ESC, Hanscom officials offer insights at 'Clean Tech Business' forum

  • Published
  • By Chuck Paone
  • 66th Air Base Group Public Affairs
HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. --  Member of the Electronic Systems Center participated in a forum sponsored by U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas and the New England Clean Energy Council at Middlesex Community College in Lowell, Mass., Oct. 19.

Entitled "Doing Clean Tech Business with the DoD," the panel discussion brought together defense contracting professionals, environmental experts and industry representatives. They sought to offer insight and guidance to area small businesses looking to do "green procurement" work with DoD. Approximately 70 registrants took in the information presented by panel members and participated in a lively question-and-answer session and follow-on networking opportunity.

Military organizations like ESC have a two-pronged energy concern, said Bill Donaldson, director of Small Business Programs for the center and one of five panelists on hand for the event. He talked about the "physical plant," with a focus on energy-use reduction and cleaner sourcing, and also operational systems, noting that engineers and program managers are always interested in reducing size, weight and power requirements.

Representative Tsongas kicked off the event, noting that "the Defense Department is the largest institutional consumer of fossil fuels in the country." DoD, she said, uses more than 300,000 barrels of oil a day and 3.9 billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year.

She also noted that DoD budgets are heavily affected by fossil fuel price spikes. "A $10 rise in the price of a barrel of oil equals a $1.3 billion yearly increase in DoD's yearly energy bill," she said.

All of this has led the Defense Department to step up research, development and use of alternative energy sources, Tsongas noted.

"Since 2006, DoD clean energy investments have increased by 200 percent," she said, adding that defense energy specialists are looking at the entire spectrum of options. "Nothing is off limits."

Joe Sikes, the Office of the Secretary of Defense's director of Facilities Energy and Housing, speaking by phone, added more details about DoD efforts and set out some lofty goals. Among them: a 20 percent reduction in fossil fuel consumption by 2025.

He also noted that DoD owns more than 300,000 buildings, which provides a lot of opportunity for energy reduction initiatives and cleaner sourcing.

Forum moderator and co-organizer Mitch Tyson, principal owner of Tyson Associates, noted that, as with nearly any marketplace, doing business with the government requires companies to "crack the code." He quickly added that the specialists brought together for the forum could help small businesses do exactly that.

Among those on the panel was Sandra Ledbetter of the federal Procurement Technical Assistance Center at UMASS Amherst, who provided a laundry list of ways she and other regional PTAC specialists could help. She noted that they could help do market analyses to see where products might fit federal needs, run match-maker events to bring small businesses together with federal officials, provide assistance with acquiring needed certifications and even review contract and grant proposals - all at no cost to the small business.

Industry panelists Rick Hess of American Superconductor and Stephen Lasher of SATCON also offered some interesting perspective. Hess said he'd done business with the government for 30 years.

"It takes patience and time, but it's worth it in the end," he said. He also told participants that the government, especially DoD, is often seeking "unique and different applications. You have to find them, but when you do, you can be very successful and it can be very rewarding."

Lasher noted that companies have to be ready to invest their own resources and deliver results.

"Nothing in life is free," he said, adding that companies ready to contribute to the venture and fulfill their promises will likely do well.

The panel fielded numerous questions from participants, including several about deciding exactly how to approach DoD. One questioner asked specifically whether it was better to come in as a sub contractor or as a prime contractor.

"The answer is crawl, walk, run," Donaldson said. "It depends on where you are in that sequence. Priming a government contract is not easy, but the bottom line is, if you have experience priming, go for it. If you don't, then you're somewhere in the crawl-walk phase."

Along with Donaldson, other ESC-Hanscom AFB participants included Tom Schluckebier, Hanscom's Civil Engineering director, Paul Cincotta, director of Operational Contracting, and Ellen McDonnell, Small Business Programs deputy director.

The event proved very successful, according to Tyson.

"We got tremendously positive feedback from the audience afterwards," he said.