Walking the “Wasteless” Walk

From hosting clothing swaps in her graduate student residence, to reusing lab equipment that would otherwise be disposed, to never forgetting to bring a transportable compost and landfill bin to her field site, Anna Gomes, PhD candidate in Earth System Science, sees the world through a greener lens than most. And not only does she see it, she acts on it. 

Since coming to Stanford after completing her sustainability-focused master’s program in Sweden, Anna has dedicated herself to creating a culture of waste reduction and sustainability on campus by refusing the status quo.

Excited to get involved in waste efforts at Stanford, Anna entered her lab, which conducts research on cover crops and nitrogen loss and groundwater pollution, with a set of fresh eyes. She immediately realized the potential for improvement and was quick to implement general recycling, glove collection, compost bins for paper towels, and encouragement of reuse of single-use plastics. For Anna, so many of these sustainable swaps were intuitive, as a result of both her prior studies and her experience living in a place where sustainability is deeply embedded in the collective culture. Ideas of a sharing economy and scarcity mindset are more than, well, just ideas – they are an integral behavior in people’s daily lives in Sweden and in many similar places around the world, Anna says. Anna hopes to inspire others at Stanford through education, sharing of her personal experiences, and leadership by example.

Anna’s enthusiastic efforts have been focused on helping the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability (SDSS) operationalize sustainability — to “walk the walk” and lead in practices that reduce waste, like optimizing infrastructure within buildings, moving away from single-use dishware, and reducing food waste at events. In collaboration with SDSS, Anna hosted a “Walk the Talk” event for incoming SDSS graduate students on ways of sustainable living at Stanford. The event provided information about green lab practices, waste sorting resources, and alternatives to single-use plastics. The incoming students were asked to make commitments about actions they can take – an effective strategy in getting people to change their behavior.

Anna’s unique position as a student, researcher, and advocate allows her to see the whole spectrum of sustainability. In her research as a soil scientist, she sees the process of growing food from beginning to end. She sees first hand the hard work that goes into growing our food, which underscores the importance of letting as little of it go to waste as possible – the produce that’s harvested in the field, the nutrients in the soil, and the final meal that gets served miles away. Composting food scraps not only helps combat climate change, but feeds our soil. “Our soil needs your compostable waste!” Anna says. She has been a strong advocate for expanding compost collection across campus. 

Anna believes that educational institutions should provide the systems for people to easily engage in campus sustainability efforts. She emphasizes how embedding sustainable practices can help people foster sustainable behaviors and habits in their everyday lives and take them beyond their Stanford experience. Stanford has the opportunity to grow not only great minds to advance society, but great stewards to help change our culture around waste and sustainability. 

For the 2025-26 school year, Anna will be serving as a Sustainable Stanford Living Lab Fellow focused on making reuse easy and convenient. The project will center on optimizing the use of small, underutilized spaces on campus to facilitate the temporary storage and redistribution of gently used items.