For a second year, Butler’s Office of Sustainability is hosting its ‘Sustainability at the Roots’ speaker series. The event aims to teach students how they can lead and advocate for a sustainable lifestyle.
The theme of this year’s series is how the environment can impact people through their surroundings, such as the air, water and soil. Spread across four events throughout October and into early November, each session will tackle a different environmental aspect.
The speakers for these sessions hail from multiple local environmental agencies, including the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM), Indianapolis Office of Sustainability, The White River Alliance, Indiana Brownfields Program and the Marion County Public Health Department.
On Oct. 9, the first lecture of the four-part series took place — welcoming IDEM’s senior environmental manager Emma Foust and environmental manager Anna Meyers, as well as Lindsay Trameri, a project manager at the Indianapolis Office of Sustainability, to speak on air pollution in Indiana.
Throughout their presentations, they explained to students how air pollution is primarily caused, the science behind it, how it is measured and what is being done to combat it, both in Indianapolis and statewide. Students also learned about ways they can get involved and stay informed through resources such as Knozone and SmogWatch.
Meyers hopes the event showed students that there are dedicated people working diligently every day to keep Indiana’s air clean.
“I [hope] people [learned] more about the different roles and jobs that are out there pertaining to air quality,” Meyers said. “There are people [working behind the scenes] who care and are looking out for the environment.”
Another main point of the series is examining the crossroads between sustainability, job choice and advocacy. Trameri is optimistic that these presentations showed the connections between the three subjects.
“It seemed like everyone who came had a different major, which is great,” Trameri said. “I hope they left understanding a bit more about the intersection of air quality and their chosen course of study and goal career path, and how we’re really talking about public health when we’re talking about air quality and [how that] overlaps with everything any of us does in our careers and in our lives.”
MaCie’ Weathers, the associate director of sustainability education and outreach, says it can be scary to hear how big a role the environment plays in human health; however, these lectures are designed to get students on that topic. Their goal is not to fearmonger, but to start some uneasy conversations that will help students navigate the world of sustainability.
“[There are] a lot of things we don’t have control over [regarding the environment],” Weathers said. “It’s a part of us to be cognizant, learn more [and] have more education around these areas, because whether we want to accept it or not, things outside of our control are impacting us, and it’s important to know what you can do as an individual, as a citizen [and] as an active member in the community. You can decide to be a person every day who makes real choices that impact not only you but the communities around you.”
While the air portion of the series is done, three more events remain — taking place on Oct. 23, Oct. 30 and Nov. 6 in room 136 of Levinson Family Hall. More about the events can be found on the Butler Office of Sustainability Instagram page.