Solutions From Sea to Stars Focuses on Climate Change

As COP 21 negotiated and adopted the world’s first universal climate agreement, I

contemplated the role of the small business in climate change resilience and adaptation. In

the United States alone, the Small Business Administration reported that small businesses

made up 99.7 percent of all U.S. employer firms accounting for almost 50 percent of private

sector employment and 98 percent of firms exporting goods (SBA.gov).

While I applaud big business for making significant commitments to reduce their carbon

footprints, to effect lasting and profound change we need to change more than just

technologies – we also need to change the culture. To facilitate that cultural shift we need

small business to have an active role and serious consideration in any climate change impact regime, especially of COP21’s

magnitude, because of the impact of small businesses. View the Clean Technica article here.

We invite you to watch our new video (click here) and let us know what you think on Twitter @marstelday, LinkedIn, or

Facebook. We welcome your thoughts and appreciate you sharing Solutions from Sea to Stars with everyone who cares

about the environment and conservation.

Thank you for all you do to protect our planet’s water, natural resources, and wildlife.

Wishing you all the very best.

Rebecca R. Rubin

Founder, President, and CEO

Impact of Climate Change on Mountain Home AFB - A White House CEQ Pilot

The White House’s Council on Environmental Quality

(CEQ) and the Department of Defense, selected

Mountain Home Air Force Base (MHAFB) as a pilot

project to “build climate preparedness.” As we

mentioned in our previous newsletter, we identified several vulnerabilities

to operations and the environment regarding imminent water scarcity for

several of our clients. Using our data as a decision-making tool, the Air

Force chose the top five installations where water scarcity could adversely

affect mission operations and national defense readiness. We created a

deep-dive Water Resource Management and Sustainability Plan (WRMSP) study for MHAFB and, with the support of our

Community Partnership program activities there (see article on the next page), we identified 16 challenges and proposed

management actions to help alleviate them.

Building upon new and existing partnerships with local, county, and state governments along with Boise State University;

our WRMSP study team has laid the foundation to reduce overall demand on water resources and alter water use behavior

by implementing an applied conservation program. The combination of the community partnerships and the deep-dive

WRMSP study will provide education and outreach on the impact of climate change within Idaho, best practices on reducing

water consumption, and best practices for water conservation. These efforts should help alleviate the impact of climate

change on MHAFB and assist the surrounding communities in minimizing the climate impact on water availability.

Environmental Gaming

How can we integrate actions to mitigate climate change into organizational development strategies?

What environmental drivers increase the risk of adversely impacting society and the economy? Our

answer to these questions, and more, take the form of a new business practice based on an in-depth

analysis of the increasing importance of climate change and the environment to private, public, and

governmental organizations. We have created Environmental Gaming to help leaders and decision

makers interactively investigate the large-scale and long-term impacts caused by environmental events and trends. These

include short-term emergencies, such as flood hazards and wildland fires, but also decade-scale changes in landscapes,

climate, and resource availability.

Our flexible approach allows organizations to explore their response to wide-ranging scenarios and events - from tactical

approaches to emergencies or supply disruptions to strategic planning. The service includes developing client-specific

scenarios involving stakeholder networks, client missions and operations, natural factors, and feedback mechanisms. Our

clients then explore these in a hosted game to inform creation of robust, adaptive strategies. Marstel-Day developed pilot

scenarios for water shortages and flooding events in the Central Plains, deep-water drilling accidents in a climate-altered

Arctic, and drought- and wildland fire-threatened electrical infrastructure in California.

Marstel-Day In the News:

Marstel-Day Wins Major Contract

Award

The contract win with the Mobile District of

the US army Corps of Engineers provides us

access to $99 million in contract capacity for

our land-use planning, environmental, strate-

gic planning, and conservation services support

to our multiple Federal Gov’t clients. Although

the Gov’t considers us a large company, this

contract allows us to compete as a small busi-

ness for task orders that can be applied to it.

Rebecca said, “Winning one of the Small Busi-

ness REAT contract awards with their access to

the $99 million capacity pool is huge for us.”

Marstel-Day Wins Three 2015 EBJ

Environmental Awards

We won three prestigious business achieve-

ment awards by the Environmental Business

Journal for the company’s work in the environ-

mental industry. Rebecca and Lee attended the

Environmental Industry Summit XIV and re-

ceived the awards for:

Business Achievement: Small Firms - for

growth and in contracting capacity

Project Merit Award: Water - for developing

the Water Resource Management and Sustain-

ability Plans (WRMSPs) for five AF installations

New Practice Area - for our innovative Environ-

mental Gaming practice

Rebecca said, “The outstanding awards be-

stowed on us by the Environmental Business

Journal highlight the exceptional work our

employees provide to our clients and to our

conservation mission.”

In this Newsletter:

Impact of Climate Change on MHAFB - White House CEQ Pilot

Marstel-Day In the News

Environmental Gaming

Community Partnerships and Cli-mate Change

100th Anniversary of the Migratory Bird Treaty

4th Annual Green Gala

CLEAR Plan

Featured Employee - Claire Reyn-olds

President and CEO Rebecca R. Rubin

WINTER 2015-16

By U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Debbie Lockhart - F-

15E Strike Eagles at Mountain Home AFB

Community Partnerships and Climate Change

In the current era of limited funding, organizations have begun to seek out partnerships as a means to share resources and services in

an effort to reduce costs. Our Community Partnership teams have provided facilitation and agreement development services for 25 Air

Force and four Army installations. Four additional Army and three new Marine Corps installations have requested our services for this

year. Throughout the past four years, we have identified more than 350 potential and coordinated more than 90 signed agreements

for Department of Defense installations and surrounding communities.

The impacts of climate change have played a role in developing some of the major partnerships between the military installations and

their surrounding communities. Specifically, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) mandated a pilot project at

Mountain Home Air Force Base (MHAFB) in Idaho with a focus on partnering with community stakeholders regarding the decreasing

availability of water in that region. Other examples of community partnerships focused on resilience and adaptation actions to mitigate

the impacts of climate change include expansion of sustainable water resources and improvement of water quality in drought prone Oklahoma and Texas. A California installa-

tion is in the process of building a Green Rail system to alleviate annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Additionally, five installations have begun new or significantly im-

proved recycling programs. Community Partnerships have shown the ability to improve quality of life, reduce the impacts of climate change, and save money.

Marstel-Day’s 4th Annual Green Gala

We held our fourth annual Green Gala event

on December 8, 2015, at the Olde Silk Mill in

Fredericksburg, VA. Notable attendees included

local government officials, area business

leaders, local non-profit organizations, local

university leaders, friends of Marstel-Day, and

our sponsors from Proxio (Platinum level) as

well as our Gold and Silver level sponsors.

During the evening’s festivities, Marstel-Day

analyst Ms. Gretchen Gorecki received the Sherri

Goodman Award for Conservation Achievement

from Ms. Goodman herself. The award is named

for The Honorable Sherri Goodman, former

Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for

Environmental Security and the founding Chair of

the Marstel-Day Advisory Council. The award

embodies the nominee’s work leading to

significant environmental benefits, commitment

to conservation, creativity, and mentoring others.

University of Mary Washington (UMW)

junior, Maggie Magliato, accepted the “Innovation

in Environmental Stewardship Award” during the

Green Gala. Marstel-Day established the $2,500

cash award in 2014 to reward a rising senior at

UMW. Additionally, the Green Gala supported the

conservation efforts for two non-profit

organizations: Tree Fredericksburg and the

National Wildlife Refuge Association. Green Gala

sponsorship and the proceeds from a silent

auction provided donations for the organizations

to support their respective missions, which include conservation efforts to mitigate

the impacts of climate change.

Featured Employee: Claire Reynolds, Focused on Climate Change

Ms. Reynolds provides GIS support to Marstel-Day’s Air Force Program, focusing on climate

change effects as they relate to Water Resource Management and Sustainability Plans

(WRMSPs). She previously supported Compatible Land Use Strategies (CLUS) within Installa-

tion Complex Encroachment Management Action Plans (ICEMAPs). She uses GIS to identify

potential water resource challenges as well as potential solutions to reduced water availa-

bility associated with Air Force installations’ missions and the surrounding communities. Ms.

Reynolds is responsible for data acquisition, spatial analysis, environmental research, and

stakeholder identification.

Ms. Reynolds has a BS in environmental science from the University of West Florida, where

she focused on environmental policy and GIS. Additionally, she earned an MS in environ-

mental science from the University of West Florida focused on aquatic biogeochemistry and water quality. Ms. Reyn-

olds received a GIS certificate from the University of West Florida Geodata Center.

Featured Employee: Claire’s Quotes

“Clean and abundant water is an essential part of

successful communities and military resilience.”

“Climate change is actively impacting water sup-

ply, availability, and quality. Whether it comes in

the form of intense droughts or the threat of rising

seas, climate change is important to consider as an

impact to military missions. I am excited to be able

to incorporate GIS techniques into our deep-dive

analysis for the Water Resource Management and

Sustainment Plans to provide the Air Force with a

way forward to become as resilient as possible in

the face of a changing global climate.”

Fort Buchannan’s Needs and Capacities Conference

for Army Community Partnership program.

(L-R) The Honorable Ms. Sherri Goodman, Ms.

Gretchen Gorecki, and Ms. Rebecca Rubin.

(L-R) Jonathon Levin - UMW Provost, Dean

Richard Finkelstein (UMW), Ms. Maggie

Magliato, and Ms. Rebecca Rubin.

Green Gala sponsors with Ms. Rebecca Rubin.

100th Anniversary of the Migratory Bird Treaty

As we walk throughout our

parks, along our streets, and

peer out our windows; we

hear the sweet sounds of

spring in the form of song-

sters and other birds that

have returned home after the winter. But, as we look at the calendar and notice that

it’s still February, we wonder how this is possible since, technically, winter remains in

play. Part of the problem comes from the warming weather that has thrown the

migratory birds’ “calendars” out of sync. Additionally, climate change may have

caused their food supply to appear earlier necessitating the birds’ early return.

The effects of climate change on migratory birds such as loss of food sources, loss of

vegetation cover from predators, and destruction of habitats represent some of the

challenges facing these beautiful creatures. Our work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife

Service on the 100th Anniversary of the Migratory Bird Treaty this year (click here)

helps to build public awareness through outreach and engagement, promote the

Centennial activities taking place across the U.S. and Canada, and increase support

for the continued conservation of migratory birds well into the next century.

Climate, Environment, and Readiness (CLEAR) Plan

In a leadership role, we joined forces with the University of Mary Washington, the

National Academy of Environmental Design, Atlantic Builders, the Virginia

Environmental Endowment, and the PNC Foundation to develop the CLEAR Plan for

the Greater Washington Region (GWR - Planning District 16). This community

resilience program helps address GWR’s many capacity-related challenges that

impact its ability to preserve habitat, protect and restore water quality, build

resilience from future climate effects, and promote a strong economy. We continue

to work closely with UMW to achieve milestones such as initial development of the

plan, the 2015 plan update, and many outreach initiatives. The company has created

a conservation stakeholder matrix that identifies organizations in the George

Washington Region important for engagement on regional issues. Marstel-Day

worked with the City of Fredericksburg in 2015 to identify greenhouse gas emissions

strategies for the next steps the city can take based on current emissions.