SAME Japan Post hosts energy workshop

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Omari Bernard
  • 18th Wing Public Affairs
KADENA AIR BASE, Japan --  The Society of American Military Engineers Japan Post met with members of the Okinawan Department of Commerce, Okinawan Department of Labor and other SAME members during an energy workshop at the Kadena Officer's Club, Nov. 18 and 19.

Their goal was to discuss energy efficiency, diversity and security.

SAME fosters education and support by bringing academic, industry and military joint component multiservice groups together to exchange information. The multiservice groups include service component engineers from the Air Force 18th Civil Engineer Group, the Marine Corps Civil Engineers, Army Combat Engineers and Navy SeaBees.

"Today's event was about energy," said U.S. Navy Capt. Mike Monreal, SAME Japan post president. "Our focus on this energy forum that we had today was to exchange information from the Okinawa prefectural government, their department of labor and commerce."

The SAME Japan Post consists of service members as well as civilians, with more than half of the SAME Japan post's members being civilians.

Monreal said that engineers from the state of Hawaii and Okinawan prefectural government have an energy partnership already and get together to speak about energy, but the U.S. Government was not a part of these talks.

This is the first time in his three year tour on Okinawa that all of the groups have gotten together to speak about energy in one place.

Both Okinawans and SAME members recognized the energy goals they had in common. The state of Hawaii's goal is to reduce reliance on fuels by 40 percent while Okinawa has a similar goal of 30 percent reduction. The United States military's goal is to be less reliant on fossil fuels by becoming more reliant on green power - power generated or developed from non-fossil fuels.

"I think that by being able to exchange this information, we are going to be able to align ourselves with both the business we are going to be doing in the future and the end states to be able to use some of our bases for some of these renewable energy opportunities," Monreal continued.

Retired U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Joseph Schroedel, SAME executive director, stressed the importance of clean energy and how to get others involved with looking for clean solutions.

"The programs that we run will be key to [the organization that] we are too." Schroedel said. "We can't integrate and produce solutions to problems just during our lifetime. We've got to start bringing along the kids and future engineers who are going to do that when we hand off to them so they can keep it going."

Military engineers and local government can work together to preserve, protect, conserve and restore our national resources through sustainable practices.

"We're going to start seeing a new level of interest with the U.S. military, Okinawan government, local industry and academia," Monroe said. "We're all going to come together in the future for technical working groups to understand what our specific opportunities we can practically apply here on the island."