WASHINGTON, DC — The National Greening Fire Team is encouraging wildland firefighters, fire managers, incident management teams and others to join us April 2-4 for the 2024 Greening Fire Tech Expo.  

Why come to the GFT Tech Expo? Large wildfires require a complex supply chain to keep firefighters equipped and fed. This creates a lot of waste, both in terms of resources used and trash generated. For instance, during peak fire season, fire operations can go through 225,000 batteries every day. A large incident with 1,200 firefighters can use 170,000 single-use plastic water bottles in just two weeks. In 2022 alone, fire camps burned nearly 2 million gallons of diesel fuel to power generators and lights. Reducing the environmental impact of wildland fire operations is important to ensuring sustainability across federal agencies. The Expo showcases the newest sustainable technologies, services and products available for reducing the environmental impact of wildland fire operations. The event brings together small-businesses, incident procurement specialists, incident management teams, firefighters and fuels and prevention staff to increase awareness of federal and wildland fire procurement programs, provide tools and resources for small business, and highlight sustainable technologies that could have small and large-scale applications for wildland fire operations.

The National Greening Fire Team is co-chartered by the Washington Office, Fire and Aviation Management and Office of Sustainability and Climate to support GFT’s mission to integrate sustainability best management practices toward achieving net-zero emissions on large wildland fire operations by 2030.

The National Greening Fire Team, the organizers of the Tech Expo, are a grass-roots organization with a growing network of members from multiple agencies, backgrounds and geographic areas. The team uses a hands-on approach to deploy sustainable products and services, while expanding net-zero emissions through incident procurement. These efforts advance sustainability and climate goals while achieving cost savings and improved mission outcomes. Applying sustainable operations best practices not only helps the Agency comply with federal requirements; it also reduces our impact on local communities and the environment. 

The GFT hopes you will join us for all (or part of) the Tech Expo to consider how you can support greening fire operations. To learn more about our work, become an ambassador or RSVP to the Greening Fire Tech Expo, visit our website.