Now, a year into her continuing sustainability role, Carolyn can share some hard learned lessons about culture change, applicability, and going green.  As her collaborator on the original sustainability plan, I wanted to ask her a few questions about her adventures in sustainability at the K-12 school level.

Carolyn Anthon, Johns Hopkins graduate student.

Q: What have been your biggest challenges?

I think the most challenging aspect of our sustainability adventure at my school is changing behavior. Status quo is easy to maintain, and overcoming that – even with folks who are on board with the idea of sustainability – has proven quite difficult. Also, I found it challenging to get students involved. The change has to come from within in order to create buy-in and sense of ownership within the community. I could list more roadblocks and hurdles, but these are the two biggest things that come to mind.

Q: What were your easy wins?

The easiest win was creating a sustainability committee almost immediately after delivery of the sustainability plan. Following that, we’ve started a GOOS (good on one side) paper collection in several areas of the building to capture and reuse paper one more time before it hits the recycling bin. A group of students is currently campaigning to have a meatless lunch day once per week all year long in support of climate change and sustainability. Plus the school had already reached some of the low-hanging fruit, so much of what lies ahead is more challenging.

Q: How did staff, teachers, and students respond to “sustainability”?

This question makes me chuckle. In my naiveté, I didn’t realize that there would be so many different responses! Based on the survey we conducted before the sustainability plan, most folks really saw sustainability the same as recycling. Others saw it as being “green” or conserving resources. Once we began talking about it some more in the community, others began to see it as a long-term, never-ending effort to manage our resources in an efficient, financially responsible, and environmentally friendly way. The general response has been very positive – verbally – but the actions have yet to catch up with that spoken support. I’ve found that unless it’s easy or convenient to be sustainable, many just do whatever comes naturally to them. I fear I’ll always be pulling out compostables from the trash or telling people to be careful that they only have one plate for their lunch.

Q: Composting is a big action item for schools these days, what did your composting program look like?

Our composting program began spring 2012 with five pick-ups a week from Envirelation. I think we are very fortunate to be working with a company that takes ALL food scraps so no sorting or scraping is necessary. Envirelation also accepts waxy paper, such as dixie cups, paper napkins, and our compostable dinnerware and utensils. Waste stations adorn each lunch room with additional compost scrap pails in faculty lounges and the on-site kitchen. Our staff has been mindful of purchasing compostable-only materials for serving, so this year we’ve also replaced all fancy plastic cups used for campus events with a compostable option. Thus far we’ve decreased our regular trash pick-ups from five times to twice per week. I hope to see continued decrease as waste sorting improves.

Q: Hindsight is 20/20 they say. What do you wish you knew a year ago that could have helped you?

I wish I had a better idea of the structure for decision-making within my school. I also wish that I was more assertive and confident when delivering information. Without an official title, I’m just a volunteer advocate for a volunteer committee. Getting things done seems to get hampered by that trivial missing epithet. Finally, I really wish I knew how painfully slow the process of change would be. I think I would have been better prepared for the frustrations associated and appreciated the easy-wins much earlier.

Q: Do you have any advice for someone starting a sustainability program in their school?

I think the first thing you need to do after getting permission to start one is to establish buy-in. If you don’t already have a group of folks pumped-up about sustainability who are willing to share in the advocacy with you – and even if you do – go out there and get buy-in from the students, faculty, and staff. Connect their actions to reasoning for change. Show them the powerful photographs of Chris Jordan’s Midway series. Talk about the importance of the compost cycle to our agricultural process. Ask your community to think about one action that they could do to make a difference and have them each make a pledge. And realize that you’re not alone in the good fight, but that you will need a lot of patience and fortitude to persevere.

Carolyn Anthon, graduated from the MS in Environmental Science and Policy Program in 2012.

Jessica Riehl, will graduate in 2013 with an MS in Environmental Science and Policy.

The ooid sand flats at Joulters Cays seem to stretch on forever. (Photo by Dan Kulpinski)

But first, why it’s as good as it sounds: The course consists of a week of online units and a week in The Bahamas. From the field station on Andros Island, we took a small boat to many small islands or cays (pronounced “keys”); saw one of two places in the world where ooid sand forms; explored Captain Morgan’s Cave (no rum present); snorkeled and saw lots of coral reefs and fish, including lionfish (an invasive species); saw mangroves and swam in blue holes (Andros has the most blue holes in the world — 178 on land and more than 50 in the ocean). Oh, and we had great weather — sunny, with temperatures in the high 70s.

We saw evidence of higher sea levels in past millennia, walked over lithified sand dunes, and saw carbonate crusts being formed on rocks in the intertidal zone. Schubel calls the area “the carbonate factory,” and after a week I did get a sense of how the geology there works and how it created what we see today.

Andros Island (just left of center) is the largest in The Bahamas. (Image from travel.state.gov)

It was a treat to snorkel and be able to see coral reefs, not only because they are beautiful and colorful, but also because they’re fragile environmental indicators, vulnerable to the changing climate, ocean acidification, pollution and other — mostly human-caused — impacts. Seeing them made the reefs’ predicament more real for me.

The class was a blast — and a great learning experience. So how did this amazing field course come about? Schubel, who has taught the Bahamas course for six years and hopes to offer it again in 2014, explained.

Q: How did you get the idea for the Bahamas class? Had you been down there before?

A: “Susie Creamer, who is a graduate of the program and has been the TA for the course since it began, came to me and said that she thought the program needed an international component. She challenged me to come up with a class. I had taught an undergraduate course in the Bahamas a number of times in the past. I knew the island well and it made it easy to put together a course for JHU students.”

Q: What’s your favorite part of teaching the class?

A: “I love being out in the field with students. We can read about and discuss topics, but there is nothing like seeing things first-hand. That is when the magic happens. That’s when things may suddenly all make sense. Andros Island is a large island by Bahamian standards. There are so many different carbonate sedimentary environments (coral reefs, sandy tidal flats, muddy tidal flats, ooid sand shoals, etc) and karst features represented. It’s the best place I know to get a comprehensive overview of all of these settings.”

Q: What would you tell students who are hesitant to sign up because they’ve never been snorkeling before?

A: “Not to worry. If you can swim I can teach you to snorkel. Snorkeling is really just swimming for lazy people. It doesn’t require a  whole lot of physical exertion. If you have a wetsuit on you’ll be nice and buoyant and then it’s a matter of kicking a bit. Your arms are largely just along for the ride.”

Dan Kulpinski still considers himself a beginning snorkeler. He will graduate from the M.S. Environmental Sciences & Policy program in May.