Recent directives from the US Office of the President have detailed the need for resilience in the face of increased security threats and natural disasters. While these documents call for resilience improvements, no guiding framework for the assessment of resilience exists. Federal agencies are then deriving individual ways to address resilience, resulting in a series of parallel efforts instead of one national cohesive effort. This paper summarizes the portfolio of current efforts implemented by agencies to guide the integration of resilience assessment across the federal government. We present a critical overview on the state of resilience science within seven federal agencies and our perspective on the consistencies and disparities on how each agency is enacting presidential orders. The resulting analysis identifies differences in approaches to resilience and common ground upon which federal agencies can use to support more effective programs.

The push to find alternatives to fossil fuels has driven research and consumption of biofuels. Recent actions in the United States have placed an emphasis on the use of renewable fuels for improved sustainability of government operations. In 2013, the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) measured atmospheric emissions from two navigation vessels consuming three different fuel types and found that biofuels have the potential to lower atmospheric emissions. These fuels have widely different production processes, however, and a full life‐cycle assessment is necessary to provide a complete picture of these biofuels. The goal of this study was to identify whether transitioning navigation vessels to operate on biodiesel would have the potential to lower human health and environmental impacts. This study focuses on the complete life cycle of these fuels in USACE marine vessels by employing a well‐to‐wheels life‐cycle assessment comparing the impacts of a 100% soy‐based biodiesel and an algal‐based biodiesel blend to a conventional diesel. Overall, soybean‐based biodiesel had lower impacts compared to algal‐based biodiesel. Impacts from conventional diesel were generally lower than algal‐based biodiesel, but impacts between conventional diesel and soybean‐based biodiesel were mixed. While greenhouse gas emissions during the use phase were reduced for the biofuels (after considering only the non‐biogenic fraction of carbon emission), a complete look at the life‐cycle resulted in cases where emissions could be greater than conventional diesel. Biodiesel impacts depended greatly on modeling assumptions made in the life‐cycle system boundaries and inventory such as allocation method and assumptions about feedstock growth and harvesting. Published 2015. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.