career

Green Graduation

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Apr 2023 06:00:00 +0000

Green Graduation Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/04/2023 - 00:00

The Graduation Pledge of Social & Environmental Responsibility of the Graduation Pledge Alliance states:

"I pledge to explore and take into account the social and environmental consequences of any job I consider and to try to improve these aspects of any organizations for which I work."

Graduating seniors at CU Boulder can take the pledge and get an optional green cord to wear at graduation to show their commitment to environmental and social responsibility in their future career.

Take the Graduation Pledge

After you pledge

Optional Green Cords are available for those who take the pledge, to wear with CU Boulder commencement regalia.

Green cords for December 2024 graduates will be available beginning October 2024. May 2025 graduates can pick up cords beginning in March 2024, available until supplies run out.

Cord pick-up times:
- Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., University Memorial Center room 355
- Pledge must be taken online before coming to UMC 355 to pick up your cord.
Please consider donating your cord back to the program after graduation for re-use and to reduce cost for future grads.
- drop off gently used cords at University Memorial Center 355, or mail to Environmental Center, 207 UCB, Boulder 80309.

Share your commitment on social media

Use hashtags #CUgreengrad #CUgraduationpledge

Donate your cap and gown

Take your commitment to a green graduation one step further by donating your cap and gown to a future graduate.
CU Boulder graduation caps and gowns and graduation pledge green cords can be dropped off on campus at the Environmental Center (UMC room 355) Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
- For Summer 2024, a donation bin is availabile outside UMC 355, accessible during all University Memorial Center hours.
Alternatively, you can mail your regalia to the Environmental Center at 207 UCB, Boulder CO 80309.

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Career Q&A with the recycling supervisor at CU

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Apr 2023 06:00:00 +0000

Career Q&A with the recycling supervisor at CU Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/04/2023 - 00:00

Robert Allen, the recycling supervisor at CU, sat down and chatted about his job at the Grounds and Recycling Operation Center, affectionately named “The ROC.”

What made you want to get into recycling?

A recycling lead position opened up and my wife, who also works here at CU, told me about it. I've always been passionate about the environment - at least to the extent that I have always wanted to do the right thing and promote that attitude and conviction to others. Not to the extent that I went to school for Environmental Sciences, or anything like that. But, a job where I have an opportunity to work toward saving the world? Yeah, I’m into that.

What keeps you motivated?

I would say it's a couple of things. One is the environmental impact. The ability to make a difference. Whether it's through recycling, or composting, or finding ways to reuse materials by way of donation or upcycling. Another part is making things just a little bit better for the crews - the guys who pick up all this stuff. I like finding ways to make their workflow a little bit better. So, there's a technical, operational aspect to my work, and there's the “save-the-world” aspect. Very fulfilling on both counts. Plus, I really like the people that I work with.

What does your career trajectory look like?

I am always eager to take it to the next level. I don't know exactly what that means in terms of what other opportunities might present themselves or where, specifically, I would like to go. I have a wide range of interests and I like to learn new things and gain new skills.

Is it fun to drive the trucks?

Yeah, I mean, driving around this beautiful campus – how could you not enjoy it? It can be a little nerve-wracking sometimes. You have to navigate areas with people walking all around you, bicycles zipping through, skateboards and those other crazy one-wheeled boards flying around. And sometimes you have to squeeze down narrow sidewalks, because not all buildings are accessible by road and there are people coming and going and doing their things. You really gotta’ watch out. Still, though, a lot of fun. Our first priority is safety, so we don’t feel pressured to rush and we get to enjoy the ride.

How do you feel about the most recent changes to composting?

So that's just a tragic situation. A-1 Organics has changed their requirements and they are now only accepting food waste and yard trimmings. We're still trying to figure out how we're going to deal with that. I get where the composting company is coming from. They're trying to make a profitable business out of composting. They've got to make a product that they can sell, right? Nobody wants to buy compost for their garden with bottle caps, broken glass, and shreds of plastic bags. So, I totally get where they're coming from, and frankly, our compost is pretty contaminated. We were surprised by their decision to cut us off, but I understand it.

One hopeful solution to this compost dilemma is that we get an in-vessel composting unit here. That would look similar to what we're doing with our recycling program. We would pick up the compost all over campus, just as we have been doing, but then we keep it here and we sort out all the stuff that cannot be composted - glass, cans, plastic, etc. That would probably also include removing the compostable silverware and bags as well as other plant-based plastics that A-1 Organics doesn't really want. Plant based plastics, while theoretically compostable, are difficult and slow to compost. But we probably can give them paper towels and other acceptable materials as long as it's only the stuff that they want. They don't really mind fiber-based compostable materials, as long as it is free from non-compostable contaminants. Then we put all this good, contamination-free compostable material into this in-vessel composting machine. They sometimes call it composting but really it's just a dehydrator that grinds it up, dries it out and spits out this product that looks a lot like coffee grounds. Practically odorless, and only a fraction of its original weight and volume, this material could then be easily added to the existing “feedstock” that A-1 Organics processes into rich, organic compost in their industrial composting operation.

That's the theory. It's a long term solution, and there are many moving parts. There are equipment, space, labor and many other details to iron out. That means it ain't gonna’ happen tomorrow. But, hopefully by the day after.

What do you think is the most common thing you get in the recycling center that isn't actually recyclable?

Plastic film. We have various places around campus where we collect “stretchy” plastic film and bags in special collection bins. When you put them in there, they get recycled. But when you put them into “containers” or “single stream” bins, they get dirty and wet. And when they get wet or dirty, they cannot be recycled. That's good to know. It’s the same for residential recycling. When you take your plastic grocery bags to the grocery store where they have that special bin to collect them - that totally gets recycled. Great stuff. It works well. But, when you put bags in your “single stream” recycling container at home where they pick it all up in one bin at the curb - I’m pretty sure those bags just get separated and thrown away. And the recycling companies hate that because it gets caught and wound up in their sorting machinery, which they then have to stop production several times per day to cut it all out by hand.

Also, plastic #6 is not recyclable. Like those red solo cups, styrofoam to-go boxes, and plastic silverware. Do they recycle it in other parts of the country? Maybe, but I don’t think so. It can only go in the garbage around here, so avoid using those products as much as you can.

Robert Allen, the recycling supervisor at CU, sat down and chatted about his job at the Grounds and Recycling Operation Center, affectionately named “The ROC.”

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Sustainable Buff Q&A with Brandon C. Smith, CU's assistant director of sustainable transportation

Anonymous — Mon, 27 Feb 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Sustainable Buff Q&A with Brandon C. Smith, CU's assistant director of sustainable transportation Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 02/27/2023 - 00:00

Deyah El-Azhari

At the Environmental Center, we aim to assist you in finding your path in environmentalism. There are endless options for a career that can help you live a life of fulfillment. As a senior political science major at CU Boulder, I've discovered that the Environmental Center is a valuable resource for pursuing my passions in climate justice, human rights and conservation. Through this organization, I've been able to combine my interests in writing and music to educate both the campus and larger community about environmental concerns.

A few weeks ago, I had the honor of interviewing CU’s Assistant Director of Sustainable Transportation, Brandon Smith, to get a glimpse of his job and the background he needed to get here. With a focus on sustainable transportation, he oversees the student bus and bike programs, including student transit passes, campus bike stations and repairs, the bike impound program, bike parking, B-Cycle and holding the fall bike sale.

As the transportation programs manager at CU, what are your main responsibilities?

Brandon works closely with RTD on programming and management, oversees about $7 million in contracts for CU and helps ensure students get their bus pass with unlimited rides without any additional cost.
As a transportation planner, he works closely with planning design and construction, parking, local jurisdications and other stakeholders to create safe bike paths and robust active transportation systems to facilitate better access.
He organized the ski bus, which provided 23 student bus trips to the mountains this year.
Brandon is focused on making sure that students have transportation options that will allow them to not need a personal vehicle.

What are the primary skills you need in this position?

He has bachelor's and master's degrees in urban and regional planning.
He is accredited with the American Institute for Certified Planners (AICP).
Prior jobs include being a bike shop manager, environmental enforcement coordinator at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, land use planner for Grand County and a bike planner/employee transportation coordinator for Boulder County.
Have a passion and understanding for sustainable transportation.
You have to be able to work well with students, parents, campus administration, procurement and transportation providers.

How is our university doing building out EV charging stations?

Many groups have done a great job at coming together to provide EV charging stations throughout campus, like C4C, Folsom parking garage, Wolf Law, SEEC and Biotech. We also work with fleet vehicles as demand continues to increase for both personal and business vehicles.
He worked with CU Night Ride, which is scheduled to replace all vehicles with electric cars. The E-Center covered the gap between the cost of gas-powered and electric vehicles.
CU now has two electric buses and two more are coming soon! The E-Center is partnering with transportation services to secure grant funding for another two electric buses, which would bring the total to six e-buses.
Brandon and his team are also helping to support other campus departments to electrify.

What is your understanding of smart growth?

From an urban planning perspective, the question is how do you deal with population increase while also reducing impact?
It’s all about density. The idea is to attact people to live in an urban center where services are more efficiently provided.
Public transit works best with higher density because it makes it possible to provide high frequency, reliable service in a more affordable and environmentally friendly manner.
As a country we really need to step back and reavaluate the car-centric sprawling landscape that was created by the outdated American dream prior to having a U.S. population of ~330 million people. Collectively, we have to be less autocentric and share resources and cooperate. Measuring success in life by how big your house is and how much stuff you have prevents us from being able to reverse the impacts of climate change.
The greenest house is the one that is already built, which is the opposite of tearing down a perfectly good home and building a bigger more efficient one in it's spot. A practical term in urban planning is “infill” - taking underutilized space such as parking lots and filling them with compact multi-family housing. Converting large houses and other buildings into apartments is another way to efficiently house our growing population near service-heavy urban areas.

How can students get involved to shape the campus transportation system?

It’s always helpful to have student support to increase the sustainability of our transportation options. Students should be clear of their priorities with campus leaders to further their goals. Do students want to increase bike lanes or parking garages? Let us know so we can make it happen! Feel free to email me directly at brandon.c.smith@colorado.edu with your thoughs and ideas. My job is to serve you.

If you could give career advice to a student interested in sustainability, what would it be?

He stressed the importance of having patience. As with all things in life, it is essential to be humble and be ok with starting at the bottom to work your way up. Especially in environmental enforcement, which is no easy task, you must have a thick skin and tolerance for conflict. Lastly, he thinks students should continue building relationships with people within the fields they are looking to pursue.

Brandon Smith, CU's assistant director of sustainable transportation shares insight into his daily responsibilities, providing tips for students interested in pursuing a career in the field, as well as information on the necessary qualifications.

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Career Q&A with Environmental Center's new Zero Waste Outreach Coordinator

Anonymous — Tue, 31 Jan 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Career Q&A with Environmental Center's new Zero Waste Outreach Coordinator Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 01/31/2023 - 00:00

Arianna (Ari) Moscone (she/her) is the newest Zero Waste Outreach Coordinator for CU Boulder’s Environmental Center. Ari has lived in Boulder for a few years now and has experience working with sustainability in a campus setting. Her passions lie in waste management, and she has even played a role in passing Colorado’s Plastic Pollution Reduction Act (PPRA) which you can read more about here.

What kind of responsibilities do you have as the Zero Waste Outreach Coordinator?

I'm helping to maintain and also expand and improve zero waste outreach on campus. I'm going to be working with a group of amazing students to provide presentations, trainings, events, social media content and campaigns all about recycling, composting and zero waste, as well as coordinate with different departments on campus to make sure we're all on the same page in terms of our zero waste messaging by providing marketing, educational and outreach materials.

What does your education look like?

I went to the University of Massachusetts Amherst and got my undergraduate degree in Environmental Science and also in Environmental Communications and Advocacy. Environmental Communications and Advocacy was actually a major I created. UMass Amherst is one of the few colleges that has a program where you can essentially create your own major. We didn't have an environmental studies major, and we didn't have majors that combined environmental studies with advocacy and communications, so I was able to create it myself. After that, I moved on to get a Master of Science in Sustainability Sciences with a concentration in urban sustainability, and I focused on studying waste systems in urban settings.

What did you do post-graduation?

After graduation, I continued to do zero waste work, as well as other sustainability work, as a campus Sustainability Engagement Coordinator at UMass Amherst. After a few years there, I wanted to branch out to further develop my skills and focus on zero waste specifically. I heard about Eco-Cycle when I was in college since it’s one of the oldest and largest nonprofit zero waste organizations in the U.S., so I applied for a job, was hired, and moved to Boulder in 2017. I was there for five years, and was the Outreach and Engagement Manager for the organization.

Where did your passion for sustainability come from?

I am from an oceanside town in Massachusetts, and I saw trash washing up on the beaches multiply as I grew up. When I was three years old, I started going around with my bucket, and instead of collecting shells, I'd pick up trash. As I grew up, I started organizing town-wide beach cleanups, and even proposed a plastic bag fee to the town when I was in high school. I feel like if I hadn't taken action myself and had that passion from the beginning, as well as had parents who valued sustainability and resource conservation, then I wouldn’t have ended up in this field.

How do you stay motivated?

I think for me, it's the people that I surround myself with. In my prior job, I viewed everyone I worked with as my family. The work we were doing was really hard at times, but we all were really passionate about it. We made sure to create spaces where we felt like we could be creative and also felt like we could voice when we were feeling super defeated about something. That space of mutual understanding allowed us to continue to feel empowered, be creative and stay motivated.

If I'm able to take even a fraction of what I know, reach someone who may know nothing about sustainability or zero waste, and make them feel empowered to do something or empowered to take action in some way, that keeps me going. Even if it's a small thing, I take the wins where I can get them.

The reason why I wanted to go back into the college space is I feel like a lot of students are at that point where they have learned so much and they're just brimming with ideas of things that they want to do to make change. I want to be the person who helps facilitate and empower folks to feel like they can make a difference and give them the tools to become leaders.

What separates Boulder from other places in terms of sustainability?

Boulder is a leader in the country in terms of sustainability, but of course, we still have a lot of work to do. We have high diversion rates, we have amazing programs, and we have folks in the community who are supportive of Boulder adopting sustainability policies, such as policies to expand recycling and composting. The support is there from the community, which I think is super, super important, and folks are really engaged and excited about moving toward zero waste, which definitely helps. We have the resources and infrastructure to be able to do well in terms of sustainability, and specifically, zero waste.

I also want to acknowledge that we have a lot of resources and infrastructure that other places just don't have the ability to have. We’re in a little bit of a bubble because many other places don’t have the support, funding, infrastructure, etc.

I see Boulder as a model, and since we're in such a supportive environment, we can test different things out to push the envelope in terms of sustainability and zero waste, see how that goes, and then use that to create a model for other places to take our ideas, adopt similar programs and hopefully help improve their sustainability efforts.

Learn more about Ari Moscone and her background in zero waste and sustainability.

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Celebrating Angela Maria Ortiz Roa, honoree for BizWest 40 under Forty and newest City of Boulder employee

Anonymous — Tue, 10 May 2022 06:00:00 +0000

Celebrating Angela Maria Ortiz Roa, honoree for BizWest 40 under Forty and newest City of Boulder employee Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/10/2022 - 00:00

Angela Maria Ortiz Roa, climate justice program manager at the University of Colorado Boulder, is a native of Colombia who arrived in Colorado in 2001. Rooted in an eco-cultural upbringing and a commitment to serve the communities she belongs to, Angela's migration experience led her to seek education on concepts of eco-social justice, cross-cultural communication and intersectionality to actively become a change agent in her community.

Living as a cultural and linguistic minority guided her to obtain an associate's degree in Interpreter Preparation at Front Range Community College in 2014. That same year she received her Permaculture Certificate and began working as a bilingual urban agriculture educator, which renewed her connection to the land and nature.

In 2016, Ortiz became program coordinator for the Foundation for Leaders Organizing for Water and Sustainability (FLOWS).

She is intentional about making use of her multicultural and multilingual skills as a grassroots community organizer, climate justice advocate, cultural broker and language service provider.

She worked as a community empowerment liaison for Boulder County's Department of Housing and Human Services from 2019-2021, and earned a bachelor's degree in 2020 from Metropolitan State University in Denver.

She serves on the boards of Boulder Food Rescue and Harvest of All Nations.

Ortiz said she is determined to continue to educate herself so she "can better support the creation of bridge between people, cultures, natural resources and the earth and to be a dynamic part of the liberation and transformation of humanity."

Angela has spent six years with the Environmental Center. She joined as the FLOWS Program Coordinator and in the past year shifted to the Climate Justice Programs Coordinator. Angela has recently announced a shift in positions and leaves the EC for the City of Boulder. We are so honored to have worked with Angela these past six years.

In her resignation announcement, she states, “It is my heart’s dream that we can find urgent solutions for the serious climate issues we are facing and that while doing so, we truly center equity and transformation in all our efforts, not only in our words, but in every single action we take. Even though I am stepping away from FLOWS, the Climate Justice Team and the EC Team, I am still going to be an active change agent in our community through my new role in the Community Engagement and Communications Department at the City of Boulder.”

Working with Angela has been the most rewarding and life changing experience for FLOWS Coordinator Indya Love, who started out as a volunteer for FLOWS in 2017. She was immediately impressed with Angela’s warm and infectious energy and always felt very welcomed by her and the FLOWS team.

Indya, as well as other staff at the Environmental Center, really admire her hard work and dedication to FLOWS, to climate and social justice and most of all, to her community.

Angela is a strong and courageous leader and many have learned an enormous amount in such a short time from her.

“I have no words to express my heartfelt gratitude for everything Angela has done. I will miss my mentor and friend dearly and will always use her great wisdom to guide me through challenging times,” said Love.

We know Angela will continue the fight for social and climate justice and be an ally to the CU community. Thank you for always bringing your passion, dedication, and light, Angela. The world needs more leaders like you!

Former Environmental Center employee Angela Maria Ortiz Roa has accepted a new position with the City of Boulder.

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Bring on the green chemistry education, please!

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Apr 2022 06:00:00 +0000

Bring on the green chemistry education, please! Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 04/10/2022 - 00:00

Surveying shows that CU Boulder students want access to green chemistry education as part of their chemistry coursework. To begin to fill that void, a pilot to integrate green chemistry into the introductory chemistry course, CHEM 1021, has been underway since the beginning of the spring 2022 semester. This pilot is being led by two student assistants, Brinn Mcdowell and Jan Hu, and is a collaborative effort between the CU Green Labs Program and the Director of Chemistry Instruction and Associate Chair for Undergraduate Academic Affairs, Matthew Wise, PhD.

So, what is green chemistry? According to the Environmental Protection Agency, green chemistry is defined as "the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the generation of hazardous substances."

According to a survey of students in chemistry courses in the fall of 2021, 86% of CU Boulder undergraduates expressed interest in learning about green chemistry and 81% wanted to see more green chemistry topics covered in their chemistry curriculum. 58% of students said they would be interested in taking an additional chemistry course specifically on green chemistry and even more students, 69%, indicated that they would select current chemistry courses offered with a green chemistry emphasis over the courses in their present form. In total, three surveys have been conducted in 2018, 2019, and 2021. See a breakdown of more results here.

The CU Boulder Chemistry Department has already made strides to green many of its chemistry teaching experiments and labs. Modifications to lab experiments have been implemented to cut back on overall waste and the use of toxic chemicals. However, the chemistry lecture classes have yet to be altered which is the focus of the pilot. Thus far, the pilot has successfully demonstrated that student teaching assistants, with education in chemistry, can research and incorporate engaging content on green chemistry into classes. Importantly, this approach minimizes the time commitment required by faculty to work on this integration and provides chemistry student assistants with an outstanding professional development opportunity to apply their skills and knowledge.

If you are interested in learning more about the pilot, attend the 29th Annual Campus Sustainability Summit- Solutions Showcase 2022 where you can learn more about the results of the surveys conducted, the pilot program itself and the impact the program would have on campus if it secures proper funding. With funding for expansion, the pilot program would have the ability to hire student teaching assistants for introductory, general and organic chemistry classes to focus specifically on incorporating and improving the integration of green chemistry into these core chemistry courses. These courses collectively are taken by thousands of CU Boulder students every year from many different majors.

Pilot expansion would have a wide-reaching impact on students while they are getting their education at CU Boulder, but also on what these students choose to do once they graduate, as they would leave CU with the knowledge of green chemistry practices and have the ability to enact change that could have a lasting impact on our future.

Surveying shows that CU Boulder students want access to green chemistry education as part of their chemistry coursework.

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What I learned on the CUSG Environmental Center Board

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Apr 2019 06:00:00 +0000

What I learned on the CUSG Environmental Center Board Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/24/2019 - 00:00

Kelly Poole

Freshman year, I attended my first Environmental Board meeting and sat in awe of the impressively accomplished, seemingly omniscient faces of the E-Center’s governing body. Bylaw and budget lingo bounced around the room and took root in my brain, eventually becoming a second language as I committed my extracurricular time to the E-Center.

The most rewarding part about spending my four years in the E-Center was watching the professional staff operate. Whether they were tackling bureaucratic work or pitching a new program idea to the Board, they did it with passion and unfaltering commitment. It takes a lot of work to produce new sustainability programs, and while not every project may prevail, it is incredibly impactful to both myself and the CU student body to see today’s sustainability leaders be so resilient in a field that has so many unique challenges.

In my opinion, the most successful aspect of the E-Center is its ability to provide a space for students to ask and to navigate some of the hardest questions of our generation, whether it's tackling climate mitigation or socio-economic inequality, the E-Center provides perspectives and lessons that go beyond the average CU classroom. Each person you find in the E-Center has the interest of the students at heart, a characteristic that has made the E-Center a leading power on campus.

I leave the E-Center’s doors confident and thankful for the leadership tools that my E-Center friends have given me. Dave taught me to be bold, strategic and respectful. Michelle and the Eco-Social Justice Leadership Program taught me to listen, to make space for the marginalized and to understand the undeniable intersection of social and environmental justice, an aspect of sustainability I have learned to be essential in any climate conversation. Julie taught me to be unapologetic and to shatter that ever-present glass ceiling. Marianne taught me to pick my fights and Sarah Dawn shared her unequivocal abilities to see the positive in any situation.

As I embark on a career in the challenging field of sustainability, I will make sure to look back on my time at the E-Center, where it all started, and remember that I am backed by a team so strong that any climate challenge better be shaking in its boots. Thanks E-Center, I’ll keep in touch.

Kelly Poole is co-chair of the UCSG Environmental Board, of which she has been a member for the past three years, and will be graduating in May with a BA in Environmental Studies.

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What I learned while working at the Environmental Center

Anonymous — Fri, 15 Feb 2019 07:00:00 +0000

What I learned while working at the Environmental Center Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 02/15/2019 - 00:00

Georgia Rodden

After three years of working as a student employee at the Environmental Center, I can say that I’m pretty bad at watering plants. If you’ve been in the office lately, I can only hope they’ve livened up in the absence of my care. The truth is I never thought about the fact that the water has to drip all the way down through the soil in the pot to reach the bottom of the roots in order to be accessed. You can arch your neck over the top of the pot and poke at the top soil, but the surface tells you nothing of the tangled web of roots that make up the system beneath. In the midst of my all-too-recent leap from plant killer to career, I was reminded once again that the world has countless hidden connections. It only takes a few days in the E-center to show you, in varying scales (from plant to planet), the ever expanding matrix of sustainability.

I found myself at the Environmental Center through a somewhat predictable pathway. I grew up loving to be outside; in a house that had a garden, a family that encouraged exploration, dissuaded food waste, fed backyard chickens and ate mostly vegetarian. I was fortunate enough to go to a summer camp that allowed me to backpack in the mountains, milk cows, ride horses and spend every afternoon in a river. I felt assured that I was part of this larger ecosystem that welcomed and supported me. The word ‘environment’ was undoubtedly a positive term, it meant sunshine and mountains and ease. I went to college wanting to be an environmentalist because I felt this space needed to be protected, so we could continue enjoying the environment as I knew it, as I had experienced it.

It soon became glaringly apparent that there was a negative side to the word “environment,” and that this image comes to the mind of many people far before they think of a pitched tent or a babbling brook. Polluted, trashed, grey, toxic environments. Built environments, environments that feel unsafe, the political environment, hostile, unwelcoming environments. Too often, privilege decides the image we hold in our head about the environment.

In one of my courses freshman year I learned about Wangari Maathai’s Green Belt Movement in Kenya, a project that aimed to train women with the necessary skills to plant trees, and therefore gain some control over the management of natural resources in a patriarchal society. The Green Belt Movement’s mission is to “mobilize community consciousness for self-determination, justice, equity, reduction of poverty and environmental conservation, using trees as the entry point.” In this way it served both an environmental and a social good. I always think back on this moment because it seems so obvious now. At the time it felt as if I had stumbled upon some giant glaring secret, in a ridiculous moment of realization I began to understand that sustainability can be used as a power for justice, and vice versa. The health of our environment reflects the health of people and communities.

That same week I saw a poster on the wall that featured a panel discussion titled “Women on the Frontlines of Eco-Social Justice” and a picture of Wangari Maathai sat right there front and center. I went to the talk, hosted by what is now the Eco-Social Justice team, and felt my view of the world completely open up in a deeply meaningful way. That summer I applied for the team, and worked with them for three years until I graduated this December.

The Eco-Social Justice team plans events around campus that illuminate the connections between social justice and sustainability. We explored topics like the decolonisation of food, indigenous rights, ecofeminism and climate justice. One by one, each event widened the web of connections for me. I found myself constantly questioning the interconnectivity - how are prisons related to environmental issues? When I took a step back and listened, it always became clear- prison communities have little to no access to outdoors and nature (which may be essential for their health and wellness) or that prisons often have unsafe waste management practices due to the sheer number of prisoners in the criminal justice system in the U.S. (Read more here). These events bring seemingly different topics together, but they also bring people together- who come for different reasons.

There are many pathways and starting points to getting involved with environmental issues. And I think, more often than not, they are inextricably, messily and uncomfortably tied to social, economic, racial, cultural and political factors. Our identities seem to shape the way we begin to approach these issues, and even how we name and think of them. When you approach the environment from the position of public health (e.g. our community has high rates of asthma) or law (e.g. our community is fighting for a superfund cleanup) or social justice (e.g. outdoor recreation is a space that POC often don’t feel welcome), problems and solutions start to look a lot different.

Working at the Environmental Center forced me to look at my own identity and privilege. Some connections are painful to uncover (why was my summer camp only kids that looked like me?) and I often felt/feel confused about my place within an Environmental Justice field, but I know that the thought process is important and necessary. I’m grateful to the E-Center for giving me the space to begin the lifelong process of discovering what lies under the topsoil.

Through the Environmental Center I learned that everything is connected. That we can’t always see the connections clearly or understand their roots, but nothing exists on its own. ‘The environment’ can’t be a separate space. We have to listen, hear problems from the source, learn from local and diverse leaders and form a picture of the cyclical and regenerative systems we might want to be a part of.

Perhaps the most important thing I’ve learned is that in the end it's not really about this idea of ‘the environment.’ It’s about supporting life, in all forms - from the microbiomes in our soil to the flourishing of cultures around the world, to the health and wellness of all members of our complex and diverse ecosystem. This has to be the goal of sustainability, and I hope to keep working in spaces that question and grapple with these sometimes uncomfortable and necessary conversations.

Georgia Rodden graduated from CU Boulder in December 2018 with a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies. During her time at CU she worked for the Environmental Center in various capacities including as a member of the Eco-Social Justice Team.

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Jack DeBell career retrospective

Anonymous — Sun, 14 Oct 2018 06:00:00 +0000

Jack DeBell career retrospective Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 10/14/2018 - 00:00

Sarah Cottle

As University of Colorado Boulder students cheered during CU’s football game against the University of California on Folsom Field on Sept. 28, Jack DeBell led another group of students sorting the recyclables and compost of the game.

“Hey Jack, don’t you have somewhere to be? You’re retired!” Dave Newport, Director of the Environmental Center at CU, said.

DeBell wanted to leave the same way he had started his career at CU Boulder, recycling.

After 38 years of working with the university’s Environmental Center, DeBell retired as Program Development Director that day.

CU’s recycling program was the first in the nation in 1970. DeBell started working with the program as part of work-study as a freshman in 1979.

“It goes back to the early excitement that a number of us work-study students and volunteers had in the late 1970s, when recycling wasn’t in some dictionaries. It was still being defined.” DeBell said. “We knew that we were breaking ground, that this was needed, and that we were making an impact and that it was going to take off.”

He worked for four years during undergrad as a student at the center, to a temporary employee as a state position was being created, to finally the director.

In 38 years, DeBell has managed to make an impact on many levels regarding recycling—the university level, the community level and even the national level. He credits the Boy Scouts and his father for making him want to make a difference.

DeBell’s father, Jack DeBell Sr., was a part of creating the first municipal composting program in Colorado.

DeBell’s initial work with the municipal recycling program was a service project required for his promotion to Eagle Scout. He said his involvement in the scouts gave him a deeper appreciation for nature and that played a role in him pursuing something more contemplative in his studies versus the direct business or accounting path he might have taken otherwise.

While DeBell’s love for recycling might have started with a love for nature, business and finances were a part of fighting for recycling.

Will Toor, former director of the Environmental Center, recalls a time in the 1990s when the university hired a consultant to do an evaluation of the recycling program to decide if it was financially beneficial for the university.

Toor and DeBell spent weeks pouring over the consultant’s numbers because Jack knew that recycling was cheaper than wasting, but the numbers from the evaluation showed differently.

“The consultant forgot to take into account ‘Simpson’s Paradox,’” DeBell said.

The paradox occurs in probability and statistics. The consultant collected data across different departments. When looking at all the data by department, recycling saves the university money, but when looking at that data as a whole the trend disappears, making recycling appear more expensive. DeBell explained this to the university, proving recycling was worth keeping beyond moral values.

“Anyone who has been on the CU Boulder campus or in the city of Boulder over the last few decades, you’ve seen Jack’s handiwork,” Toor said, “And you know the impact he’s had on our community. What may not be as obvious is the impact that he’s had around that nation.”

The recycling movement in America really started to take off in the 1990s and DeBell was in the trenches fighting for the university community. DeBell helped universities gain a voice on the National Recycling Board. He was recognized by the EPA, the White House Task Force on Recycling, Dell Computer and more. He was also part of creating the Grassroots Recycling Network, which developed the core message of Zero Waste in the mid-1990s.

“[The National Recycling Board] would be asking for Jack’s perspective, which showed Jack had earned so much respect,” Eric Lombardi, former director of Eco-Cycle, said. “He was a good spokesman for the university and for the students. He was a fighter, and that’s what we needed back then.”

The recycling program is what Dave Newport calls the flagship program of the Environmental Center. It’s the oldest program, staffs the most students and has the most visibility on campus. Jack stabilized and legitimizes the Environmental Center’s expertise in recycling. On most college campuses the recycling is done by facilities management, but on the CU campus it is done by students.

“Jack has certain principles,” Newport said. “It’s not just good enough to recycle material. That material needs to come back in a closed loop to the highest and best use.”

On the night of Jack’s retirement, he finally handed Dave a carabiner with the recycling symbol on it, which is something Jack picked up from the Outward Bound program. Jack often gave them to staff or students he felt had a lot of promise. It was like earning a merit badge in recycling.

As DeBell leaves he wants to leave behind an important and hopeful point that will keep people excited about their impact and work.

“It’s synergy. One person’s individual efforts combined with another’s, even though they’re small and individual, have a greater cumulative impact. So, when you have 29,000 students that are doing the right thing, it has a cumulative impact that can oftentimes make the difference,” DeBell said.

Watch Jack DeBell's retirement slideshow

Jack DeBell is retiring after 38 years with the Environmental Center.

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Four years with CU Zero Waste

Anonymous — Tue, 14 Nov 2017 07:00:00 +0000

Four years with CU Zero Waste Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 11/14/2017 - 00:00

Larry Gumina

Everyone always told me that college will be some of the best years of my life and that it goes by quickly. Man were they right. I remember going through the motions of orientation in the summer of 2014 and it feels like an eternity ago. To this day I couldn’t tell you what any of those presentations were about, except for one, and that was from the Environmental Center. I think it was one of the few presentations I actively listened to. I remember staying after and chatting with Sarah Dawn Haynes, the Environmental Center's Outreach and Engagement Coordinator, about the Center for some time.

That conversation really supported my interest in chasing my environmental passion. I thought that volunteering with the E-Center would be a great place for me to gain more experience in the environmental field.

My previous experience was solely from my role as the president of my high school’s Environmental Club through which I led students to the shores of New Jersey for beach clean-ups, sand dune plantings, beach protection movements and similar activities. Volunteering with the Environmental Center was the perfect transition for me and I knew I wanted to get as involved as I could.

Fast forward about a month, where I was in Boulder and had a paying job at the E-Center - I was incredibly stoked! I was hired on with the Recycling Outreach Crew, where I still work as a member of the team, except now we are the Zero Waste Outreach Crew to emphasize composting, reuse and other sustainable habits in addition to recycling. The greatest part was that it never felt like work, and it still doesn’t. I was getting paid to share my passion for sustainability with students, just like in high school. Except now it was to a much bigger audience. I found myself reaching out to people I had never seen before in my life and may never see again. The fact that those moments may be the only time I would ever see that individual was exciting to me and I hoped to be memorable in my sustainability messages. It was, and still is, a very rewarding role.

Four years later, I’ve learned more than I ever imagined through a college job. I know the ins and outs of recycling and composting here in Boulder. I have brought this knowledge with me to summer jobs, to the rugby team I play with here at CU, to my home and family back in New Jersey and anywhere else that I can promote sustainable habits. It is a passion and knowledge that has been engrained in me. If it wasn’t ingrained in me from my time spent sorting recycling at the Recycling Operations Center on campus, it has definitely been ingrained in me from the long, sometimes cold nights spent sorting compost and recycling after home football games.

Over these four years, I have participated in over 40 compost sorts. Whether they followed a football game and were in the rain, or followed a basketball game and were in the snow, my hands were deep in compost bags pulling out aluminum foil, candy wrappers or beer cans. Anything that didn’t belong there stood no chance of getting past me. Digging through other people’s leftover food to ensure proper composting changed my habits and truly drove home the importance of sustainability. Those long nights spent elbow-deep in compost fuel my passion for sustainability and that passion fuels my conversations with people who don’t yet recycle or compost. Generally by the end of those conversations I have helped that individual rethink their actions as a result of a newly found understanding.

My career with the E-Center and Zero Waste hasn’t been limited to compost sorts. I’ve personally gone door-to-door with the Zero Waste crews of every residence hall asking for freshmen to give me their recycling. Most are baffled but then get super stoked, especially if they have a ton of recycling. This gives us the chance to pick out contaminants with new students, to help them understand the ways of green living in Boulder, and to help them understand the difference between and importance of composting and recycling. This is when we attempt to motivate people to help in the diversion effort. We try to make these interactions memorable and influence those students to take this new knowledge to live sustainably through their time at CU and, hopefully, into the rest of their lives. It’s really rewarding to have somebody say “oh, wow, I always thought that since it’s plastic that it could go in the recycling. I’ll keep that in mind going forward.” Hearing comments like these gets me excited to keep going and talking to as many people as I can to spread awareness and hopefully help make a change in the wasteful world we live in.

Another great part about working at the E-Center is that, yes, we are all part of different teams, but we are united in a singular cause and work hard to get the job done. It is a great family and organization to be a part of. The connections I’ve made with coworkers is awesome and I wouldn’t trade the friendships I’ve made and the experiences I’ve had for anything. I am stoked to carry these experiences and knowledge with me into the world as I prepare to leave college and, sadly, Boulder.

As of now I plan to work up in Alaska for my second summer as a backcountry guide. Many great things come from leading backpacking trips into the backcountry of the Alaskan interior, but most specifically is the interactions I make with the men and women I lead out there. I always stress the importance of sustainable living and hiking in the backcountry, and I try to promote these habits to stick with these individuals into their lives back home. My goals out there are that if I can get them to adopt these habits for their 15-20 days they spend in Alaska with me, then they can take these habits home and promote them to their friends and family. All it takes is a little education to individuals here and there and next thing you know a community I have never been to is living more sustainably because of what I shared with a few individuals of that community - thoughts like that keep me going! Another great part about the job is I sometimes get individuals who have doubts about climate change. After 10-20 days of discussion about the issue, they generally have a new understanding of climate change and the importance individual actions play in it.

Regardless of my future occupation, the individuals and events I have worked with and experiences I have gained at the Environmental Center will never leave me and will forever fuel my passion to educate and promote a sustainable future.

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