Sustainability comes in many different forms and can be incorporated into many avenues and careers. Image courtesy of One Tree Foundation.
GRACE NUÑEZ | STAFF REPORTER | gnunez@butler.edu
As a way to welcome Earth Month, Butler’s Office of Sustainability hosted a Sustainability Professionals panel discussion on April 11. The panel of individuals studying and working in sustainability provided a chance for students to learn more about sustainability as a whole — what it is, how it can be integrated into any career and how students can continue to make a difference promoting sustainability on campus and beyond.
Promoting sustainability in all avenues is something MaCie’ Moore, director of sustainability and education, is especially passionate about. As the main coordinator for the panel, Moore wanted to host an event for students to learn more about sustainability.
“When thinking about sustainability, there are three pillars: the economic, environmental and the social aspect,” Moore said. “Sustainability really exists when all three collide.”
Throughout the panel, each of the panelists working in professional fields emphasized how sustainability can be, and often is, incorporated into nearly any career.
One of the speakers at the panel was Butler alumna Dominique Etheridge, who currently serves as project manager for WSP, a professional services firm geared towards positively impacting the environment.
Etheridge spoke about her experience working with sustainability at a professional level at the panel. She said that she never would have thought that she would have a career in sustainability, as she studied international business and Spanish as an undergraduate, and she encouraged students to be open-minded.
“[Sustainability] was something that stumbled upon me,” Etheridge said. “[The path of] your job and career can be so windy, and sometimes you don’t see how [everything] connects, but then there will be this moment of revelation where everything is connecting. I didn’t intentionally come to school to be in sustainability, but now that is what I do, personally and professionally.”
Camille Zoe, a junior psychology and neuroscience double major, attended the panel. Zoe recently took an interest in sustainability and learning how it can be incorporated into a career. Hearing from a panel of sustainability professionals was both encouraging and informative.
“Just the fact that you can take any industry, profession or major and turn it into a sustainable avenue gave me a lot of hope,” Zoe said. “I originally thought ‘You might have to get a major or minor [in something sustainability related] or work for a certain amount of time to understand how you can apply sustainability to your life.’ I learned today that no matter what industry you’re in, sustainability can be applied to anything you do.”
While contributing positively to the environment and planet can seem like a daunting task, the panelists emphasized that it begins with small steps and actions. Any contribution made towards bettering the environment, whether big or small, is not a contribution made in vain.
“Try to do your part, even if it’s in a small way,” Etheridge said. “[The impact] will build up. Start small and [that can really] impact your direct community.”
Throughout the event, panelists made it clear that sustainability is crucial at Butler and beyond.
“Sustainability in and of itself is important because it impacts [all of us],” Moore said. “It impacts people across the world, not just here in Indianapolis.”
