If you have any questions about what can and cannot be recycled

Like many advocates of sustainability, Rachel Preuit’s interest began as a child when she went on a camping trip with her family every summer. Through these trips, she began to appreciate the beauty of nature and develop respect for natural systems and the outdoors. Upon coming to Auburn for college, Rachel started hearing more about global issues of sustainability, and over time was exposed to new aspects of the field. Because of this, she decided to pursue a minor in sustainability, along with her industrial design degree.

Rachel takes a quick stop during a mountain climbing adventure.

In addition to studying sustainability in the classroom, Rachel looked for hands on opportunities, leading her to an internship with the campus Office of Sustainability. During this time, Rachel examined the parallels between sustainable living and an idea called Leave No Trace, a guideline to enjoy nature in canada goose outlet a sustainable way without harming the environment, and she presented her findings on a poster at the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education national conference. She also put the concepts into practice through a month long backpacking trip with the National Outdoor Leadership School. As an intern, Rachel worked to translate the seven principles of Leave No Trace to everyday life. During her time with the office, Rachel also helped develop the Canada Goose online Spirit of Sustainability Awards Program at Auburn.

From her many experiences in college, Rachel made the key realization that sustainability can be incorporated into everything. It truly is an interrelated issue and can’t be effectively encapsulated or made better from any single angle. Rachel applied this to her own life by combining her passion for sustainability with her work in industrial design, making her a very marketable job candidate. The different positions within the textile industry where Rachel has worked since graduating from Auburn clearly demonstrates the diversity of careers to which sustainability can be applied.

A major consideration of sustainability in the textile industry, the location of production, is an issue Rachel has experienced from both sides. During her first job, with Melanzana in Colorado, she experienced firsthand working for a company Canada Goose Parka manufacturing fleece clothing from a US mill with all garments being cut and sewn on site. Local production of textiles is more sustainable, in that it reduces pollution emissions and monetary costs from excessive transportation and strengthens the local economy by creating more local jobs. From there, Rachel moved to Seattle where she worked with clothing that was produced overseas. The vast difference in the production process of each company shocked and bothered Rachel. In Seattle, the lack of transparency in where the products were being made motivated her to go back to school to study apparel design and technical aspects with a focus on sustainable apparel.

Rachel went to graduate school at canada goose outlet new york city Colorado canada goose outlet online State University, where she earned a Masters in Apparel and Merchandising. While there, she did a thesis project on slow fashion, or the movement of designing, creating, and buying garments intended for high quality apparel and longevity. Slow fashion also encourages fair wages, lower carbon footprints, and zero waste throughout the production processes. Rachel recently presented her thesis at the International Textile and Apparel Association Conference, where she won a research award for practices of social responsibility.

Rachel currently works as a product developer at Stio Outdoor Apparel in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where she combines her interests in clothing design and sustainability. After receiving a sketch of an item from the designer, Rachel figures out construction and fitting of the item through the prototyping stages. She also shows her continued dedication to sustainability in her work sourcing materials for Stio’s clothing. Specifically, she tries to find fabrics made from recycled materials and produced in factories with Bluesign certification. Bluesign certification ensures environmental safety of the manufacturing process by eliminating use of harmful substances. Last spring, Rachel went to a site used by Stio in Hong Kong to check the sustainability conditions of the factory. Stio also operates with sustainability in mind by making quality products that don’t need to be replaced as often.

According to Rachel, people’s complacency in canada goose outlet store a certain lifestyle and fear of changing their habits are roadblocks to sustainability. In the textile industry, this happens when people canada goose jacket outlet are used to paying a certain amount for an item of clothing and a price increase automatically turns them away, even if the price was raised due to use of more sustainably made fabric in the clothing. Rachel explains how clothing made out of the more sustainable materials usually has a higher price tag due to the added expense of organic cotton compared to non recycled polyester. This price disparity, however, is beginning to even out, pushing more companies to switch their fabric choices.

Rachel also describes an https://www.foekjedillema.nl evident lack of consumer awareness regarding how unsustainable the textile industry can be. She compared this to the food industry, in which health and sustainability are more commonly discussed. Because of the direct impact of food on our bodies, people care more about the quality and are willing cheap Canada Goose to pay more for organic options. To bring this awareness to all industries, Rachel encourages people to learn as much as they can about sustainability in different areas. She stresses the importance of figuring out how sustainability relates in your field and starting by incorporating sustainability into what you already know. Rachel’s collegiate and professional experiences show just that. In combining her passion for sustainability with her design work in the textile industry, Rachel uses her career to make the world a more sustainable place.

Do you know someone or a group of people who are making significant contributions toward sustainability? If so, please nominate them for a Spirit of Sustainability Award!

All students, faculty, staff, and/or alumni of Auburn University are eligible to be nominated. Accomplishments can be from any or all points on the Sustainability Compass: Nature, Economics, Society, and Wellbeing.

You can read about award criteria and stories of recipients from the prior 3 years on the awards webpage. Some of the group awardees include student organizations, programs and building projects on campus, and projects in communities.

In addition to other awards, each year we honor one student who has gone above and beyond with the William Olson Student Achievement Award. Do you know a student who is goose outlet canada highly passionate and committed and who is making a difference in creating a sustainable future? If so, we encourage you to nominate him/her today!

It’s canada goose outlet in usa easy to nominate someone. Just go to the nomination form to describe motivations and impacts of the person or group, and how they are engaging others. The deadline for submission is Tuesday, February 9th by close of business.

The Awards Committee looks forward to reading your nomination for an award recipient, canada goose uk black friday and honoring this year’s awardees on April 20th.

Lots of folks have the AU Goes Green Game button! This Saturday’s Green Game highlights sustainability initiatives in Athletics and gives fans canada goose uk outlet a chance to help support Auburn as it aims to be the 1 Gameday recycler in the SEC.

To show support of this year’s Green official canada goose outlet Game, collaborators from across campus will be wearing the buttons, including employees in the Tiger Dining food venues, the parking attendants with Intelligent Parking, and the Tiger Transit drivers. In the stadium you will find the Sodexho food service employees and canada goose coats on sale the Event Operations Group hosts also sporting the button.

Do you tailgate with the Auburn Alumni Association or Tailgate Guys? Lucky you, as buttons will canada goose factory outlet be available at both tailgate locations.

You might be thinking, how could I get this awesome button and support the Green Game? Look for volunteers on Friday and Saturday handing out recycling bags and buttons. Volunteers with the Waste Reduction and Recycling Department, the Green Apple Day of Service, and the Office of Sustainability will be roaming through tailgating areas. If you have any questions about what can and cannot be recycled, or where to put your recycling, please approach one of cheap canada goose the volunteers.

Thank you to all the Green Game collaborators and Auburn fans who are working together to SustainTheGame.

Over the past decade, anthropogenic climate change has garnered huge amounts of attention, and for good reason. As average global temperatures increase, so does the number of people working to adapt to unavoidable changes and prevent the worst from happening. Trey McDonald, Auburn alumnus, 2014 Spirit of Sustainability Award winner, and Sustainability Coordinator at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, is one of these people.

Trey grew up just outside of Baton Rouge, canada goose uk shop Louisiana, and decided to leave the area for college, canada goose outlet entering Auburn as a pre medicine/microbiology major and varsity swimmer. After exploring a few majors, he graduated with a degree in Marine Biology in 1990. Trey almost immediately entered the environmental field, working canada goose outlet nyc as a whale biologist and outdoor education instructor. He primarily focused on the environment until he moved to Florida for a position as an environmental scientist and noticed the pace and scale of development in the state.

This observation piqued Trey’s interest in finding ways to develop in a more responsible way or, in some cases, avoid development entirely for the sake of environmental stewardship. It also led to the shift of his career focus from the environment to sustainability. Trey earned a Leadership in Energy Environmental Design (LEED) accreditation in 2006 and a MS in Environmental Science and Policy from the University of South Florida in 2008, the focus of his studies being sustainability on university campuses with USF as a case study.

In 2009, Trey was hired at the University of Richmond as its first canada goose outlet uk sale Sustainability Coordinator. There he led the development of their Climate Action Plan and laid the foundation for the university’s Office of Sustainability. In April 2010, Trey made the move to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) to be its first full time Sustainability Coordinator. Working in operations, his primary responsibility is to move UNCG toward climate neutrality. To this end, he led a team of over 50 faculty, staff, and students to create the UNCG Climate Action Plan. The plan outlines a strategy for achieving climate neutrality on campus by 2050, and was approved by the UNCG Chancellor and Executive Staff in 2013.

In addition to this achievement, Trey started the University’s Energy Conservation Teams, the Vampire Energy „Slayers,” a campus community garden, a Green Office program, and environmentally preferred purchasing guidelines. He also co teaches two courses, including Intro to Sustainability Studies. This is the result of a strong partnership between Trey and UNCG’s Academic Sustainability Coordinator, Dr. Aaron Allen. Together they have prioritized bridging the gap between academics and operations and using the campus as a „living laboratory”, whereby students and faculty members alike have opportunities for learning about sustainability through experience.

Out of all his achievements, Trey is the most proud of a program his office put together in fall 2014. Sustainability Office intern, T’shari White, led the creation of an event to have a conversation about minority voices and environmental issues. The sustainability movement has been focused in relatively affluent white circles, and Trey has long seen a need to change that.

He said it was particularly important at UNCG, as the most diverse campus in the UNC system. The „What’s Green Got to Do with It?” event brought attention to minority students’ lack of participation in the UNCG Environmental Studies Program and campus sustainability issues with a student panel, Greensboro environmental justice speakers, and Career Services representatives. With over 100 students in attendance, the discussion was a huge success, and Trey hopes it will only grow from there.

The greatest challenge Trey faces in his day to day job is the question of how to make people realize the importance of climate action. He says that people seem to understand that climate change is a problem, but not one that affects them because it appears far removed in space and time. Furthermore, canada goose factory sale many see it as only an environmental issue, and not one that will also impact our societies and economies. The best way he has found to combat this disconnect is by putting a human face on the issue and showing how current industrial practices create environmental damage and inequities for people around the world.

Trey asserts that the biggest obstacle to action is, again, the mistaken perception of a distance between people and the problem in both time and space. While humans are great at being reactive, being proactive is a bit more demanding, especially when most of us are just trying to make it through the day. Intensifying the difficulty is the ubiquitous idea that current standards of living are rights, not privileges, and anything that calls that into question is a threat. This has led to the vilification of science and a general inclination to listen to politicians representing vested interests rather than those who have dedicated decades to researching the issue. Trey calls for us to move past the rhetoric, accept the science, and work towards solutions.