Army research shows soldier readiness is shaped by daily home environments—including sleep, nutrition, and stress management.

Tackling Aging Infrastructure

As the definition of readiness expands, the DOD is ramping up efforts to transform infrastructure to better support mission-readiness and soldier well-being. The challenge stretches back decades: 79% of U.S. military installations were established before 1970, and nearly 30% of the DOD’s structures have exceeded their lifespan, with ongoing maintenance and upkeep needs translating into a $137 million deferred maintenance backlog as of 2020 [4].  

Addressing housing modernization through government-managed construction has historically been lengthy and expensive, while also distracting the DOD from its core mission of warfighting. This is why most housing was privatized in the mid-1990s. In the decades since privatization, military housing providers have unlocked $31 billion in private capital with just $3.4 billion in federal support — allowing the DOD to build, manage, and maintain military housing faster and at a scale government alone couldn’t achieve.

Even as public-private partnerships helped the DOD improve housing stock in many locations, military installations and their housing communities are not immune to persistent environmental threats that confront all homeowners, including water intrusion, high heat and humidity, pest infestation, and other concerns. 

Modernizing from the Inside Out: A New Model for Healthier Homes

To address these issues without disruptive and costly interventions, military housing providers are increasingly implementing targeted environmental upgrades to enhance indoor conditions through innovative technologies. Vitacorps, a provider of environmental wellness solutions, has developed a research-based, seven-step process designed to improve environmental wellness in homes at scale. Their model, focused on improving air, water, light, and humidity, is being used by Corvias, a leading installations solutions provider to the DOD, to modernize service members’ homes and improve the quality of life. 

“We partnered with Vitacorps to bring our homes to certifiable standards,” said Denise Hauck, President, DOD Division, Corvias. “They provide a cost-effective, scalable model to deliver wellbeing to residents that doesn’t require relocation or major construction.”

Vitacorps’ systems provide purified water, circadian rhythm-supporting lighting, and advanced air purification to enhance service members' physical health, sleep, and overall readiness. Military leaders and residents have reported positive impacts on health conditions and improved indoor environments.

A Service Member, but a Parent First

Colonel Chaveso Cook of Fort Meade, Maryland, a Corvias resident, explains, “I'm a service member, but I'm a husband and a father first. For me to do what I need to do in the service, I need to be healthy. The Corvias Wellness at Home Program and having those devices in our home start our health off on the right foot, and obviously carries into what I do for the military. I believe it's also helping other families as well.” 

Corvias’ deployment of Vitacorps' indoor health upgrades has yielded notable results: At Fort Meade, resident satisfaction with on-post housing increased by 82% after implementation. At Randolph Pointe in North Carolina, 88% of surveyed residents expressed interest in expanding wellness upgrades to other areas of their homes [5].

“We saw opportunities to make our residents more comfortable in their indoor living environment,” said Corvias’ Hauck. “Vitacorps provided a solution that delivered measurable improvements our residents noticed.”

A Blueprint for Resilient Installations

What makes the Vitacorps approach unique is its scalability. Wellness-focused upgrades like these can be deployed quickly, applied to nearly any existing structure, and executed without displacing residents. 

Ensuring service members are always combat-ready requires the military to modernize installations to be as adaptable and resilient as service members themselves.

In an era defined by asymmetric threats and rapidly shifting geopolitical dynamics, the physical and mental resilience of service members is inseparable from the environments they inhabit. Adaptable, wellness-oriented infrastructure may no longer be a luxury — but a strategic necessity.

Sources:

1 MILITARY BARRACKS Poor Living Conditions Undermine Quality of Life and Readiness Report to Congressional Committees United States Government Accountability Office, 2023. https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-23-105797.pdf

2 U.S. Army Field Manual 7‑22 Holistic Health and Fitness, 1 October 2020 https://media.defense.gov/2023/Jul/27/2003268908/-1/-1/1/H2F-FM-7-22-2020.PDF

3 U.S. Department of Defense. (n.d.). Senior Installation Leaders Testify on Proposed Construction Budget https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/4219669/senior-installation-leaders-testify-on-proposed-construction-budget/ 

4 Office USGA. Defense Infrastructure: DOD Should Better Manage Risks Posed by Deferred Facility Maintenance | U.S. GAO. www.gao.gov. Published January 31, 2022. https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-22-104481

5 Vitacorps Case Study: Enhancing Military Readiness. Vitacorps.com. Published 2025. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/65a99e0e73008f428706ecb7/t/67d1f00dca193e2f9da7440d/1741811740894/Enhancing+Mission+Readiness