July's Sustainability Champion: Natalie Phelps
Natalie is a senior from Burlington, Vermont majoring in Leadership Studies and double-minoring in German Studies and Education & Society. During her time at University of Richmond, she's learned about sustainability through her coursework, at an internship in Germany, and by working as an intern in the Office for Sustainability. Read our full interview with her below.
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What first got you interested in sustainability?
I grew up in Vermont and my upbringing played a really big role in how I understood sustainability. So many things were always second nature to me. I feel like I've always known how to recycle and I've always had some level of awareness that we impact our environment. When I was in kindergarten, I went to a private school on a farm. Later, my older brother began a career in paleoclimatology and I was able to learn about what he studied and expand my understanding of climate change. Along with knowing about environmental problems, I also feel like where I grew up gave me a constant awareness of social justice issues.
How has your understanding of sustainability changed since you got to University of Richmond?
During my time here at University of Richmond, I've gone from just knowing about environmental issues to developing a passion for sustainability. When I got to campus, I knew I wanted to keep up with environmentally responsible habits like recycling. But once I learned more and got some experience abroad, I realized that sustainability was something I wanted to be more directly involved in. I began to understand the impact that our lifestyle choices and everyday habits can have on the world around us. One really influential course that I took was a Justice and Civil Society class taught by Julian Hayter. Although we never directly covered climate change, he frequently mentioned the impacts climate change had in a social justice context, highlighting it as one of the greatest issues our society faces today. In general, the class gave me a greater awareness of my position in society and motivated me to make real changes. The experience that motivated me the most to get involved in sustainability, though, was a summer internship I had in Berlin.
Can you share about what you worked on in Berlin and what it taught you about sustainability?
I spent two months in Berlin during the summer of 2017 interning with a startup called SirPlus, a company focused on making food-saving mainstream. Basically, they wanted to reduce food waste by reintegrating surplus food into the economy. That could mean selling produce that was rejected because of strict cosmetic standards or finding ways to use food that had reached an expiration date but was still safe to eat. My main responsibilities were to research the impacts of food waste, potential business partners, and places to establish an outlet store. Working with SirPlus made me realize how much food I wasted and how food waste hurts our economy and our environment. When food is wasted, whether that's the customer throwing it away or stores rejecting items and discarding them, it's not just the food that gets wasted, it's also all of the time, money, energy, fossil fuels, water, and land that it took to grow and produce that food in the first place. If food waste was a country, it would actually be the third largest polluter in the world.
What area of sustainability would you like to learn more about or get more involved in?
I really want to get closer to living a zero-waste lifestyle. Once I graduate and get my own apartment, I want to continually remember to make conscious efforts to reduce waste. I want to make sure I stay motivated to do that.
What have been some of your favorite things to work on as an Office for Sustainability intern?
I love coming up with ideas that can have a real, positive impact, so it has been great to work on the Rethink Waste program and on events like the Rethink Waste Graduation. Any opportunity to be able to create change on campus is fun. I've also really enjoyed helping plan for URSA (University of Richmond Sustainability Advocates) this upcoming year. This group is a really good way to engage students around campus. My work with the Community Garden has been great as well. I get to be creative, make improvements, and see real payoff from my work. All the gardeners are also really appreciative.
What advice would you give to students who want to get involved with sustainability at UR?
There are a lot more ways to get involved than you might initially think. If you realize you're passionate about a particular topic, there's almost always a way to get involved. If you don't want to join a student group like URSA, I think it's important to learn about the impact your individual actions have, then make a conscious effort to form good habits like recycling correctly or choosing reusable items. I would also say that anybody can get involved in sustainability, it's not just for one type of person. There are lots of really outdoorsy people who are very passionate about the environment, and that's not really who I am. But even though I don't love being outdoors the way some of those people do, I care a lot about the health of our environment and the way I impact it, mostly because it has a direct effect on the health of society and the human race. You don't have to fit a certain image to care about sustainability.
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Thank you Natalie for all you do to support sustainability on campus! Do you know someone who should be showcased as a Sustainability Champion? Let us know at sustainability@richmond.edu.
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