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2011 Autumn | Business & Sustainability, Climate Change

Increasing Participation in both Green Venues and WasteWise programs

Student(s):

Michael Deer

Program or Department(s):

  • Program on the Environment
  • University of Washington

Site supervisor(s):

Domenic Calabro

Partner(s):

  • United States Environmental Protection Agency, Region 10

Faculty advisor(s):

Dr. Timothy Hargrave, School of Business, University of Washington

During my project, I assisted the Air, Waste and Toxics team of the Environmental Protection Agency on their Green Venues and Waste Wise programs. Both projects geared toward increasing recycling and composting rates, while reducing waste for medium to large businesses and organizations in and around Seattle. I was interested in what factors help determine an organizations participation, and how individual efforts could add up to big change toward further mitigation of climate change. Site tours shed light on these and other questions. The tools I learned from these programs enabled me to be apart of the Starbucks Sustainability Forum, which was a culmination of my time at the EPA.