Green machine

Join the Blue and Gold Make Green alumni network and look like this all the time.

Emory alumni who work in green jobs, have a background in conservation, or just a passion for sustainable living are invited to join a new network based on the basic rules of primary colors (and a convenient combination for Emory)—blue and gold make green.
           
The Blue and Gold Make Green alumni network is a partnership between the Emory Alumni Board (EAB) and Emory’s Office of Sustainability Initiatives. The network ’s mission is to connect students to alumni with insights into green career fields and to create a forum for like-minded alumni to network with one another. Tara Whitehead-Stotland 93MBA, chair of Blue and Gold Make Green, and Ciannat Howett 87C, director of the Office of Sustainability Initiatives, invite interested alumni to complete a short survey.
           
Emory is a leader in many sustainability efforts, boasting the most square footage of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified buildings of any college campus, a 100 percent alternative-fuel shuttle system whose buses run on used grease from Emory’s dining facilities, the longest running program in the country to encourage faculty to integrate sustainability into the curriculum, and very active, environmental student organizations.
           
This year, Emory set the tone for the incoming students with a nearly zero-waste orientation. Mailed packets were eliminated in favor of paper-free electronic information. Once on campus, Emory practiced its vision for the future—recycling all materials, serving locally produced food, and composting everything at meal functions, down to the compostable dinnerware. This endeavor drew national attention as a feature article in the September 9 issue of the journal Nature.

The University still has ambitious goals: reducing energy consumption by 25 percent, recycling 65 percent of its waste stream, and moving toward 75 percent local or sustainably grown food in Emory hospitals and cafeterias by 2015. Emory is also committed to setting aside 54 percent of its campus as protected green space and has actively encouraged the campus community to take the Sustainability Pledge. The Emory Alumni Association (EAA) is doing its part making retrofits to the Miller-Ward Alumni House (MWAH) in hopes of earning LEEDs certification for existing buildings, and incorporating conservation measures in its own communications and events.

Emory students also are heavily engaged in sustainability efforts, from the Emory Environmental Law and Conservation Society’s upcoming carbon-neutral band concert to a gravity-powered vehicle race through campus and the annual energy reduction competition that involves all buildings and residence halls on campus.  This generation of students, perhaps more than any other, is looking for ways to continue advancing sustainability efforts through their work and their lives after they leave campus. This is where the Blue and Gold Make Green alumni network can be a critical resource.

In November, the Emory Career Center will host a Green Networking night on campus to give students an opportunity to learn about career fields that carry on their passion for sustainable living. Alumni working in green jobs are invited to serve as mentors at this event and participate online by joining the Blue and Gold Make Green network through E-Connection.—Sarah Cook 95C

If you are interested in being a part of this initiative, please click here.