The military is going green, and two Irvine companies say they’re ready to help — by filling contracts worth tens of millions of dollars.

The initiative could one day result in stylishly “green” military barracks, warehouses, chapels, hangars and other structures at the Camp Pendleton Marine base, some with turf grass on the roof, others with solar panels or windows that flood the interior with natural northern light to cut down on energy bills.

The new partnership between an Alaska native corporation called Ahtna Engineering Services LLC and an architectural firm, LPA Inc., will help Ahtna fulfill a series of $30 million contracts with the Department of Defense to construct environmentally sensitive buildings with low energy use and plenty of recycled building materials.

Much of the work is expected to center on Camp Pendleton.

“Our charter is to provide sustainable, elegant design and build services to the Department of Defense and federal clients,” said Gregory Grabowski, engineering director at Ahtna. “We’re going after what we consider to be a moral imperative: providing aesthetically pleasing, sustainable, and protective facilities for any of our men and women in uniform.”

The company now has four contracts for military construction that could be worth as much $30 million each, mostly on Camp Pendleton, and will pursue others, Grabowski said.

But the company needed an architectural partner, and chose LPA because it “has a clear portfolio of passionate desire to provide sustainable and green architecture,” he said.

LPA specializes in using the site of a building itself to provide “free” benefits — lower energy costs, for example, to be had simply by having large windows face north to avoid direct sunlight.

“You get all that light without any kind of heating penalty,” said Damon Dusterhoft, an associate architect at LPA.

The buildings also will likely include recycled building materials, and wall treatments and carpeting low in VOCs or volatile organic compounds, a common pollutant.

Some of the military buildings could have grass or vegetative roofs, which help insulate the roof and provide natural filtering for runoff water. LPA recently completed such a building at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

Another feature: clever use of natural ventilation, using local wind patterns, to cut energy use, seen at JPL and likely to be used in the military contracts.

LPA also worked on the Environmental Nature Center in Newport Beach, the county’s first LEED platinum facility (the highest rating in the LEED green-rating program, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).

Because all new Department of Defense buildings must have a LEED silver certification, Grabowski says the military will provide a wealth of opportunity for green building and technology.

“We are ready to do that,” Grabowski said.

(Photo of vegetative roof at Premier Automotive Group in Irvine courtesy LPA Inc./Costea Photography.)

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