Implementing Sustainable Changes

Leadership Competencies Gained

Idea generation

The fire behind this goal was the idea generation. The first step was to analyze what we were currently doing, and look for ways to improve it. So, I did some research on what some of the biggest ways to reduce your ecological footprint is and came up with reducing single use items and less meat consumption. Our kitchen staff said the most used items they ordered were the one time use items like coffee cups/lids and cutlery, which help us identify the first change we were going to make.  Another important idea we came up with was catering more to the girls who aspired to eat less meat and become vegetarian. Animal products have a very negative impact on our planet, so reducing our consumption of meat is one of the best changes we could have made.

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Others’ Contributions

Ideas without the compliance of everyone living in the house are only just ideas. By communicating my goals with everyone this helped me understand how my plans were only plans until they them into actions. Contributions by others helped us make even larger of an impact because we are able to change the actions of quite a bit of people through just a small few changes. If one person uses a mug instead of a reusable cup every day when they drink coffee, this already saves ~200 cups a school year, however if everyone in the house does this than that number increases many fold.  

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Receiving feedback

Feedback by everyone in the house also helped us come up with even more ideas. After people started understanding our goal and thinking about it in their everyday lives, I got a lot of feedback on even more ways to reduce our environmental impact. A lot of people came forward and expressed their confusion about what went into the compost bins, and because of their feedback I was able to clarify and make explanatory signs helping them with this. Though I thought I had a good plan, this helped me understand how receiving feedback from others can help me see the situation through a different perspective. Though what goes in the compost bin may have been something that I was very familiar with, hearing that other people didn’t know helped me realize that I was forgetting to acknowledge some of the basics.

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Follow-through

Learning the steps to acting out a plan requires not only having a well thought out plan, but also having checks and balances. I needed to see if my plan was actually going to have compliance, and if not, what things I could do to increase it. This meant checking in on our numbers- how many cups were used, how many pounds of meat was used, etc. If things weren’t moving, then something further had to be done. This also meant keeping each other accountable, and reminding and motivating each other to do what we knew was best. I learned that I can’t just create a plan and expect it to work, I also need checks and balances and for people to follow through.

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Creating change

Creating change was slow and it took altering of ideas and continual reminders for everyone in the house. However after a month or so we had drastically reduced our use of one time use items, consumed less meat and overall less energy. The cool thing was the change I created wasn’t just temporary for when these girls were in the house. Many times people came up to me and told me that they had taken what they learned and constantly used it by trying to reduce consumption. This helped me learn that the change that needs to be made might not just be in relation to a goal, but also have even more application in life.

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Self-Development

This experience influenced me encouraging me to take something I had always wanted to do- reduce consumption at my sorority, and put it into a plan. The support I received from others at the conference was extremely helpful and impactful, and I would not have been able to do this without it. The development achieved relates primarily to me learning how to put a plan into action and use my leadership competencies to communicate a goal with others. Next, I plan to start a conversation in the Greek system about making simple steps to reduce waste in all houses. I will begin doing this by organizing a meeting with representatives from each house and brainstorming ideas, and sharing what I implemented in my own house!

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Personal Values

This experience has transcended just a weekend in Missouri and helped me impact my sorority and many of the girls in it. That weekend helped me realize how important it is to me to take action on the environment, and how much it matters to me. I spend a lot of my time outside hiking, running, kayaking, and enjoy nature so, it is important to realize we only have one planet, and a lot of the damage we do could take thousands or even millions of years to recover from. This will definitely be an experience i carry with me into my future as something that helped me find one of my passions.