Bordered by the Cross Florida Barge Canal and home to manatees and Eastern indigo snakes, the U.S. Coast Guard’s new Ingalls Station in Yankeetown is unique among construction projects.

The combination of a complex ecological setting, stringent Federal regulations and its remote location made the $40 million Yankeetown project a laboratory for sustainable building.

Haskell Sustainability Associate Ryley Griffin studied how existing requirements could inform the company’s broader sustainability strategy and goals. He compared site operations to national scorecards, such as the Contractor’s Commitment, which outlines best practices for sustainable job sites. His focus wasn’t on adding tasks but on capturing what was already being done.

“Federal jobs are heavily regulated, and they achieve notable sustainability standards per those requirements,” Griffin said. “That makes them a strong benchmark. If these practices are attainable here, they can work across our other projects.”

Potable water at the project site is derived from underground aquifers accessed through two wells. Upon Federal inspection, records showed that 80% of construction waste had been diverted from landfills through recycling programs, careful materials sourcing and strict disposal tracking. This project will receive the federally mandated Guiding Principles Compliance verification through the Green Building Initiative (GBI).

The expansion spans 17 acres and includes a 20,000-square-foot mission building, floating docks, a storage bay, a new ramp and its own water treatment facility. The project’s independence from municipal utilities and its strict environmental protections made it a proving ground for practical sustainability.

Griffin used routine paperwork, such as fuel receipts, waste tickets and procurement logs – essential for tracking logistics, finance and operations – to inform sustainability audits that measured emissions and resource efficiency with minimal procedural change.

Assistant Project Manager Logan LeCates and Superintendent Joey Montano helped connect sustainability goals to daily operations. Both noted that features like LED lighting, recycling programs and the site’s energy and water self-sufficiency were already built into the Coast Guard’s requirements. Montano described the oversight as “NAVFAC Lite,” meaning strict standards but less paperwork than Navy projects.

Griffin emphasized that the key was recognition, not reinvention.

“The crews were already doing the work. My role was to show how we can document it effectively and identify where we can raise the bar for other projects,” he said.

The site also offered insight into how sustainability is received in day-to-day construction work. Griffin noted that team members often viewed it through the lens of added tasks or unfamiliar expectations. In conversations, he focused instead on practical outcomes, such as fuel savings, cleaner air and benefits to the natural environment surrounding the job site.

“By framing it in terms of benefits they could see and feel, the conversation opened up,” Griffin said.

Lessons from Yankeetown support Haskell’s long-term goals: reducing environmental impact, improving efficiency and ensuring accountability through data. The approach mirrors a broader industry and regulatory shift toward net-zero operations. While construction and demolition waste diversion varies significantly by region and project type, many reuse or recycling rates are well below the 80% achieved at Ingalls Station.

“The construction industry is responsible for nearly 40% of global carbon emissions, so every project is an opportunity to make progress,” Griffin said. “By simply tracking what’s already happening, like waste diversion through recycling or fuel use from receipts, we can capture meaningful data that we can apply across Haskell’s portfolio to help clients save money, reduce risk and meet the growing demand for greener, more resilient facilities.”