KEEPING THE ENVIRONMENT GREEN

An “Ivory Silk” lilac tree was planted April 27, 2021, along the sidewalk connecting S.N. Pickard Commons and the lawn area in front of Harwood Memorial Union. Shown are John Tobin, grounds manager, left, and Josh Byrum, maintenance worker. The tree was donated by members of the Cincinnati Alumni Group in memory of David Lives ’62, who died Jan. 23, 2021. The alumni group includes Julie Scharon Chovan ’78 and Joe Chovan; Larry Hollmaier ’75 and Lori Hollmaier; Debbie Foster Lin ’75 and Peter Lin; Dan Newyear ’79; Ruth Kortemeier Roeber ’49; Mary Sweeney ’78; and Jenny Stambaugh Voorhees ’77.

Despite pandemic-related setbacks, College moves ahead with sustainability

Since its founding, Ripon College has been on a mission to conserve, to assure sustainability of its practices and to make its carbon footprint as small as possible. The College may not have purposely stated its intentions in its early years, but small budgets and, at times, challenges to its livelihood demanded that it pay attention to conservation and sustainability.

Today, Ripon College has files full of efforts to save energy, lower waste, recycle as much as possible and to help its students understand the need for sustainability and conservation on a global scale.

COVID-19, however, not only put a damper on conservation and sustainability, it temporarily halted the practical application of some of those concepts. Still, the commitment to conservation and sustainability continues and will resume fulltilt after pandemic restrictions are lifted.

Mark Kainz, associate dean for the Catalyst curriculum and assessment coordinator, says 100 percent of Ripon students are exposed to sustainability concepts consistently through the required Catalyst 300 Applied Innovations Seminar. Student collaboration groups consider five challenges based on U.N. Sustainability Goals, pick one of the challenges and then formulate a specific problem to address.

Among the challenges students undertook this spring were food insecurity in Wisconsin; reuses for abandoned shopping malls; how excess food from restaurants and catering services might be used by food pantries; and “food deserts” in Chicago, areas which have no grocery stores.

Kainz, the Patricia and Philip McCullough Class of 1969 Professor of Biology, says students also get a taste of sustainability in Catalyst 100 and Catalyst 220 courses. Ripon also offers a major in environmental studies and a minor in environmental biology.

The curricular emphasis on sustainability, Kainz says, “has now become normal. It’s not viewed as exotic or beyond anyone’s ability to understand or incorporate” into one’s thinking or classes.

Through the class ENV 210: Sustainability Lab and Sustainability Fellowships, students helped create a pollinator path. Ecologically friendly flowering plants attract bees and butterflies and promote the natural ecosystem around campus. Jaylend Brown ’24 of Madison, Wisconsin, takes advantage of a ToGo meal, offered to meet CDC guidelines during the pandemic.

“It’s good to see the students’ enthusiasm and excitement,” says Sarah FrohardtLane, director of the environmental studies program and associate professor of history. “Many Ripon students are eager to learn more about, and contribute to addressing, some of today’s and tomorrow’s most pressing problems. I think they have gravitated to courses in sustainability and in environmental studies to approach these issues from interdisciplinary perspectives.”

Because of pandemic challenges, the “reallife” implementation of sustainable practices in Ripon’s plant department and food service have been limited. John Tobin, supervisor of housekeeping and grounds, adds, “Shutting down (the campus) for COVID-19 helped us think outside the box and to try things that hadn’t been tried before.”

In some cases, COVID-19 “reversed efforts to be sustainable,” according to Keith Lauth, new director of the Ripon College Physical Plant. Sustainability “is the first consideration when an idea is brought forward.”

As a result of COVID-19, energy needs increased in places where energy previously had been minimal. “We added more air changers to maximize air flow,” Lauth says, adding that Center for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines were specific about cleaning and maintenance.

Cleaning efforts were impacted as spaces were added to accommodate in-person classes where students could be spaced out to meet distancing requirements. Lounges, a dance studio, The Terrace gathering spot and other spaces were converted into classrooms; ionization systems to filter out negative air were added; and S.N. Pickard Commons got new heating and cooling systems.

Among the sustainability challenges during COVID-19 was a dramatic increase in trash in the residence halls, a result of all food being offered as carry-out (ToGo) and many students eating in their residence hall rooms.

“Pre-pandemic, we were moving in a positive manner” with sustainability, Lauth says. For two years, the College had a sustainability director who “was ramping up efforts and bringing additional attention to it.” Funded by a grant from Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, significant successes were realized, not the least of which were general awareness and student and faculty interest. In addition, a retreat on sustainability in 2019 drew 16 faculty members; and students conducted sustainability research which was presented at national conferences and has been published in journals. Other

SAGE Dining Services changed all self-serve food stations to employee-served stations during the pandemic.

programming also brought attention to aspects of sustainability and financial assistance to support teaching and initiatives.

The College saved energy when it was almost entirely shut down from March to August 2020 and then again between Thanksgiving 2020 and the end of January 2021. Almost all students were off campus, and most staff worked remotely.

Despite the pandemic challenges, sustainability efforts continue:

• All lights are switched to energy-saving

LED whenever possible.

• Less lawn is mowed around the athletic fields and president’s home, returning those areas to prairie.

• Students remaining on campus during breaks are congregated into fewer buildings, allowing total shutdowns of some buildings.

• A “mulch-in-place” system is practiced with no leaf collection each fall.

• Ripon plants at least as many trees as it removes in a year.

• Snow removal has been altered and drop-spreaders are used for sidewalk salt distribution.

• Additional water stations for refilling bottles are being added.

• Because of budget restrictions, there are fewer staff and an administrative position was eliminated in a transition to a

College-operated plant department.

• Better pricing on some products has allowed the College to buy more locally.

• A Focus on Energy assessment has identified places on campus where efficiencies can be gained.

On the food service side of sustainability, during the heart of the pandemic in 2020, Ripon hired a new provider in SAGE Dining Services. SAGE, as a corporation, notes that “every aspect of our organization reflects our commitment to the environment.”

Trying to implement company-wide sustainability practices during a pandemic has been challenging but not impossible, according to JD Gildemeister, general manager at Ripon. “COVID-19 has had us rethink how we do things,” he says. Food service has used ToGo options at all retail outlets on campus, including Pickard Commons, to meet CDC guidelines. All serf-serve food stations have been changed to employee-served stations.

Traditionally, Gildemeister says, “SAGE partners with local suppliers to increase the use of fresh, seasonal products, support local farming initiates and reduce fossil fuel emissions.”

Among the projects specific to Ripon are conversations about using campus gardens as a source of herbs, vegetables and fruits. The firm also encourages trayless dining and recycling and is interested in re-starting composting at Ripon. It also uses reusable or biodegradable cutlery and service ware whenever possible.

SAGE has educational programs and seeks student input via a sustainability board. Their Meet the Farmers program brought an apple orchard producer to campus last fall. SAGE also works with its staff with internal educational programs “to ensure they know how to reduce waste, recycle where we can and cut back on ToGo supplies whenever we can” while following COVID-19 guidelines, he says.

Gildemeister sees SAGE working as a partner with Ripon, which he says “is very interested in maintaining and increasing its sustainability program.”

Fellowship boosts student experience

Shreeya Gautam ’21

Valerie Doornbos ’21 Shreeya Gautam ’21 of Kathmandu, Nepal, and Valerie Doornbos ’21 of Allendale, Michigan, took part in fellowships with the Summer Institute on Sustainability and Energy in 2020.

Gautam graduated with a degree in environmental studies and a minor in computer science. She took part in discussions related to sustainability and energy in a virtual conference with energy leaders like Steven Chu, former energy secretary, and Dr. Michael K. Dorsey, who helped give rise to the Sunrise Movement. She collaborated with the American Energy Society to collect data to build energy ecosystems based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

“This opportunity provided me a great insight on the future of renewable energy as well as my own possible career interest in the energy sector,” Gautam says. “Right after this fellowship, I got interested in energy policies and volunteered as a researcher writing memos for the Wisconsin Climate Task Force committee, specifically under the Energy, Housing and Infrastructure subcommittee.”

Doornbos graduated with degrees in environmental studies and history with a minor in Spanish. “I collaborated with other fellows to investigate various energy sectors within the Des Moines, Iowa, ecosystem,” she says. “I focused on discussing and developing a variety of solutions for pressing energy and environmental topics, including the COVID-19 pandemic, energy policy, social justice, the new energy economy and decarbonization.”

She will attend graduate school in geography and environmental sustainability at the University of Oklahoma-Norman.

Both students were selected to co-write articles for the American Energy Society’s official e-magazine, Energy Today. They also helped write review articles about different presentations during their conference, plus Doornbos is cowriting an article about various energy ecosystems investigated by the fellows.

ZOE HAZEL ’22

FRIENDSHIP, WISCONSIN

Joe Fontaine ’06 helps energy industry help the environment

“The energy industry has a significant impact on our environment as well as so many other aspects of life and work,” says Joe Fontaine ’06 of Monona, Wisconsin. “That gives those of us in the industry great responsibility for that stewardship, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to take on that responsibility and work with others to make a better world.”

Fontaine is an energy policy advisor at the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin, the state agency responsible for regulating electric, gas, and water utilities.

“I was a politics and government major at Ripon. I knew that I wanted a career that would fit with those interests and provide opportunities to make a real impact on the world,” he says. “I thought public policy was a good fit, a way to engage directly with government decisions and apply a range of practical skills.”

He earned a master’s degree in public affairs from the University of WisconsinMadison La Follette School of Public Affairs and has since worked in Wisconsin state government. He was a program evaluator for the Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau and evaluation manager for Focus on Energy, the state’s energy efficiency and renewable energy program.

The move to his current position in June 2019 “was a natural transition,” he says. “My policy advisor role involves the same sorts of analysis, oversight and collaboration I was doing for Focus on Energy, across a wider range of issues.”

“The transition toward renewable energy is the biggest change to the energy industry in decades, which means it’s a great chance to make an impact and an important time to do our work well,” he says. “The transition provides big opportunities to save money and help the environment, and we want to find ways to capture those opportunities. But it’s also important to manage these big changes in a way that works for everyone, that keeps costs as low as possible for customers, and makes sure that utilities can still manage their system in a way that keeps the lights on.”

He says his Ripon education was great preparation for his work in public policy. “A liberal arts education helps you learn how to understand different perspectives, talk to different people, and use a number of different tools to analyze and understand the world,” he says, “and all of those skills are essential to the work I’m doing every day.”

Kaitlyn Welzen ’15 promotes sustainability in her ‘corner of the world’

Kaitlyn Welzen ’15 of Kenmore, Washington, never intended to work in a zoo, but her love of the environment and sustainability led her there. She is now the sustainability and purchasing manager at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, Washington. “One part of my job is managing all of the zoo’s sustainability efforts,” she says. “The other major component is overseeing our commissary department, which is responsible for preparing the animal diets. I also lead our ‘Green Team.’”

After majoring in environmental studies at Ripon, she pursued a master’s degree in sustainable management from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. At the same time, she began working at Woodland Park Zoo as the recycling and compost coordinator.

“I completed my degree in May 2020 with the goal of becoming the sustainability director for an organization. In November, I was lucky enough to get that opportunity at Woodland Park Zoo,” she says.

“I want to have a positive impact on my small corner of the world and empower others to do the same. I want to make my workplace as ‘green’ as possible. I also want to be able to share those sustainability success stories and inspire people to take their own ‘green’ actions.

“There are so many reasons to want to protect the environment, but I think it all comes back to nature being valuable but fragile. Human action is what destroys nature and it’s our responsibility to be active stewards of the planet.”

Sarah Brewster Reilly ’05 feels a relationship with nature

Sarah Brewster Reilly ’05 of Three Lakes, Wisconsin, focuses her career on environmental stewardship. “With modern human infrastructure, it is easy to become separated from nature, when in fact we are as much a part of the natural balance as any other living or nonliving entity,” she says.

Her educational and work positions include research, forest silvicultural management, invasive species control, native seed collecting for long-term storage and environmental education.

“I have most enjoyed working in the forest learning and collecting data about plants,” she says. “I like learning about the interconnectedness of the many parts of an ecosystem and how the health of the system is dependent on the balance of intricate details.”

In June, she started as a field technician for the National Science Foundation’s National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON). NEON is the largest ecological observatory network in the country and collects data from aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems at 20 different locations across North America. She will work at a field site near Land O’ Lakes, Wisconsin.

“My work with NEON will allow me to work with plants growing in their natural habitats,” she says. “By making all data collected freely available to researchers and students, it will save them the time and expense of doing their own field observations and therefore promote a more collaborative scientific community.”

At Ripon, Reilly majored in environmental studies with an environmental biology minor. “I hope that by working for the NEON program, I will be taking part in research being done by the greater scientific community that can be applied to largescale ecological problems, such as climate change, that are vital to the future health of the earth,” she says.

“We can’t throw away the earth and get a new one when we have used it all up. She is our one and only, and we can’t leave the repairs to a future generation that may know and understand even less about her than we do now.”

Paul Meuer ’13 reduces development’s impact on environment

“The health of our local communities is inherently linked to the health of the natural environment,” says Paul Meuer ’13 of Fitchburg, Wisconsin. “To ensure the sustainability of these environments, I think critically about my daily actions and what larger systemic issues I may be reinforcing.”

Meuer is a senior environmental scientist working in the water and environment sector for WSP, a leading international engineering and consulting firm. “I am responsible for advancing our wetland and ecological consulting services throughout the Midwest region.” These include wetland delineations, permitting, wetland mitigation banking and design, ecological restoration, threatened and endangered species surveys, contaminated land remediation, and other services, he says. “I also operate on an emergency response group that is responsible for responding to and remediating environmental disasters.”

Numerous people and experiences throughout his life have provided him with opportunities to pursue a career in environmental sciences, Meuer says. At Ripon, he majored in environmental studies with a minor in communication. “Significant influences during my time at Ripon College came from Dr. (George) ‘Skip’ Wittler and Dr. Bob Wallace (both professors emeritus of biology), whose mentorship, guidance and enthusiasm for teaching were instrumental in supporting my current success. I also want to give a shoutout to Mark DeDina ’07, who provided me with my first real professional opportunity in the environmental consulting field.”

He hopes that his work will have an impact. “For every project that I am involved with, I ask myself: ‘How can I reduce or eliminate impacts to the environment? How can I improve current conditions of areas that may be impacted?,’” Meuer says. “Development isn’t inherently bad, but poor planning, bad design and improper execution can make it so. If I can leave an area in better condition than I found it, I consider that an accomplishment.”

Danielle Streber Varnell ’93 helps with advancement of new energy sources

Danielle Streber Varnell ’93 of Davidsonville, Maryland, is a renewable energy lawyer and a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Bracewell LLP, an energy-focused global law firm based in Houston, Texas. Her practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, and project development in the energy sector, with a focus on renewable energy and innovative clean technologies. “It is clear that we are in the midst of an energy transition, away from traditional fossil fuels and toward cleaner and more efficient power sources,” Varnell says. “It’s exciting to be on the forefront of these trends as technological advances and corporate stewardship focused on ESG (environmental, social and governance) issues transform our energy mix.”

She says much of her career success is related to her strong analytical and writing skills which were honed at Ripon College, where she majored in English and Spanish. “For someone who loves to read and write, and reread and rewrite, being a transactional lawyer is a great fit,” she says.

She received a Juris Doctor from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“It is critical to grid reliability that we have a mix of power sources,” she says. “Fortunately, technology is rapidly advancing so there are continually new sources of innovative clean power as, for example, corporations and utilities develop and build offshore wind plants and U.S. energy policy focuses on advancing and investing in carbon capture, utilization and storage technology.”

Pooja Chawda ’06 works toward ‘environmental justice’ through global interconnectedness

Growing up in east Africa and India and spending several years in Europe and North America, Pooja Chawda ’06 was always drawn by the interconnectedness of people, things and experiences. Early in her life, she realized that this systemic interdependence is an important lens through which the world should be viewed.

After majoring in communication and German at Ripon College, she earned a master’s degree in peace and conflict resolution in Austria and a master’s in sustainability management at Columbia University. In between her master’s degrees, she spent almost 10 years working in global offices and the United Nations headquarters in New York to advance sustainable development in sub-Saharan Africa.

She transitioned to a new career focus because of her “belief in helping disadvantaged communities in Africa to obtain basic sustenance and a means to live a dignified life,” she says. “I worked with war-torn communities to support sustainable development by helping former warring parties to become law-abiding citizens, and to move the needle on the justice aspect.

“Environmental justice became a central piece to me,” Chawda says. “I realized that even in my home state of New York, there are several disadvantaged communities that are bearing the brunt of climate justice. I started to connect the dots, that we collectively as a society have not done enough to ensure that disadvantaged communities are facing what they are today, that we have not been as thoughtful about the greenhouse gases we emit, and not as courageous as we should have been in investing in innovation needed for cleaner air quality for all.”

Chawda now is a project manager at the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. She conducts analyses of regulatory landscapes to support development of policies and strategies mandated by New York State’s Climate Law and Community Protection Act.

The act is a commitment to 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040, 85% reduction in greenhouse gases, and carbon neutrality across all sectors of the economy by 2050. It sets forth groundbreaking targets to decarbonize the state’s electricity and, eventually, the entire energy system.

“What drew me to this law is not just the speed and scale on the emissions side, but also the ambition on environmental justice and climate justice,” Chawda says. “I see my role as driving on-the-ground engagement for emerging efficiency, electrification and value of carbon policies.”

She says her work helps ensure that low- and moderate-income disadvantaged communities in New York have access to clean and affordable energy. “This job allows me to be a steward of the environment and sustainability,” Chawda says. “We cannot just be ‘neutral’ here. We have to work toward environmental justice and we have to go that extra mile to ensure equity in the communities we inhabit.”

Sarah Lehmann ’92 preserves water resources for the future

Serendipity and a solid grounding in the liberal arts have led Sarah Lehmann ’92 to a career protecting the nation’s waterways.

Lehmann works for the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C., and is team leader for the National Aquatic Resource Surveys, designed to assess the condition of our nation’s lakes, rivers and streams, coastal waters and wetlands. She helps refine and implement work at more than 1,000 sites each summer, contributes to data analysis and supports water quality management decisions. At Ripon, she majored in politics and government as well as German, “learning not only about these fields, but providing me with a solid foundation that supported me in taking on a role that might not, at first glance, seem to be a perfect fit,” she says. “These skills included writing, critical thinking, the ability to organize and manage my time, and, most importantly, confidence in my ability to learn.”

She earned a master’s degree in political science from American University in Washington, D.C. A class on International Environmental Agreements sparked an interest in working in the environmental field. She was hired by the EPA in the water monitoring program. “I didn’t know it then, but EPA’s Office of Research and Development had been conducting work to apply the approaches behind statistical surveys, such as those used in social science research and medical studies, to the field of environmental monitoring. Given my background in political science and using statistical surveys in my course work, I had just jumped into something that would become a major component of my career.”

She says it is important for the public to have information about water quality issues and progress; and that policy makers have data they can use to identify and tackle widespread environmental issues. She also says it’s essential that scientists and other experts have long-term datasets they can use as they research approaches for protecting and restoring water resources; and that students, researchers and the public be inspired to investigate environmental questions from climate change to environmental justice, and from restoring water quality to protecting our remaining high-quality resources.

“For me, environmental stewardship is important because our natural resources are the source of our health and well-being,” Lehmann says. “My grandfather always taught us to leave places we went as clean (or cleaner) than we found them – and I firmly believe in the ethic of passing on to the next generation an environment that is better than the way we received it.”

Sarah Anderson ’10: Protecting nature for the future of our planet

“The combination of loving nature, interdisciplinary thinking and learning how to use policy to solve real-world problems” led to a job as an ecologist for Sarah Anderson ’10 of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

She works in the Forest Management, Range Management, and Vegetation Ecology area in the U.S. Forest Service’s Washington, D.C., office. Her staff area is part of the National Forest System, the branch of the Forest Service responsible for managing public lands under the agency’s jurisdiction, including all 154 of the National Forests and Grasslands.

She provides ecological knowledge and expertise, contributes to management guidelines and answers questions from people in the field, agency leadership, partner organizations and Congress. She says her focus is on two major projects: the Terrestrial Condition Assessment which helps assess the health of ecosystems; and the National Reforestation Program, which addresses a backlog of areas in need of reforestation and to leverage Forest Service lands to mitigate climate change.

“Growing up in the north woods of Wisconsin, I have always been a naturalist at heart,” Anderson says. “We lived along the Apple River surrounded by water and trees. The love of nature led me to major in biology at Ripon and continue my studies by earning my Ph.D. in ecology at Washington State University.”

She received Ripon College’s Outstanding Young Alumni Award in 2020.

She says she wants her work “to make the planet a safer, healthier place for all of us from fellow people to birds to the springtails in the soil. There is a lot to conserve and preserve, and I want my work to contribute to that for the future.

“Life has been on this planet for billions of years. We are inheriting a rich tapestry of diversity and beauty that support life-giving processes. So far, we have done a good job at impairing the very functions (filtering water, purifying air, producing oxygen) that sustain our existence. Individually, life is precarious and precious. Collectively, life endures and will continue on this planet long after we are gone. If we desire to continue to be part of this incredible chance of fate … then we need to recognize the incredible cosmic gift of our existence and subsequently have our actions reflect that acknowledgment.”