TRACK1: ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL ROUNDTABLE.
12:45-2:15: Keynote Panel: Department of Defense Energy and Environmental Policy
2:30-3:45: Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure on Military Bases. Currently two Executive Orders affect the transition to electric vehicles (EVs) at our military bases:
In addition to the Executive Orders, each military branch has their own guidance on combating climate change, an important issue given North Carolina’s coastal environment. This session will discuss the policy guidance for EV charging and what opportunities exist for North Carolina small business to assist military bases with EV deployment ranging from a base study to actual installation. Questions include: (1) who should install the EV charging infrastructure (i.e., what vendor); (2) where the charging infrastructure should be located; and (3) how electric vehicles will be used in an emergency (natural disaster, especially in a coastal environment like we have in North Carolina), among others.
4:00-5:00: PFAS - What Are the Requirements? PFAS is a class of Perfluoralkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances that are widely used and long-lasting chemicals. Exposure can be linked to harmful health effects; it has been found in blood, food products, water, soil, air, fish, and other animals. Soil is a significant reservoir for PFAS and feeds into groundwater. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is working to determine how to better and more efficiently detect and measure PFAS, how much people are exposed to PFAS, how harmful it is, and how to remove, manage, and dispose of PFAS.
Department of Defense records confirm PFAS in groundwater and soil at nearly 400 bases, with suspected contamination in groundwater at an additional 294 bases. Some installations record some of the highest PFAS levels ever found in water or soil (nearly exceeding 1 million parts per trillion; some states have regulated PFAS at levels as low as 6 parts per trillion for health protections, and recent studies suggest a safe level is less that 1 part per trillion) – this is mostly for water.
States are moving to set targets to clean up PFAS in soil and a number of states have categorized PFAS as “hazardous substances”, however not many have guidelines yet for how to clean up/remediate. This session will provide the most up to date guidance on what to do with PFAS given the somewhat conflicting policy directions. Hear from the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality, military bases in North Carolina and other DoD officials for a conversation about how to deal with this environmental issue in a safe manner.
2:30-3:45: Industry Perspective, Challenges Dialogue: Inflation, Supply Chain, Workforce and More. Industry members will provide an informative discussion on how industry representatives from the architect, engineering, general contracting, manufacturing and supplier sectors are dealing with and mitigating the impact of acquisition policies, COVID-19 regulations, supply chain management issues and workforce impacts. These and numerous other forces are in play to affect the costs of doing business. The panel members will address these issues and provide suggestions on how industry and government can streamline the process to create cost and time savings.
4:00-5:00: Government Perspective, Challenges Dialogue: Pricing, Bonding, Bid-Holding, Execution and More. This session will be a collaborative discussion between government and industry panel members. These discussions will share observations and suggestions on how government and industry can work together to streamline the acquisition process such as using different acquisition approaches and streamlining the execution of work both pre- and post-award. Some examples of concerns include responding to RFIs in a timely matter, reducing extensive time lines for holding prices which often exceed 180 days and reducing the time design-build teams take to prepare designs by reducing the government oversight and management. By allowing repricing of proposals and using economic price adjustment clauses within the solicitation and contract, the firms proposing on government solicitations can eliminate some risk associated with their proposals which would result in lower proposals and costs.
FEDERAL PROGRAM AND REQUIREMENTS DIALOGUES
Representatives from military installations and major commands in each state will present and engage in interactive discussion with businesses about their programs, projects and related issues for FY2023 and beyond. Representatives will address acquisition and execution processes for projects in the program of work. Audience participation throughout the session is strongly encouraged.
Topics to be addressed include:
EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES FOR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT (ADVANCING NATIONAL PRIORITIES). A panel of senior government experts will explore current and future technology innovations required to solve our Nation’s most challenging problems in civil and military engineering, geospatial sciences, infrastructure, and environmental sciences for the Services, Department of Defense, civilian agencies, and our Nation’s public good.