Walking the Walk for Waste
From hosting clothing swaps in her graduate student residence, reusing equipment that would otherwise be disposed of in her wet lab, and 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 the effects using cover crops in between harvests have on 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, and compost bins for paper towels, and encouraging reuse of single-use plastics. For Anna, so many of these sustainable swaps were intuitive, both as a result of 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 leading by example.
Anna’s enthusiastic efforts have been focused on helping the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability 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. This included green lab practices, waste sorting resources, and alternatives to single-use plastics new students should consider.
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, understanding the hard work of agriculture and 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, or the final meal that gets served miles away. Composting your food scraps not only helps combat climate change, but it 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 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 into their everyday lives and take them beyond their Stanford experience. Stanford has the opportunity to not only grow great minds to advance society, but great stewards to help change our culture around waste and sustainability.
