the ross specializes in watershed ecosystem science, where they use large datasets to produce actionable insights that their partners can implement. one of the ross’s most important partnerships is with the biogeochemistry lab at rocky mountain research station (rmrs), which helps the ross collect and analyze stream chemistry for some of their key study watersheds.

another exciting aspect of the ross’s work is the harmonization of water quality data (from partners like rmrs) with satellite imagery to help estimate water quality from satellites, which helps fill in data gaps. critical to their open science mission, they keep all code open and accessible, providing publically available reproducible workflows for others to use their tools.

along with being a leading voice in watershed ecosystem management, the ross wants to make science welcoming to everyone, with the goal that their work “fosters a better, just, equitable, diverse, and inclusive scientific community.”

the importance of waste management has been known since early humans realized living next to excrement was a recipe for disease. today’s waste systems are built on roughly the same principle as those of ancient civilizations: throw stuff out farther away.

in america’s waste systems it matters surprisingly little what the trash itself is; bubble wrap and apple cores are treated as one and the same. workers in offices, parents in homes, and students in dormitories all apply the “throw stuff out farther away” principle – and it’s contributing to climate change.

carbon emissions contributing to earth’s greenhouse come from numerous sources, among which landfills are no minor player. landfills release 17% of the u.s.’s methane, a greenhouse gas with 28-36x the global warming potential of carbon dioxide, according to the environmental protection agency [1]. though methane stays in the atmosphere for a shorter timespan than carbon dioxide, it absorbs more energy (holds more heat) in those years.

our discarded leftovers generate those earth-warming gases.

“rotting food in landfills releases methane,” explains university of chicago campus composting co-leader chloe brettmann. the reason has to do with oxygen: the soil microorganisms that break down food need oxygen to survive, and landfills are packed too tightly for sufficient air flow. without microorganisms, food decays much slower – releasing methane and carbon dioxide.

the solution? give waste room to breathe.

composting does just that. biodegradable waste, like food, paper products, and even dog hair can all be combined and routinely turned through to oxygenate. in as soon as a few weeks the waste bears distant resemblance to its original form. in place of the banana peels and paper napkins is fertile, nutrient-rich soil.

conceptually, composting is simple. in practice, it’s an extra step that few americans take.

the food and agriculture organization estimates that 30% of americans’ food gets thrown out, 96% of which ends up in landfills – amounting to 3.3 billion tons of greenhouse gases released to the atmosphere each year [2][3][4]. “when you compost, you dramatically reduce the greenhouse gas emissions caused by food breaking down,” says brettman. 

for many americans, the time and resources needed to maintain a backyard compost bin makes it an unrealistic ask. backyard composting is the smallest scale of operation, and the one that takes the most work. this is where local and regional composting companies come in: many offer a pick-up or drop-off service where individuals can fill up a few-gallon bin that gets exchanged regularly. but this still requires effort and money – work that you don’t do now for your trash and recycling.

to make a change of practice desirable, an environmental benefit is, unfortunately, rarely enough. ease is crucial – and chicago college campuses provide a case study into how the operation might work.

the university of chicago is set to implement a residential composting pilot program in an 800-student dormitory in march 2022. campus composting, a group within the university of chicago’s largest environmental club, initiated the pilot with $3,900 from the green fund, a campus program that awards $50,000 in annual grants for student-led sustainability research and projects [5].

for the first time in uchicago’s history, students will be able to bring their buckets, full of food, paper products, and other biodegradable waste, to a nearby drop-off location for chicago-based micro-compost hauler urban canopy to pick it up. in covid-times, when more students are eating meals in their dormitory rooms, composting provides a sustainable waste stream, helping to reduce individual and university carbon footprints.

since composting is not a widespread service, educational measures are being put in place regarding composting etiquette – namely, what can and can’t be composted. andre dang, campus composting’s other co-leader, notes “given that it’s an opt-in program, we are able to make sure everyone is following the rules of composting because we have educational seminars and materials.”

education about composting can help in more ways than just proper waste sorting; a 2016 study by waliczek and colleagues found that composting education bears a significant correlation with enhancing environmental attitudes more generally [6].

other chicago schools – including loyola university chicago, northwestern, and depaul – have been part of the composting scene for years. loyola began their commercial composting initiative in 2012 and has since turned composting into one of its standard waste streams (along with the usual landfill, recycling, and e-waste).

loyola’s director of sustainability aaron durnbaugh notes, “members of the community take ownership, and even pride, in diverting this material from the landfill.” to him, the top benefits of composting include “reducing materials going to the landfill, increasing recycling of organic waste into needed fertilizer and soil nutrients, and supporting a regional circular economy of nutrients and materials management.”

when waste management infrastructure is placed on an organization (in this case, a university), it becomes easier for individuals to change their behaviors. the goal with composting is, simply, to add another type of bin to the trash rooms at the end of dormitory hallways.

the environmental need for more sustainable waste management is vital. says brettman, “an enormous portion of the waste that you create individually is food waste…both on and off-campus composting programs could divert so much total waste output.”

as representatives of george washington university students and faculty, we’re looking forward to attending cop26 to connect our university to this much broader community of people taking action to address climate change. we want to make new connections and meet people who will support our efforts with their own contributions. we also hope to translate the energy of the meeting in scotland back to our campus in the foggy bottom neighborhood of washington, d.c. 

given the importance of addressing climate change in a way that does not reproduce existing inequalities, one of our top goals is to investigate how cop26 decision makers pursue issues of equity. who will make the decisions about how the world will address climate change going forward? to what extent are they considering how these decisions will affect the poorest countries that may not even be able to send representatives to this meeting? 

we hope that the countries attending will make firm and verifiable commitments to reducing carbon emissions. but, we will look for the ways that the rich countries who created much of the problem will help countries with fewer resources since they bear much of the burden created by climate change. this list should include additional funding, transfers of technology and know-how, and collaborative educational exchanges to co-create collective solutions that address the needs of the poorest. specifically, with the establishment of the green climate fund in the paris agreement, richer countries pledged to contribute $100 billion to poorer countries to help cut emissions. we have not met this goal. we would like to see accountability and enforcement of funding allocations addressed during cop 26.        

as researchers, we are focused on questions of how to improve connections between the university and communities where real people live. we are working to ensure that gw’s knowledge production and teaching efforts address the most pressing problems of citizens in the d.c. metro area. connecting with a broader international community will hopefully provide new ideas that we can implement in our own neighborhood. the conference will be a success if it helps to identify best practices around the world and plant those ideas in fresh soil. 

in attending cop26 we hope to get further insight into the inner workings of an international climate conference. tying this effort to our question of equity allows us to examine the benefits and costs of these conferences, especially during the covid-19 pandemic. some questions that we will look to investigate include what underlying factors are at play when the world meets to discuss climate change? how are decisions actually made and how does this process affect climate justice efforts? what are the consequences of having these meetings in-person versus virtually? 

another area of interest is how to measure the success of an international climate conference, like cop 26. developing these criteria might help us compare this year’s conference to previous ones and evaluate the impact that an international climate conference has on climate policies, the effectiveness of international climate agreements, and the issue of accountability.  

people who have attended previous international climate meetings have told us that this meeting will be much bigger than any conference we have attended in the past. while we are there, we hope to develop ties with the u.n. secretariat that is coordinating international efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. there are gw alumni working in this organization and we hope to activate their ties to the university to integrate gw’s efforts more deeply into the broader international coalition of groups working to make our day-to-day life more sustainable. 

cop26 requires the global community to take stock of what is at stake and identify how political, scientific, social, and economic factors can lead to a better outlook for our planet in the shortest amount of time. from an academic standpoint, we hope that the opportunity for interaction and idea sharing will foster new ways to approach sustainability at a global, national, and local level. 

we hope to come away from cop26 with a clearer understanding of how climate justice can be adapted to a more tangible and local sphere. hopefully, cop26 will garner a broader recognition of the effects of climate inaction on everyday life. acknowledgment of local climate activists and opportunities could provide more direct action. from a student’s perspective, a key takeaway will be finding a way to replicate these climate conferences on a smaller scale to 2022年卡塔尔世界杯官网 , even amid unknowns.  

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about the authors: 

dr. robert orttung is research director for sustainable gw at the george washington university and research professor of international affairs at gw’s elliott school of international affairs. orttung is the lead pi for a new national science foundation project focused on the arctic entitled measuring urban sustainability in transition. he is the editor of the urban sustainability in the arctic: measuring progress in circumpolar cities (ny: berghahn, 2020). in 2019 he edited capital cities and urban sustainability (london, routledge). orttung received a b.a. in russian studies from stanford university and both a m.a. and ph.d. in political science from the university of california, los angeles. 

jane barkholz is a senior at the george washington university studying environmental studies and public health. she is currently working as a research assistant for sustainable gw and has previous experience as a health policy intern. barkholz’s main research interests are in sustainability, international climate policy, and the intersections between people, planet, and public health. 

dr. orttung and barkholz are both attending cop26.

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editor’s note: please check back every day, leading up to the beginning of cop26 on oct. 31, for new pieces from climate leaders in the planet forward network.

university spokesperson crystal nosal said the task force, which convened in september, received administrative support and is now working on a plan to implement the proposals. nosal said executive vice president and chief financial officer mark diaz organized the group, which consists of officials from six departments, including offices within the division of safety and facilities and the office of procurement.

the student association senate passed a resolution in late october calling on officials to discontinue using single-use plastic bottles on campus. nosal said the task force’s goals align with the sa’s resolution.

scott burnotes, the vice president of safety and facilities, said officials have approved the plan, and the division of safety and facilities will now work on finding ways to implement the recommendations. he said officials will start to implement the plan in the “next several months” and are excited about the “shared commitment” to a zero-waste environment.

“gw’s commitment to phasing out single-use plastics will be a marathon, not a sprint, especially given the hurdles higher ed is already dealing with this year,” he said in an email.

kat ruane – the co-president of take back the tap, a student organization that works to reduce gw’s use of single-use plastics – said the task force meets at least once every two weeks. she said the task force’s members hope to organize educational initiatives with student organizations to discuss the harmful environmental effects of single-use plastics.

“we’re thinking from the human rights perspective that all students deserve a right to accessible clean water, not one that’s put behind a paywall of a plastic water bottle,” ruane said.

ruane said the draft plan includes proposals to eliminate all plastic bottles from vending machines, install reusable water fillers in residence halls and develop strategies to discourage community members from using non-reusable plastics.

she said officials have not yet offered the task force clear details on the next steps for the plan submitted to diaz, the chief financial officer, at the end of october.

“it is a bit frustrating because there is to some degree lack of transparency and lack of communication about what they’re actually going to do next from here because they’ve submitted their draft plan to mark diaz,” she said.

experts in sustainability said implementing programs that discourage people from using plastics has been the most effective method in reducing non-reusable plastics.

lyda harris, a university of washington ph.d. candidate studying microplastic contamination, said she has seen “limited success” in educational initiatives encouraging people to reduce their plastic use because people typically weigh convenience over sustainability when making purchases. she said implementing measures that make reducing plastic use easier, like installing water bottle filler stations, are more effective methods.

“if you give someone all the knowledge that they need, i personally think that it comes down to which one’s easier and which one do i have time for,” she said.

harris said the best way to reduce plastic consumption is to implement a system, like a small charge on plastic bags, that makes plastic products inconvenient to obtain. d.c. officials implemented a mandatory plastic bag tax in 2010.

“in europe, there is a really cool study that has been done about plastic bag taxes and bans,” she said. “and it basically said once you assign a 5-cent tax on a plastic bag, people stop using them up to like 96 percent. and so it just makes it harder to pollute the environment.”

evan ward, a professor of marine sciences at the university of connecticut, said non-reusable plastics can be incinerated, which increases the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, or buried, which can leak chemicals into groundwater over time.

“burying plastics is not that problematic, but over time, large amounts of plastic can leach a variety of chemicals, which can enter groundwater and contaminate drinking water, lakes, streams and near-shore environments,” he said in an email. “recycling is an option, but unfortunately only about 9 percent of all plastics are recycled.”

he said universities could take steps, like removing plastic water bottles carrying the institution’s logo, to draw people away from using single-use plastics.

“same goes for single-use plastic bags in the bookstore and elsewhere,” he said. “charge a small fee for selecting plastic bags over reusable bags – you will see how quickly everyone will remember to bring a reusable bag with them.”

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this piece was originally published by the gw hatchet. the photograph is attributed to alexander welling, senior staff photographer at the hatchet.

“when we work with the swedish companies they often drive with this idea that in order for a new product to be viable, it has to be sustainable, because that’s what the people want,” said anna helm, associate teaching professor of international business at the george washington university school of business. 

“here, on the other hand, when we try to bring those products to the u.s., we have to be very careful to make sure that there is a business case, that the product is viable financially,” she said.

helm, who also directs the center for international business education & research, gw-ciber, and gw school of engineering professor saniya leblanc recently received a duke energy innovation grant, which they used to develop a course on sustainable energy. 

the course, currently being taught for the first time, features real-client consulting projects in the area of sustainable energy. students work across their disciplines of business and engineering to assist swedish sustainable energy startups with the development of u.s. market entry plans. under normal circumstances, the students would have spent their spring break in sweden, but instead virtual site visits were arranged with swedish companies and other organizations.

helm said that bringing this interdisciplinary work to an international stage gives students the opportunity to learn about sweden’s success, which can be attributed to a productive collaboration among academia, industry, and the public sector. and though some things aren’t directly transferable, helm said, “looking for inspiration, ideas, and systems that have worked elsewhere is really critical.”

rather than keeping sustainability on the back burner of their respective degree programs, schools are taking this “nordic” approach by placing sustainability at the forefront of conversations, ranging from business to fashion, from public health to law, stressing how environmental issues demand interdisciplinary integration.

dr. lisa allyn dale, lecturer at columbia university’s earth institute, shared how the institute’s structure is specifically conducive to interdisciplinary learning, being a program as opposed to a department.

the fact that the institute is not housed in a department, dale said, “gives us the space to sort of spread our wings a little and pull from departments all over campus and be …sort of agile and responsive to changes, and able to make changes on the fly.”

dale said that universities adopt this in various forms, providing students with a foundation for knowledge of sustainability beyond a mere disciplinary requirement.

thomas dean, professor of entrepreneurship and sustainable enterprise in the college of business and school of global environmental sustainability at colorado state university, said that along with faculty and student support, new programs need the support of donors.

“i’d encourage some of the donors out there who have the kind of funds that can support innovative programs to get on board, because that can really bring barriers down and make things happen,” dean said.

universities all over the country are integrating sustainability into their niche fields of study. gw’s milken institute school of public health’s department of environmental and occupational health has been very engaged with sustainability issues by bringing them into conversations of how the climate is impacting workers’ health, according to milken dean dr. lynn goldman. 

goldman also said that public health academia and research must work in conjunction with one another. 

“we want to bring our research into the world to make a difference, to make people healthier,” she said. “and it’s through working with people who are policy experts, legal experts, and other experts that we can do that.”

public health and policy can work together to combat not only sustainability issues, but issues of environmental justice, according to gw’s dean of the school of law, dayna matthew. 

during gw’s recent sustainability summit dean panel, matthew said that she is hoping to build an equity institute at the law school that will “begin to place law at the center of conversations about environmental justice and about health justice.” she said they may be able to build an environmental justice clinic to work with the environmental protection agency and move title vi cases that address discrimination in overly burdened communities. 

matthew said, “in this way we might also be able to build a medical-legal partnership that would address the processes under title vi that are very often disregarded. when we fix disparities without specifically aiming at racial inequity, we actually exacerbate that inequity.”

higher education in its nature is extractive, according to matthew, as it goes into communities to take polls, surveys, and data.

“we march back into our ivy towers and we produce papers and have conferences where we talk to one another but we have not left a tangible value, a tangible benefit in the communities of which we are apart,” she said. “i think if that changes we will change inequality around the country in all of the major research university venues in the country.” 

how can we know if it’s safe to breathe the very air that surrounds us?

2020 has taught us that some of our deepest problems are the ones we can’t see. through interdisciplinary efforts on behalf of the center for science communication (csc) at colorado state university, we’ve begun to understand how we can protect ourselves from one of those invisible issues.

the up-and-coming center, housed in the greater department of journalism and media communication, has goals, action plans, and tools in place to combat these issues, just as the following studies portray. it’s truly revolutionary, in that such an assortment of individuals can unite efforts to better understand an aspect of our world. the csc seeks to connect stakeholders across campus in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities to improve the science communication process. it’s a stimulating democratic approach—the csc; a center for the people, by the people—to science, which will pay dividends to research for years to come.

enter zoey rosen, the dark-haired and bright-eyed scholar, who holds a bachelor’s degree in atmospheric science (a unique combination of meteorology and physics), and a master’s degree in public communication and technology from colorado state university. she is currently in year two of her ph.d. in public communication and technology, with a focus on weather. rosen is part of the social-science side of the equation to the csc’s overall mission of effectively increasing awareness of science—communicating to general audiences how air-quality research is important through a nasa-funded program: the citizen-enabled aerosol measurements for satellites (ceams) project. headed by john volckens, mechanical engineering professor and principal investigator, the ceams team combines diverse academic backgrounds to tackle issues of air quality.

“ceams is a citizen-science project,” says rosen. “we are trying to see if the act of measuring air quality influences how we understand and think about the air from a day-to-day standpoint.”

according to the ceams blog, which has been managed by rosen along with other ceams researchers, citizen science is the collaborative effort wherein volunteers help researchers collect scientific data. in many ways, citizen-science captures the goals of the csc: bringing together academic experts, industry professionals, staff, students, and citizens to better coordinate science communication. scientists at csu have designed a machine that is sent to volunteers for setup in their backyards, dubbed the amod (aerosol mass and optical depth) sampler. see the diagram below for more information.

why and how is ceams analyzing this data? carefully, jokes rosen. “we study how the air-quality measurements change over time, compare measurements at different locations, and assess how the existence of different types of particles can impact our health,” rosen said.

rosen illustrates how this can be tricky. imagine when you were an elementary student, playing with magnets in science class. you might have been amazed when paperclips rapidly stuck to the poles, or transfixed by how two equal polar ends of magnets would simply refuse to connect. that science was understandable, tangible…visible!

“can we apply that same sort of hands-on learning to adults in communities? that’s what we’re trying to do,” rosen said. “because most of the time, we can’t see if the air quality bad or not. we have no concept of how this actually affects us—it’s just air!”

what we can’t see can hurt us

when i see snow outside, my instincts tell me to tread lightly; i don’t want to slip. but i can’t see air, so how am i supposed to know when it’s bad? according to the world health organization, air pollution is one of the leading causes of death across the globe. it worsens underlying cardiovascular and respiratory problems and has a host of short-term exposure effects when exacerbated by events like wildfires. according to the epa, the overall health effects from pollution lay on a spectrum, where the least significant effects are associated with large particle exposure for a minimal amount of time, and the direst effects are jointly associated with fine particles and longer exposures. this spectrum consists of relatively minor coughing and phlegm build-up effects, to bronchitis and asthma, finally progressing to heart failure, stroke, and premature death.

these statistics are courtesy of the world health organization.

• 23% — all estimated global deaths per year (per a 2012 who study) can be attributed to unhealthy environmental standards.
• 6.5 million — the amount of deaths that air pollution claims annually.
• 91% — the total amount of the world’s population that lives in places that exceed air-quality guidelines.

‘if people don’t understand, then what’s the point of your science?’

rosen explains how the importance of incorporating social sciences—or the human element, as she calls it—is extremely important in making sure that society understands an issue in science. increased engagement with amod devices not only provides feedback about air-quality across the nation, but indicates a profound devotion to science.  

“we ask questions at periodic stages throughout the deployment. if you’re measuring air quality for 8-10 weeks, then we give you a questionnaire before you start, one about 4 or 5 weeks in, and then one when you’re done and send your machine back,” says rosen.

anthropomorphizing—or ‘humanizing’—the situation itself has provided more opportunity for social science to analyze public motivations to contribute.

“we’ve found that participants get kind of connected to their boxes” (the amod devices). “when these boxes don’t work, it bothers them deeply,” chuckled marilee long, co-investigator within the ceams study, and health and science communication expert for the csc. “in fact, zoey and i are studying how citizens anthropomorphize the box.”

long and rosen are interested in assigning names, interaction opportunities, and even ‘wake-up-procedures’ into these amod boxes—altogether creating a more human experience for volunteers. imagine your amod-upgraded morning routine: you brush your teeth, eat a bowl of cereal, and get ready for work, as paul, your friendly patio amod, concisely tells you all the pertinent information about the air. long predicts that this human element would promote a huge uptick in motivation to learn, to record data findings, and altogether understand air quality.

the csc: highlighting the importance of social science

but ceams’ efforts aren’t alone in these studies; long and ashley anderson, both members of the csc and instructors within the jmc department, join this broad effort to teach, strategize, and improve the science communication process through a multitude of studies.

“social science is really hard to do well, because people are complex,” long paused, acknowledging the tricky power in that complexity. “it’s challenging to get people to give you their unadulterated thoughts. but when they do, it not only improves our understanding of a study—it motivates those citizen-sciences to want to learn more.”

those unadulterated thoughts are pivotal to researchers like long and anderson, as they serve to provide authentic insights into how society views public health problems. recently, the csc has examined organizational framework approaches to implementing citizen science, as described by anderson and long’s involvement with volckens and the walter scott, jr. college of engineering. 

“the project is in a bit of a holding pattern due to the pandemic, but it’s an integral part of the larger set of projects going on in the center for science communication,” anderson said. the project, an implementation of air pollution monitors called upas (ultrasonic personal air samplers, courtesy of volckens’ company access sensor technologies), is key in understanding the effect airborne chemicals have on at-risk individuals, such as firefighters. 

with amod devices dispersed to willing volunteers throughout the nation by ceams, upas technology providing accessible air pollution sensors to literally inform individuals the quality of air they’re breathing, and social scientists examining attitudes and motivations to contribute every step of the way—the csc has clearly gathered all components of academia necessary for a comprehensive analysis of air quality. these efforts summarize a greater goal of the true mission of the csc—coordinating a diverse collection of personalities, backgrounds, and interests into one body. the csc acknowledges that science can be challenging to understand, especially so with misinformation, social media, and, well, statistics—lots of statistics.

jaime jacobsen, jmc assistant professor and emmy award-winning filmmaker (specializing in science documentaries), heads this center and its goals of pursuing research-driven strategies for understanding and improving the science communication process. she explains the value in turning charts, numbers, and data into concrete information that’s easy to understand. 

“as science communicators, we are uniquely positioned to use narrative storytelling, visual metaphors, and analogies, which stem out of the latest research surrounding the science of science communication, to help inform and inspire the public to engage in the pressing issues of the day.  i’m thrilled that the csc will take a lead role on spearheading innovative collaborations across the sciences, social sciences, and humanities at csu in order to further this goal.” 

air quality, science communication; it’s a marathon, not a sprint

if science communication can foster more awareness about air quality…then would humanity begin to start making decisions for the betterment of their health? that’s the hope, argues long.

“it’s similar in a way to smoking. a single cigarette is not good for you—similarly, a single day of bad air is not good for you. would that single day cause problems for you?” long pauses, peering out at the smoke-filled skies for a moment. “no, probably not…but it’s the cumulative effect that is directly impacting our health. people must start thinking about better times to exercise or opting to stay indoors when aqi measurements are too high.”

those cumulative effects described by long might best capture the role the csc plays in public education on air quality, as well as other public health problems. as long as the csc continues consistent teaching, mentoring, training, and outreach efforts amongst its studies, society will undoubtedly reap motivational and educational benefits.

looking onward, researchers like long, anderson, rosen, and countless others working in tandem with the csc will continue their motives to understand and communicate the invisible, until we collectively progress toward less pollution-related death, less environmental tragedies like the ongoing wildfires, and perhaps most importantly—a greater appreciation for science.

human activity affects our planet and this research confirmed that college sports are no exception. transportation, the energy and resources that go into maintaining athletic facilities, and the waste that is generated at sporting events are all contributors to this impact. 

however, it’s not all doom and gloom. some schools are viewing these categories as areas of opportunity for improvement. if we can get more to adopt sustainability initiatives that address these issues, colleges have the potential to lead the way toward green athletics and student-athletes like myself can play an integral role in springing schools into action.

some of the recent initiatives around gw include efforts to study the response to the pandemic in eurasia, michael keidar’s work to develop new medical equipment, and endeavors to understand how the crisis is affecting the arctic. keidar recently won a nsf rapid award for his research to decontaminate the environment and to reduce the risk of transmission of the virus.

a key question for social scientists working with human research subjects is how to conduct research in crisis conditions. a couple of recent articles provide some good advice. 

in a recent contribution to nature, j. c. gaillard and lori peek offer a variety of ways to be sensitive to ethical dilemmas and power imbalances. their main advice is to be sure that the research efforts keep the interests of the local population as the foremost priority. in proposing a code of conduct for researchers working in crisis conditions, they suggest: 

1. having a clear purpose
2. respecting local voices
3. coordinating locals and outsiders

another recent article in disasters by kathryn falb et al, offers five practical pieces of advice for institutional review boards (irb), the organizations on campus that authorize research work with human subjects. the authors offer advice on how to quickly obtain irb approval for research, address the traumatic experience of participants, deal with difficulties in obtaining meaningful consent, and ensure reviews have sufficient knowledge of the population’s needs.

in 2019, the national academy of sciences published a report on “science during crisis.” the authors argue that “a central, curated clearinghouse for data and scientific information can improve scientific collaboration, speed up analyses, and build public trust.” in other words, we will all benefit if everyone works together. 

crisis communications play an important role in this effort. there is a lot of incorrect information circulating about the pandemic and leaders need to identify ways to make sure that people have the facts. evidence from past infectious disease outbreaks shows that simple interventions with correct information do not always work and we need to find more effective solutions. 

hopefully careful research will make it possible to provide helpful advice in addressing the challenges posed by the pandemic and other crises our society is currently facing.  

to learn more about gw’s sustainability efforts, visit sustainability.gwu.edu. 

in 2011, four students at the university of maryland, college park wondered if they could use one of these issues to fix the other. they noticed that their dining halls were throwing out food at the end of every meal, so they began saving this food from the trash can and instead bringing it to organizations that feed people.

the group of students quickly grew, and soon, students on other campuses got involved. in 2013, the group became a national nonprofit comprised of individual college chapters. thus, food recovery network (frn) was born.

that same year, students at carleton college in northfield, minnesota began looking to get involved with frn. shira kaufman ’16 ran a dining hall waste audit and found that “plenty of good food was going to waste every day while many people in northfield and neighboring faribault did not know where their next meal was coming from.”

but in an article in an october 2013 issue of the college’s student newspaper, the carletonian, kaufman was quoted saying that starting a carleton chapter of frn would involve “lots of really tricky logistics that would rely heavily on students to be there right after meals.” kaufman said that the program works at “mostly big schools in cities where they can quickly get the food to points where it can be distributed,” and would be much harder in a small town like northfield.

flash forward to 2020. northfield now hosts not one but two student-run frn chapters, one at carleton and the other at nearby st. olaf college. carleton’s chapter is one of the oldest and most robust of frn’s 230 chapters across the country. it was the first in minnesota at its founding in january 2014—by kaufman herself.

so how did frn take off at carleton in the end? it turns out that students were willing to show up and put in the work, after all. when kaufman began recovering food six years ago, she said, “i had a lot of my friends roped in to help with recoveries and transporting the food at the very beginning, but by the end of the year we had a pretty large network of volunteers.”

kaufman and her team also coordinated with katie mckenna, manager of carleton’s dining service, bon appétit, to get the program rolling. mckenna agreed that students were the driving force behind the organization; “i helped and coordinated,” she said, “but kaufman did all the heavy lifting!” kaufman’s hard work has also been mutually beneficial for bon appétit. frn reports the amount of food they recover to mckenna, and if she sees that bon appétit is over-producing, they reduce the amount of food they prepare in the first place.

what about the extra food that is still inevitably left over at the end of the night? “beside the obvious benefit of reducing waste,” mckenna said, “it is a great feeling to know that the food that would have been put into the compost bin is going to feed people who need it.”

today, carleton’s frn chapter is run by eight program directors and between 50 and 75 volunteers. these students recover from both of carleton’s dining halls six nights a week, diverting about 25 pounds of food from the waste stream each night. in recent years, the chapter has also started recovering from cub foods and target, where they collect about 2,500 pounds of food weekly. they then distribute the healthy, locally-sourced meals to six community partners, ranging from the greenvale community school to st. dominic’s catholic church to northfield’s food shelf.

and carleton is just one chapter among 230. combined, they have recovered 3.2 million meals and prevented 7.4 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions since 2011. frn students prove that if enough people are involved, it doesn’t have to be hard to fight food waste, food insecurity, and climate change, all at once.