A Styrofoam densifier helps Frisco Environmental Services minimize a difficult recycling issue. Photo: Frisco Environmental Services

By Bill Sullivan

After the gifts have been opened and the holidays are gone, Frisco residents annually are left with a nagging question:

What do you do with the Styrofoam?

One solution: If you can’t completely solve a problem, minimize it.

That’s what is happening at Frisco Environmental Services, where Manager Jeremy Starritt came up with a creative way to make the best of a bad situation.

In 2010, the department received an $88,850 grant from the North Central Texas Council of Governments for the purchase of a Styrofoam densifier. Instead of dealing with mountains of Styrofoam that weigh virtually nothing, Frisco now can cut the ubiquitous packing material down to size (Styrofoam is about 95 percent air) with a process that accomplishes three goals:

• An economically sensible amount of Styrofoam can be loaded on to trucks headed to a recycling plant.
• By recycling, there will be less need to produce more Styrofoam.
• The amount of essentially non-biodegradable material headed out to the landfill will be reduced.

“Without condensing it, what you have is loose product sitting in bags,” Starritt explains.

Enter the new equipment, which went into operation in September of 2010. Starritt says it creates a 600-to-1 densification rate, turning a 75-pound load of polystyrene foam into something considerably more substantial and manageable.

By early December, 2011, Environmental Services had recycled 5,054 pounds of Styrofoam and had another 2,200 pounds scheduled to be hauled off the following week. (Only Styrofoam used for packing large objects such as TVs or computer equipment is accepted; items such as egg cartons and food trays are not eligible for the program.)

“Now, when we fill a truck, it’s literally tons and tons of Styrofoam, where it really is worth both the time and the money for them to get it,” Starritt said.

Early shipments had to be carted off to East Texas. Since then, Environmental Services has located a recycler in the Metroplex. Payments made by the company help offset the cost of other environmental programs in Frisco.

While making a profit is nice, the positive impact on the environment is the real payoff. Once Styrofoam is created, it pretty much is what it is. About three million tons of polystyrene foam — Styrofoam actually is a brand made by Dow Chemical — is produced every year, most of it ending up in landfills, where it is virtually immortal.

If you are in the Styrofoam business, however, re-using the product is something of a no-brainer.

“It’s one of the easiest things to recycle,” Starritt says. “It’s even easier than plastic, because you don’t have to melt it down. They just have to shape it and harden it again, and it becomes whatever it is they want it to be.

“It’s basically a complete loop, with almost zero loss in product. With plastic, paper and everything else, you have up to 10, 15 percent reduction recycling every time. With Styrofoam it’s more like a one percent loss.”

Now, those piles of light-as-air Styrofoam at Frisco Environmental Services will be smaller, denser, and far more manageable as they head off to the recycler. It’s a solution in line with the department’s mission to combine good stewardship with good economic sense.

Finished product ready to be sent to the recycler. Image: Frisco Environmental Services

Riding a bicycle offers a chance to stop and smell the roses on your way to work or school.

If Americans substituted biking for just half of their daily short car trips they’d enjoy extensive health benefits, while contributing to cleaner air, which would enhance health in their entire community, according to a study by University of Wisconsin researchers.

The study takes the conventional wisdom – that biking can displace pollution and improve health – and quantified it for a set region under certain circumstances in order to project what the real outcomes would be if Americans moved out from behind their steering wheels, at least some of the time.

To project actual benefits, the UW research team measured the potential effects of replacing short car trips (under five miles round trip) with bike trips, at least half of the time and only on good weather days, in urban areas in the Upper Midwest.

They found that parking the car and taking the bike in their scenario would prevent 1,100 premature deaths and save more than $7 billion in healthcare costs annually in the six states that comprised the study area.

The researchers explained the benefits of replacing half of the car trips under 8 kilometers (about five miles) with bike travel as a four-way win, saying it would:

• Reduce air pollution and the greenhouse gases that are fueling climate change.
• Reduce asthma and respiratory diseases for everyone in the community because particulate and ozone pollution would be lessened.
• Increase the health of bicyclists who would suffer lower rates of diabetes and heart disease.
• Save personal expenses for the bicyclists, who could forgo more expensive car travel, at least part of the time.

These major, measurable benefits should be considered when policymakers are deciding whether to create bike lanes or biking/walking trails, says lead author Dr. Jonathan Patz, the professor & director of the Global Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

“When we talk of changing policies. We’re always looking at the cost of the trails or whatever. But rarely do we look at the flip side, the benefits,” he said. “There are huge public health benefits to be gained if we continue to promote safe streets.”

As if to verify Patz’ contention, the public benefits of bike trails have seemingly been absent from the discussion this fall over whether to trim federal support for bike and pedestrian infrastructure.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Rep. Rand Paul (R-Kty) have both suggested cutbacks in money for bike trails and bike lanes, arguing that the money could be better used to repair aging bridges.

The League of American Bicyclists doesn’t deny the problems of poorly rated bridges, but calls this argument a red herring because some states have left federal money for bridges on the table.

League president Andy Clarke argues in his blog that federal support for biking and pedestrian pathways, which is less than $500 million, represents a good investment in green transportation and safer pathways for bicyclists.

And it’s a tiny part of the Federal Highway Administration’s budget for road and bridge repair, which Obama has penciled in at $70 billion for 2012.

Substituting a bicycle for a car for short trips can lead to all sorts of benefits.

The University of Wisconsin study looked at the urban areas of the Upper Midwest, a study area of 31 million people. It calculated the potential for saved air pollution and added health benefits if people substituted biking for half of their short car trips in the study states of Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana. It considered mainly urban regions, acknowledging that bike travel would be cumbersome in rural areas.

The effects were calculable because the EPA and the World Health Organization already have established models that project the impact on humans of reducing air pollution (the purview of the EPA) and increasing exercise levels (WHO).

The multi-state region would enjoy a reduction in 400 premature deaths caused by air pollution, which aggravates asthma and other respiratory illnesses; with another 600 lives saved because of the projected better fitness profile of the biking residents of these communities, the team found.

Patz, has served for 15 years as a lead author for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (or IPCC) – the organization that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore, considers these figures to be conservative.

The study only considered the benefits of replacing short car trips for the 124 best weather days of the year, allowing that winter weather doesn’t accommodate bike travel, he said. In addition, the remaining days, during which people could walk and use mass transportation, thereby getting exercise and putting a dent in air pollution, were not factored into the study, he said.

Parameters for the research project were based on normal behavior in Europe (and to a degree in bike-friendly American cities) that show people can and will reasonably travel the distances posited in the study if they feel the route is safe for biking.

In the U.S., the study notes, 28 percent of all car trips are under 1 mile (or 1.6 kilometers), “a distance that a typical European would walk,” and 41% of all trips are less than 2 miles (or 3.2 kilometers), “a distance that many Europeans would be as likely to bicycle as to walk”.

The study did not delve into the psychology of how to wrestle people out of their cars and into greener modes or travel. That is the province of the League of American Bicyclists and other advocacy groups.

League spokeswoman Meaghan Cahill says some good-natured cajoling is in order.

“What is going to get people out of their cars and bicycling is simple encouragement, and that can be a co-worker or a friend saying, ‘hey, it’s healthy, come join me and have fun.’”

It also helps when communities and businesses encourage biking, by installing bike trails, bike racks and putting incentives into place, Cahill said. Some businesses, such as Microsoft, now offer employees financial help with their bike expenses. Other employers have created safe rooms for bike storage. Cities are installing more bike racks, putting conveyances for bikes onto commuter rail cars and buses and in a few cases, have set up bike sharing in central business districts, such as in D.C., Cahill says.

Once communities create safe biking lanes or pathways, they notice an uptick in biking, she said, citing cities such as Charleston and Columbia, S.C., which were not known as big biking areas, but became bronze rated “bike friendly cities” once the city government took action.

Patz also sees that policymakers at all levels should elevate biking (or walking) as a priority, and promote it as an alternative to cars.

“Our study showing tremendous health gains shows we should be building cities for people and not just automobiles,” he said.

Texas farmers are challenged to conserve water while still bringing in robust crops.

The driest year and the hottest July and August on record have taken a toll on the region’s crops, costing the state’s farmers and ranchers more than $5 billion so far.

Near Dumas, in the northern Texas High Plains, farmer Harold Grall says it’s the worst he’s seen in 33 years of farming.

“We need to take away something good from this year, since it’s been such a difficult year,” he says, “We are learning a lot.”

The summer’s extreme drought and heat highlight every shortcoming in the way farmers water their crops, says Nich Kenny, an irrigation expert at Texas A&M.

“You hate to see a person go through that, but if it affects the management regime and the strategies that people use for the better, this year may be a year that changes crop production in the Texas High Plains.”

Those changes have to come, says Grall. While this year was extreme, “we know the direction we’re heading,” says Grall. “It’s like, what part of ‘We’re running out of water’ don’t you understand?”

Maize is the most profitable crop to grow in this area. But farmers cannot grow maize in this semi-arid landscape without irrigation.

However, every drop of irrigation water comes from an underground reservoir that farmers, cities and industries are draining far faster than the water replenishes.

Some areas have a century or more before the wells run dry. But others have just a decade or two at current rates of use.

When the water dries up, so will the region’s economy, says Steve Walthour, head of the North Plains Groundwater Conservation District, the region’s water authority.

“Our bread and butter is irrigated agriculture. And we have to look at how do we keep it going for as long as we can.”

A walk through one of Harold Grall’s maize fields provides a look at the latest in maximizing crop per drop.

Grall is trying out a new high-tech system that sends data from underground soil probes to his computer. It tells him when his plants need water, and when he can turn off the taps.

“We have real-time access to what’s going on in the soil,” he says.

This system is not cheap. Each underground probe costs $2,500. But since this only is his second year with the system, he has a low-tech backup: wires poking out of the soil connect to blocks of gypsum buried underground. Hooking up an electrical meter will give an idea of how dry the soil is.

Rather than tilling the leaves and stalks from last year’s crop into the soil, Grall leaves them on the field. The cover helps cool the soil, and it reduces evaporation and runoff.

“That residue is just like a big sponge,” he says. “It’s just kind-of soaking up all the water,” and holding on to it for the plants to use.

The plants themselves need less water.  Grall is trying out new, drought-tolerant maize varieties from two seed companies. In this year’s exceptional drought and heat, they clearly out-performed older varieties.

Grall uses low-hanging irrigation hoses that deliver water right to the base of the plant. Compared to the old, wasteful method of flooding the crop rows, it’s a big improvement.

The North Plains Groundwater Conservation District helped Grall set up some of the new technologies to demonstrate to the region’s farmers that they can produce a profitable maize crop on less water.

They are still sorting through all the data to determine how it all worked and what needs to be improved.

But, Grall says, “We need all the tools available to us at this point so we can help preserve our water,” because water is the lifeblood of a region where farming is not just a business but also a way of life.

Revolving glass doors at the front and back of the George A. Purefoy Municipal Center will help reduce heating and cooling costs. Image: friscogreenliving.com

By Bill Sullivan

Finding enough money to provide citizens with top-notch facilities and services is always a challenge, especially in these economically trying times. In Frisco, some creative thinking and deft planning has helped relieve some of the pressure on those precious funds.

The City is in the final phase of implementing six projects funded by an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG), part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The $825,800 award was obtained through a collaboration of City departments, each of which offered input into how they might make their facilities a bit more environmentally friendly.

“We had all the City departments submit ideas for the use of the energy grant fund,” says Stacy Brown, Housing and Grants Administrator for the City of Frisco. “Then we whittled it down to six.”

Money was available to municipalities with populations of 50,000 or more. Winners were given three years to complete their projects. Frisco, now in its third year, has completed five projects, with the sixth still in progress.

Here’s what the City is getting from that grant:

• To reduce the amount of energy usage at the 100,000 square foot Frisco Athletic Center, UV filtering film was professionally installed on windows. The City expects to save $4,182 per year in energy costs while producing energy savings of 41,096 kilowatt hours per year.
• At Frisco Public Library, 90 full-size standard desktop computers were replaced with zero client Pano boxes and two servers to reduce energy waste. Cost savings: $5,347 per year. Energy saved: 52,548 kilowatt hours annually.
• Also at Frisco Public, downloadable digital-format audiobooks are being offered as an alternative to traditional printed material. The downloadables reduce patron trips to the Library and avoid many costs associated with printed materials, including printing, paper, storage, distribution, shelving and re-shelving, replacement of damaged materials and inventorying. Number of downloadables purchased: 2,182. Over a five-year period (the average circulating life of downloadable items) the City anticipates savings of $58,914 in avoided handling fees and an additional $130,920 in saved patron fuel costs.
• To increase the energy efficiency of the five-story George A. Purefoy Municipal Center, revolving doors were installed in the front and back public entrances. Cost and Energy savings: TBD.
• Also at City Hall, wiring modifications were completed to reduce the usage of lights when the 150,000 square foot building is unoccupied. Cost savings: $4,022 per year. Energy savings: 39,525 kilowatt hours per annually.
• Still in the works: An Energy Management System Overlay that will allow the City to reduce energy consumption by monitoring, orchestrating, automating and optimizing the operation of all the systems operating facilities, covering 10 buildings in all. Cost and Energy Savings: TBD.

“That’s the biggest one, so we had to go out for bids for the project design,” Brown said. “Now, we’re in the implementation phase.”

From the City’s perspective, there is considerably more to this process than spending the money. Brown says the Department of Energy “has been out a couple of times to make sure we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing with the funds.

“We have to do quarterly reports, too, to tell the government how much money we spent, how did we spend it, did we spend it the way we thought we were going to spend it, and if we didn’t, why?”

While all that paperwork can be daunting and time-consuming, the otherwise essentially- free upgrades and the long-range savings they produce make it more than worth the effort.

“With federal grants, they’re more into accountability, which is fine,” Brown said. “I think it’s a great way to do it. It makes people spend the money on what they’re supposed to spend it on. I think it’s good to be accountable.

“Then, it’s easier for me to say, ‘This is what we did.’”

In Frisco, there is plenty to talk about, and the impact will be felt for years to come.

Frisco High senior Ainsley Campbell outside Beavers Bend Park, where she installed 10 bat houses this summer.

By Bill Sullivan

Thanks to a 17-year-old Frisco High senior, a portion of the bat population of Beavers Bend Park enjoys a higher standard of living these days. As part of a Girl Scout project, Ainsley Campbell (an Ambassador in Troop 1289) built and installed a total of 10 bat houses in the park, her own way of saying thanks to one of nature’s most sustainable and efficient forms of pest control.

When Frisco Green Living learned about her efforts, we contacted Ainsley to see if she would be willing to share her thoughts on what drew her to the project, how she went about it, and what she learned in the process.

Here’s what she had to say:

FGL:  How did you get interested in the bat houses project?

Ainsley: I got started in the bat houses project through my Girl Scout Gold Award project.  I was concerned by both the amount of pesticides people were using and the large insect population in our city’s parks. I found that the bat boxes were a great form of sustainable pest control.

FGL: Were you aware beforehand of the positive impact bats have on their environment?

Ainsley: I was aware that bats eat insects, but I was unaware of the huge role bats can fill in balancing ecosystems. In the media and in people’s minds, bats are often perceived in a negative light. Through my project, I hoped to change the public’s view on bats and get rid of their image as scary or harmful creatures.

FGL: Are you interested in environmental issues in general? If so, what kind?

Ainsley: I am very interested in environmental issues and am planning on majoring in either environmental science or environmental engineering in college. I am mainly interested in reducing the amount of chemicals that are put into our environment and our food. I think that going into the future, it is going to be important to find a way for humans to live comfortably while keeping in harmony with our environment. Bat boxes are just one form of sustainable pest control that benefits both humans and the environment they are placed in.

FGL: Did anyone help you with the project? Were other Scouts or Troops involved?

Ainsley: I was very lucky to have the help and guidance of Jeremy Starritt of Frisco Environmental Services. My parents, Dana and Rachel Campbell, and my Girl Scout leaders, Jan Sakowski and Ranya Fulton, were also extremely supportive and pivotal to my success. This was an individual project.

In researching her project, Ainsley learned that the houses are most effective when placed in relatively tall trees near bodies of water.

FGL: How did you decide where to place the bat houses?

Ainsley: Based on Mr. Starritt’s advice, I placed the bat boxes in relatively tall trees, mainly by bodies of water.  Mosquitoes and other disease-carrying insects often congregate around areas of standing water.

FGL: Do you go back regularly to check on them?

Ainsley: I have been back to the park twice to check on them. Luckily, they are all still hanging!

FGL: Do the bats seem to be using them? Any surprises about the way it has worked out?

Ainsley: Since bats are nocturnal animals, it is difficult to tell if bats are “using” them without disturbing them. However, there do seem to be signs of use, such as possible bat guano.

FGL: What did you learn from this project? Do you consider it a success?

Ainsley: From this project I learned how easy it is to make a small change that could affect the park for years to come. I also learned how beneficial bats are to an ecosystem. I do consider this project a success due to the positive feedback I have received from the community. Frisco has such beautiful parks, and it is important that people are able to enjoy them.

A Pano cube attached to the back of a monitor at Frisco Public Library. The new technology helps save both space and energy. Image: friscogreenliving.com.

By Bill Sullivan

If you have paid a visit to the Computer Lab at Frisco Public Library over the last year or so, you probably noticed some changes.

It’s cooler. (Literally.)  Quieter, too. You may even have taken note of a lot more leg room under the tables now that those space-eating, noise-making, heat-producing Central Processing Units are mostly a thing of the past. (A few remain for training purposes.)

“The lab was a very noisy place, needless to say, with 30 some-odd computers whirring along and fans running everywhere,” Library Systems Coordinator Gary Werchan says. “Now, as you can hear, that’s clearly no longer the case.

“You can barely hear a pin drop in here some days. It’s a lot more pleasant environment to work in than it was before.”

Pano cubes take the place of CPUs without any reduction in user functionality. Image: friscogreenliving.com.

Credit this to some clever use of about $83,000, part of an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) the City of Frisco received from the federal government to help make the Library and other public spaces more energy efficient. In addition to the obvious aesthetic improvements, replacing CPUs (which use about 120 watts of power) with small black boxes called Pano Zero Client cubes (about five watts) is expected to save about $3,000 a year, according to Enterprise Technology and Infrastructure Manager Tim Yarbrough. During the hotter months of the year, the new equipment, produced by Pano Logic of Redwood City, Calif., should help reduce cooling costs as well.

“We talked about ways of improving energy efficiency at the Library,” Yarbrough explains. “Basically, we replaced 85 desktop systems with a zero client virtual desktop environment. It essentially takes the physical PC away and replaces it with a small black box.

“That cube gives you a presentation where you get your video, your keyboard and your mouse inter-activity, but the actual computer you are accessing is in the server room, running on a couple of servers and some storage.”

The Pano cubes are easily attached to the back of each monitor, conserving surface space. The setup includes the network cable, USB cables for mouse and keyboard, a video port and audio out for headphones.

How does it all work?

“Essentially, this little box talks to the server and has its own dedicated machine that it’s tied to,” Yarbrough says. “The user logs into this environment. They can interact with it, and when they’re done and they shut it down, that server on the back end – the actual virtual computer — restarts itself.

“Any changes done in that environment are lost, because it’s a non-persistent state. When it reboots, it loses that state and comes back up to the way it was originally and is ready for another user to log in.”

That feature provides much needed security, always an issue for a publicly-shared system. Yet another part of the attraction of the Pano cube: The user experience is pretty much identical to working with a desktop unit with a conventional CPU.

Asked how patrons have reacted, Werchan said the transition was virtually seamless.

“People for the most part were pretty much… unaffected,” he said.  “They carried on about their normal business.”

In addition to saving space and cutting down electricity usage, Pano cubes reduce maintenance costs. Image: friscogreenliving.com

From the maintenance perspective, however, the move to the Pano cube represents a dramatic change. Updates and repairs that previously were done on station-to-station basis have been centralized.

“The systems we had were old and needed to be replaced,” Yarbrough says. “From a repair perspective, we were replacing fans and other things on a regular basis.

“All these systems are housed on the server. If we need to make updates, we can take the system down and update directly there. They’re available the next day, as opposed to running around from this machine to that one.”

Original designs planned for 100 machines to run on the two servers. Currently, about 85 machines are operating throughout the Library, leaving room for expansion. The new technology is designed to be around for a while, too.

“The longevity on these should be much greater,” Yarbrough says. “There’s no reason you couldn’t maintain these for seven, eight years, maybe longer.”

Cooler, quieter,  more energy efficient – and essentially free. It’s another win-win for the city, making the Frisco Public Library an even more pleasant and environmentally friendly place to be.

Effective November 1, the City of Frisco will move to Stage 3 drought restrictions as outlined in its Drought Contingency and Water Emergency Response Plan at the direction of the North Texas Municipal Water District (NTMWD).

The NTMWD reports Lavon Lake could be dry by fall 2012, under worst case conditions.

During the October 17 Town Hall meeting, North Texas Municipal Water District (NTMWD) representative Mike Rickman cautioned residents to use water wisely. Gary Hartwell, Frisco’s Director of Public Works, reiterated the importance of shutting off sprinklers.

“Just turn your automatic sprinkler systems off,” said Hartwell. “That’s probably the best thing you can do for your landscapes this time of year. There’s really no reason to water during fall and winter. We need to take this opportunity to save water and do what we can to help protect our existing water supplies,” said Hartwell.

Lawns and landscapes need little to no outdoor watering. Warm season grasses, such as Bermuda or St. Augustine, go dormant during fall and winter months. ‘Dormant’ means grasses naturally turn brown during cooler months.

On October 4, council members voted unanimously to approve staff’s recommendation to move to Stage 3 water restrictions while urging residents to shut off their irrigation systems during fall and winter months.

Frisco’s ‘Stage 3’ allows a resident to water on their trash day, only if necessary. There are no ‘time of day’ restrictions. Stage 3 allows residents to use hand-held and soaker hoses to help protect important investments such as home foundations, pools, trees and shrubs.

Go online to www.friscotexas.gov/water to check out Frisco’s ‘state-of-the-art’ weather station data. This information is updated weekly. The weather station uses advanced technology to measure landscape water needs. Residents can subscribe to receive these updates directly via e-mail.

Stage 3 calls for a 10% reduction in water use by mandating residents take the following actions:

· Utilize hand held hoses for your trees, up to two hours each day

· Utilize soaker hoses for your foundations, up to two hours each day

· Obtain variance to drain and refill pools for maintenance

· Limit city water use to public safety needs (this includes watering athletic fields to prevent injuries and ‘hydrant flushing’ for water quality issues)

· Wash vehicles using hoses with end nozzles, only

Residents who ignore Stage 3 drought restrictions will have their sprinkler systems shut off and face additional fees on their water bills. Continued violations could result in a formal citation and court fines.

On September 28, NTMWD announced Stage 3 restrictions effective November 1 as a result of:

· Persistent, intensifying drought forecast through fall 2012;

· declining water levels of reservoirs (both Lake Chapman and Lavon Lake currently 12 feet low)

· continued loss of raw water supply due to invasive zebra mussels in Lake Texoma;

· record usage for the district;

· approaching treatment plant capacity.

To combat continued drought, Hartwell says staff is researching ways to ease the impact of drought on Frisco’s future. The City of Frisco has turned off sprinkler systems on all city-owned medians, with the exceptions of bubblers and drip systems to protect trees.

To view the October 17 Town Hall meeting, go to www.friscotexas.gov/townhall

Dedee DeLongpre Johnston, Director of Sustainability at Wake Forest University (Photo: Ken Bennett, Wake Forest University)

A recent study found that 93 percent of CEOs believe sustainability will be “important” or “very important” to the future success of their companies. DeLongpré Johnston offers three simple solutions for students wanting to bolster their green potential without greenwashing their resumes.

1. “Act like an ‘intrapreneuer.’ Seize opportunities for innovation and creativity – just like an entrepreneur – by incorporating sustainable values and practices into existing campus organizations and everyday life. Internships focused on sustainability are especially invaluable because they help students demonstrate to employers that they can think critically and solve problems.”

2. “Start a ‘green team.’ Demonstrate results-driven leadership and help others develop more socially and environmentally responsible behaviors by evaluating the current level of sustainable practices on campus and taking action for improvement. Even small initial actions such as making available reusable mugs rather than using disposable cups can inspire larger scale changes over time.”

3. “Look beyond job titles. Sustainability is a way of thinking, and opportunities are often embedded in functional areas such as marketing, research and development, and even accounting.”

Tracey Watson never imagined her campus sustainability internship would lead to working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on its “Go Green, Get Healthy” initiative. The 2010 Wake Forest graduate says promoting her on-campus experience was invaluable in landing and enjoying her job, which combines her personal and professional interests in the environment and health communications.

“I am one of the few people on my team who doesn’t have a environmental science background, and in some ways that has helped me,” says Watson. “Don’t let your major discourage you from a career in sustainability – just follow your passion, be a self-starter and learn as you grow. There’s plenty of room for progress.”