Initiated and Chaired Sustainability Team at Rockwell Automation
While interning at Rockwell Automation near Milwaukee, WI, I noticed that although the company emphasized sustainability in its outward-facing literature, each facility was not doing much with sustainability initiatives. People working in the Mequon facility had ideas about how they could make their workplace more energy-efficient or aware of environmental impact, but there was no way for their ideas to get implemented. I approached the leader of Environmental Services, who asked me to craft an email that he would send to the 1000 employees in Mequon. I received approximately 20 responses and formed a committee that I chaired for two months before finding two co-chairs to replace me. In the first two months, the committee had already implemented low-flow faucets and a tennis shoe recycling program.
Milwaukee Key Environmental Organizations Project
While living in Milwaukee, WI for 6 months, I volunteered with three key environmental organizations: the urban farm Growing Power, the community organizing group Transition Milwaukee, and the child education-focused Urban Ecology Center. Then, I wrote a paper profiling the three organizations based on my experiences and interviews I conducted, complete with suggestions for the organizations moving forward. Transition Milwaukee subsequently posted my paper on their website. To the right is an image from the paper explaining how each organization interacts with volunteers. You can read my paper on the Transition Milwaukee website.
Sustainability Efforts in the Olin College Dining Hall
As part of an entrepreneurship class where students were pushed to make a difference in their community, my team focused our efforts on the sustainability of our dining hall. Specifically, we worked to increase the number of vegetarian options that appealed to everyone, reducing the total amount of meat consumed by the student body. We worked with food service director David Nadreau, who provided us with ingredients and space. We used the ingredients to cook samples of delicious vegan dishes for students. We got feedback from approximately 100 students for each of three dishes, which we then passed on to the dining hall staff. Within a few weeks, two of our dishes had already piloted in the dining hall. The Examiner published an article about it, which can be read here.
