French Instructor and Emma Green Advisor Manon Sabatier started by engaging the community with a word cloud featuring phrases students associate with sustainability. Some popular responses were reuse, clean, recycle, preserve, protect, and care. She proceeded with the United Nations definition of sustainability—meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs—and highlighted the contributions of Eunice Newton Foote (1836), whose experiments led to the discovery of the greenhouse effect and further climate change research.

Emma Green members Roz K. ’25, Sofia P. ’25, and Levi L-A. ’25 introduced the panelists to the audience and welcomed them back to Emma Willard. The discussion centered on each panelist sharing what inspired their career in sustainability and what continues to motivate them.

Ariel shared that her passion for being outside inspired her to go into the environmental education field. She currently works as an Environmental Protection Specialist with the District of Columbia Department of Energy and Environment, overseeing the design, permitting, and implementation of large-scale wetland restoration projects along the Anacostia River in Washington, DC. Throughout her time giving tours of the river, she shared, she starts every tour with, “Hi, I’m Ariel. This is the Anacostia River—we’re working to make it swimmable and fishable.” Fifteen years ago, people laughed; now they’re surprised it’s not already safe to swim. “The mindset of the people who live there is really shifting as well, which I think is really motivating me to continue the work, to not just restore the resource, but also to connect the people to it.”

Erin followed that she grew up in the Capital Region, experiencing the environmental injustice of the Hudson River pollution. Her family would have to travel north to the Adirondacks instead of using the natural resources in their backyard. After an environmental career in government and non-profit, she transitioned to the business side for CHA Consulting, Inc.—an innovative, full-service engineering, design, consulting, and program/construction management firm. She shares, “I dare you to find somebody who doesn't believe in [environmental conservation and natural resource conservation]. I think we get kind of caught up in language a little bit, and we very quickly can sometimes get polarized with the language that we have. However, the simpler you can get about sustainability, I have found, the better. Meaning that there are lots of stakeholders in any community and you're not going to agree on everything, but I think you could agree that you all deserve a high quality of life.” 

Megan reflected on her time at Emma Willard, hearing at Morning Reports that the population had exceeded the Earth’s carrying capacity—that sentiment stuck with her through her non-linear path to environmental conservation. She is the Executive Director of Self-Reliance—a non-profit, women-led organization, whose mission is to simplify complex energy issues to educate, inspire, and empower people to take action. Megan shares,  “Stakeholder engagement is essential [to success]. Getting all voices to the table and pushing back on decision makers at whatever level when they're like, ‘Hey, we're going to do this master plan.’ Well, are the indigenous tribes in our area at the table with you? Push back, make sure that those folks are at the table—this is their land, and they need a voice.”

Following Megan and Nadia’s questions, the floor opened to the audience. Students posed insightful and thoughtful questions about being women in male-dominated fields, what one can do to incite change on an individual level, and how the field is adapting to global setbacks and challenges. 

Each of the panelists finished with one sentence of a wish they had for the world in terms of sustainability:

Ariel: 
“I think for me it would be that sustainability isn't a ‘nice to have,’ but that it is at the front of our minds—not just on Earth Day, but every day.”

Erin: 
“It's that we all have the power to make the change. It's not someone else's responsibility. It is a shared responsibility.” 

Megan:
“I think realizing that you can, as an individual, make a big difference. We have to remember our power in this whole thing.” 

Thank you to our panelists for an inspiring conversation around sustainability.