AbstractThe Department of Defense (DOD) is facing the challenge of maintaining troop readiness and sustainable operations while reducing potential environmental impacts and operational costs. This is occurring while public encroachment around the installations and regulatory restrictions grows, further restricting DOD's ability to operate and train. DOD is looking to incorporate environmental accountability into day‐to‐day and future activities at their installations while maintaining a focus on the installations' core missions.The President issued Executive Order (EO) 13148 in April 2000 to address these challenges through the development and implementation of Environmental Management Systems (EMSs). The partnering of base personnel, suppliers, and test/training personnel to develop and grow an EMS can overcome these challenges while maintaining a focus on the overall mission of the military and the development of new munitions. This paper focuses on the support role of Textron Systems Corporation (TSC), a munitions supplier to DOD, and lessons learned from the application of EMS at our plants and DOD test ranges. This paper also explores common challenges among TSC and DOD, and our effective solutions to the challenges. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.