By Katie Koenig
Introducing Nancy Howell
Nancy Howell is the Senior Marketing Content Strategist at Emerson, and has worked here for sixteen years. She’s an Emerson alum from 2003, too. She also got involved with sustainability efforts on campus around a decade ago, when she joined the Sustainability Committee. President Jackie Liebergott formed the Committee in 2010 to begin changing Emerson’s operations and focus towards sustainable practices in order to meet the goal Emerson set in 2007 to reach carbon neutrality by 2030 under the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment.
When I spoke with Nancy, she described many sustainable practices on campus that she knew and often was a part of, thanks to her position in the Sustainability Committee and personal enthusiasm for sustainability.
Work with Emerson
Through her participation with the Sustainability Committee, she’s been involved in several major initiatives over the past few years. The Committee, in part thanks to campaigning from Earth Emerson, an on-campus green org at the time, banned the selling of bottled water on campus at the end of 2012. They also got hand dryers added to the most used bathrooms in 2017, and put up recycling and compost signage in the Dining Hall in 2018.
Campus Race to Zero Waste (CRZW, originally called Recyclemania) is a two-month-long intercollegiate competition to see who can divert the highest percentage of waste into recycling that the Sustainability Committee has sometimes helped organize at Emerson in conjunction with the official Sustainability Associate Director on staff.
Nancy explained that education and communication are two incredibly important aspects of implementing sustainability, in her experience. The Committee and Sustainability staff members can institute great initiatives, as she detailed, but if community members, and particularly students, don’t know about them, then they don’t get involved themselves. Communication goes both ways — just like with Earth Emerson’s role in banning bottled water, student activism also has an impact on campus policies.
Nancy mentioned that this belief has been taken up by the Sustainability Committee before, since there have almost always been student representatives on the Committee, although it’s incredibly hard for them to have time to come to meetings due to class conflicts during the work day and the pandemic, more recently.
Beyond the Committee, students have been working themselves to incorporate sustainability themes into campus life, as well. The Green Gala was started multiple years ago to bring a cappella groups, dance groups, other student musicians, and student life together for a sustainability-themed celebration during Earth Month. There was even a film competition with a cash prize at one point. Nowadays, you can join the Compost Concert that takes place every fall for many similar activities.
In addition, Student Affairs hosts Emerson Recognition & Achievement (ERA) awards annually, including a newly reinstated sustainability award as of this year. There’s a plaque of current and past winners for the sustainability award located on the third floor of 172 Tremont. This year, the winner is Najem Raheem.
Nancy in particular runs a staff blog called People at Emerson. It’s been a space for Sustainability staff to share information, updates, and tips so general staff can also get more involved with sustainability efforts on campus. She encourages staff to write articles to publish, introduces new staff members, and from time to time includes posts that are focused on sustainability. For example, during CRZW and Clean Out Your Office day, she publishes tips by staff writers to make the workplace more sustainable by reducing the amount you print, printing double sided, and turning off power strips when not in use.
Personal Strategies
When I asked her about how she interacts with sustainability in her personal life, Nancy acknowledged how overwhelming climate change can be. However, even smaller, individual actions can add up, even just to create momentum for the climate justice movement.
For her, Nancy prioritizes buying as many organic products over inorganic and single-use products as possible. She buys organic food, recycled or reusable cleaning and personal care products, and she tries to eat as little meat as possible due to the massive emissions from industrial animal farming. She always carries a reusable tote with her, primarily for when she runs to the store. She recycles as much as possible.
She is also a part of a buy-nothing group on Facebook. In a similar vein, she prioritizes donating usable items to Boomerangs and Goodwill, and overall reduces the amount of trash she generates as much as possible.
She loves nature and wildlife, and goes to local parks as much as possible. This has led her to financially supporting a number of environmental nonprofits and nature reserves. I’ll provide them as a list with links to each associated website for you to explore at your own interest, but many of these are interesting organizations that provide amazing services here in the Greater Boston area, so I highly recommend you check them out. As a general summation, many of them are focused on conservation and climate activism.
The Emerald Necklace Conservancy
A quick note about a couple of specific ones: the Kelleher Rose Garden, part of the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, usually runs weekly volunteer pruning and gardening sessions in the summertime, which has a page to view these events and how to get involved at their website. You can sign up for monthly emails from the Emerald Necklace Conservancy that highlight upcoming events, oftentimes for volunteering and clean-up activities.
By being a member of these kinds of organizations, she also often gets admission to all of their sanctuaries and parks, which is an especially nice perk during the summer months. When I asked how she found out about so many of them, Nancy explained that oftentimes she discovered local spots while researching new national parks and nature reserves to visit, since many of the parks are owned by organizations like the ones listed above.
Suggestions for Students
Nancy’s specific suggestions for students are to get out into the Greater Boston area. When I asked her about the specific nonprofits and parks she’s a part of in some way, she made an aside that these are all accessible to students living at Emerson, since the T reaches many of the locations she mentioned. Even just spending time on the Esplanade is a way of getting into green spaces.
I know I personally spend hours each week taking walks around Boston as a form of exercise and a way to spend time off campus, and I specifically curate my route to circle the Charles River so that I can end each walk along the Esplanade.
In addition, though, she suggested bringing reusable straws and a mug everywhere. Just by avoiding the small plastic items that oftentimes can’t get recycled, it’s one major way to reduce waste, especially for people like us college students that eat at cafes or get to-go a lot. In fact, did you know that you can’t actually recycle plastic straws, even if they’re made from the same materials as a recyclable, single-use plastic cup? The linked site provides a search box, so definitely check it out if there’s something you often throw out but wonder if it can actually be recycled, or vice versa.
Whether one of the activities mentioned above, or others that fit better into your personal routine, there are many ways to bring sustainability into your life. Importantly, it’s not just about ‘sustainability’—it’s also about improving your own daily routine, whether by becoming more conscientious of your actions or spending time outdoors. Even getting involved in the #freefood channel in the Emerson Slack (which is open to students) is a way to get involved with a great personal benefit!