the E-1 who just reported aboard to the strike group commander," said Green Machine's senior enlisted representative and IM-1 Division Quality Assurance supervisor Senior Chief Aviation Electronics Technician (AW/SW) Michael Armetta of Vinson's aircraft intermediate maintenance department. "We set up the [intranet] page to get ideas on how to reduce our trash footprint."

A single Vinson Sailor contributing an idea to the team and making an effort to help the ship go greener, supports the "Billion Acts of Green" theme for Earth Day, said Armetta.

"I plan on drinking water out of a refillable bottle, and reducing the number of sodas I drink to three or less per week," said 'Green Team' member, Aviation Administrationman 2nd Class (SW/AW) Zachary Lowry.

"I'm going to use electronic means to read and route paperwork to reduce printing in addition to using reusable containers to eat and drink out of for all meals," said Lt. Nicholas Walker, attached to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 22.

In addition to the efforts of individual Sailors, Vinson's leadership is taking an active role in creating a series of events designed to continually decrease the ship's environmental footprint, and quantify the impact of every Sailor's efforts.

"I will be working with my team of Sailors in our four waste processing plants to measure how much of a difference our crew made this Earth Day by choosing to reduce the amount of plastic and aluminum they use April 22," said Cmdr. Christopher Valdivia, Vinson's auxiliaries officer. "Personally, I'll be drinking my daily soda from the fountain machine and avoiding the plastic cereal bowls and coffee creamers. Plus, I want to be able to tell my kids that we made a difference out here."

"One simple step of changing how you act now benefits yourself, your family and future operations," said Armetta. "You may be 18 or 19 years-old now and not have a family yet. Imagine six or eight years later, still in the Navy with a family, the decisions you've made and the influence you've had spreads to more people."

Armetta encouraged Sailors to consider the immense effort taken to produce and dispose of a single bottle of water.

"We have distilleries aboard that produce water. People want to buy a plastic bottle of water, and that takes energy to produce. It costs money to produce and dispose of that one small item," Armetta said. "Reducing our disposal of 100 empty bottles of water doesn't sound like much now, but it adds up exponentially."

In addition to reducing the ship's environmental impact, reducing the time spent disposing of shipboard trash is a benefit for Vinson Sailors.

"We're taking an hour to dispose of trash during [vertical replenishments], and that affects the mission and [operational risk management] of Sailors. We're working an extra hour to dispose of more than 30 tri-walls of trash," explained Armetta. "If we reduce that hour once a week, we could save 30 to 40 hours over a deployment and get back on target, supporting the troops on the ground."

Sailors' actions have the best odds of changing the way the Navy conducts business, said Armetta.

"A Sailor's choice to drink what the ship produces from the distillery and not buy a bottle of water can be a cultural change. It doesn't take much to change the way the Navy does business. The culture has to change, because the ocean and our landfills can only hold so much trash," Armetta said. "There wasn't much of a conservation philosophy 20 or 25 years ago, because no one was taking measurements of the trash the Navy was producing. Now there's the 'Green Machine' platform for Carl Vinson to be a greener work environment and reduce our footprint while we conduct our mission."

Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group is deployed supporting maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility.