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2012 Autumn | Business & Sustainability, Education & Outreach

How I Brought 500 Stickers and Toxic Mugs to the EPA

Student(s):

Jessie Huang

Program or Department(s):

  • Program on the Environment
  • University of Washington

Site supervisor(s):

Russell Harmon

Partner(s):

  • United States Environmental Protection Agency, Region 10

Faculty advisor(s):

Francesca Lo, UW Pipeline Project, University of Washington

During my time at the EPA, I worked on the Environmental Management System (EMS) to help correct the non-conforming elements identified in the conformance review summary. In addition, I spent most of my time initiating the Coffee Cup Campaign, which aimed to promote the use and visibility of reusable mugs among EPA employees through various outreach strategies. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the campaign, a survey was conducted in the end to gain a deeper under- standing on drivers for attitudinal and also behavioral change. The survey results reveal that EPA staff are gener- ally more environmentally friendly than non-EPA staff and that financial incentive seems to be the top driver for the use of a reusable mug. Contradictory, no improvement has been show between the 1st and 2nd Waste Audit Report, which both indicate that 58% of the waste materials could have been recycled or composted.