September 28, 2023 • 34 mins
Dr. Ralph Ford, chancellor of Penn State Behrend, talks with Dr. Sherri “Sam” Mason, director of sustainability at Behrend, about the college’s new STARS rating for sustainability.
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Dr. Ralph Ford (00:00):
Hi, I'm Dr.
(00:00):
Ralph Ford, Chancellor of PennState Behrend. And you're
(00:02):
listening to Behrend Talks. Myguest today is Dr. Sherry, Sam,
we will call you, Sam. Sherri,Sam Mason, associate research
professor and the director ofsustainability here at Behrend.
So welcome to the show. Sam.
It's your second time here. Sowelcome back.
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (00:18):
Thank you for having me.
Dr. Ralph Ford (00:20):
Well, you're here to talk today about an
interesting development amongmany other things. But this is
something known as our STARSrating. And we're gonna talk a
lot about that. But it is acomprehensive assessment of our
sustainability efforts. Andwe've got some nice news to
share there. So I said you werea guest back in 2020, as we were
just talking about during thepandemic, when we were doing
(00:42):
this via zoom. So a little bitdifferent experience. But I'll
run through your backgroundagain, you have a bachelor's in
chemistry from the University ofTexas in Austin. You got your
Ph.D. in physical chemistry fromthe University of Montana. And
before joining Penn StateBehrend back in 2019, you taught
at SUNY Fredonia and theUniversity of Montana. As we
(01:07):
well know, you are a researcherwho looks at microplastic
pollution in the Great Lakes andother waterways, including Lake
Erie. Some of this your work hasled to federal legislation, I'm
not going to get through this.
So bear with me. With theMicrobeads Free Waters Act of
2015, which ended the use ofplastics, plastic, microbeads,
and cosmetics and otherproducts. And in 2016, you were
(01:28):
named an EPA EnvironmentalChampion. And you are the
recipient of the Heinz Award inpublic policy, and the Great
Lakes Leadership Award, which ispresented by the Great Lakes
Protection Fund. I remember thatyou're getting that award as
well. So a lot there. I'm sureothers again, welcome to the
show.
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (01:48):
Thank you for having me very much.
Dr. Ralph Ford (01:51):
So as I said, we recently received news that we
have a new STARS rating, we'reSilver STARS. Tell our audience,
what is the STARS rating? Why isthis important? What is this new
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (02:02):
As you indicated, it's an assessment of
news?
our sustainability as a campus.
There are over 300 institutionsacross the world that
participate in this program. ItWell, so a lot of metrics. I
think you're you're absolutelywas established by the
Association for the Advancementof Sustainability in Higher
Dducation or ASHEE for short.
And it's a way of campuses,evaluating how they're doing on
(02:25):
sustainability across all thedifferent kind of areas of a
university. Right. So I thinkwhen most people think of higher
education, they think of thatacademic side. But this
assessment also includes thingslike our operations and our
planning and how we invest ourmoney. So it's much of our
engagement as a campus, both inthe campus and in the community.
(02:48):
Right. So it's much broader thanjust our academics, and it looks
across all of those differentmetrics.
right. We run a small city, hereare a lot of people who live
here each and every day. So welook at everything from
sustainable practices, what infood and residential, you know,
(03:09):
Housing and Food residence hallsas well, you measure all of
those things.
Yeah, our waste and recycling,for example, right? Have you
know, it's really kind ofexciting to look at the last
five years. And we've had adecrease in our waste production
by 40%, which is quitefantastic. I mean, a big part of
that was COVID. But was what wasexciting was like looking post
(03:29):
COVID. Even as students cameback, our waste production
didn't go up. And then quitefrankly, I think a big part of
that is the fact that facultygot trained to move more
electronic, and they didn't goback to kind of the hard copies
that they had been handing outbeforehand.
Dr. Ralph Ford (03:48):
So how do you attribute so you say 40%? So
that's clearly measurable. We'vemeasured it. And what you're
saying is a lot of it is justdue to recycled papers, but it
must be other things as well.
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (03:59):
Yeah, I mean, we're looking here at
waste. So it's more like what'sin the trash. And so you know,
we get those numbers from wastemanagement, who comes and picks
up all of our garbage. Ourrecycling rate, unfortunately,
has stagnated at 10%. So that'skind of the next frontier. What
we're going to be looking at ishow can we increase our
recycling rate as a campus andwe have some definitely some
(04:19):
areas of improvement to work onthere.
Dr. Ralph Ford (04:22):
Well, you made me think of something there. So
we have areas to improve, butone is actually when I went to
graduate school, I remember wehad a famous faculty member who
was a cardiologist who I swearto you, this is true, go back,
go look it up. But in Arizona...
Arizona, yeah, I was gonnasay...
In Arizona, all these coresamples to really understand
what's going on. It's actuallyfascinating because you learn a
(04:42):
lot about humanity that way. Soyou made me think of that. I
don't want to take us too faroff track, but, you know,
somebody's got to measure thewaste and understand what's in
there. What's in landfills.
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (04:53):
I remember hearing about that
biologist. I could not tell youhis name, but I do remember
hearing about him when I was anundergrad.
Dr. Ralph Ford (04:59):
So, well, so when you look at so we've talked
about some of the aspects, butthen how do we get graded? So
how did they come up with thissilver number? Before we were
bronze, so it's really nice.
We've gone up and now we'resilver, how do they? How do they
come up with that number?
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (05:13):
So there's 64 different metrics
across these, like four mainareas of academics, engagement,
operations, and planning andassessment. There's also an
innovation category where we canjust get points added on for
doing innovative things likerestoring the wintergreen gorge,
for example. So that earned us ajust 1.0, just through those
(05:33):
efforts. So 64 differentmetrics. And there you have
anywere from, you know, kind ofwhat classes are we teaching?
And how many of thoseincorporate sustainability? To
how many programs do studentsgraduate and have some kind of
component around sustainabilityin their degree? You know, to
how we engage the campus, how weengage with the community, our
(05:54):
water usage, our wasteproduction, you know, how we
invest our money. So there's 64different metrics that we supply
data on. And then based upon howwe do in those metrics, we earn
points. And based upon thepercentage of points, we get a
rating then. So as youindicated, the first time we did
(06:15):
this, so I started in 2019, wesubmitted our first stars report
in 2020, is one of the firstthings that I really wanted to
work on. And we earned a Bronzerating then. And so you do this
every three years. So we're inour third assessment, our second
assessment Three years later,and we have progressed to the
silver category. And honestly,we're inches away from being
(06:36):
gold.
Dr. Ralph Ford (06:37):
Inches from gold? Well, yeah, we've got
three years to get there. So wehave a sustainability minor here
on campus. What's that about?
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (06:44):
We do we have a sustainability leadership
minor. It's a really flexibleminor. I love that. So it's
really easy to add on regardlessof what your major is. And I
have to say that one of thethings I'm most proud of is that
we're the only institution inthis region that offers a minor
in sustainability. But this islike where companies are going
right. This is the futuremindset of any engineering, any
(07:07):
business, any place that you'replanning to do after college.
That's what you need to have.
And we're the the institutionthat offers it. So it's, I
think, a real feather in the capof Penn State Behrend.
Dr. Ralph Ford (07:18):
Well, not only that, I think we're also unique
with the STARS rating as well.
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (07:23):
That's true. Yeah, we are the only
school in the region that hascompleted a STARS assessment. In
fact, we're the onlycommonwealth campus in the Penn
State system that has completeda STARS assessment. And we've
done it twice. So I'm reallyproud of that as well. Not only
the fact that we've completedit, but then we've progressed
from a bronze into a silverrating, I think really says a
(07:44):
lot about what we're doing onthis campus around
sustainability, both in thecurricular sense, but in terms
of our operations and everythingthat we are and we do.
Dr. Ralph Ford (07:53):
A great accolade. Well, one thing I
don't want to forget here aswell is that there's another
development on campus this year,which is we've added electric
vehicle charging stations and Ithink just this summer.
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (08:05):
Yeah, absolutely. As we're talking
about, like demonstration, rightas an institution of higher
education, one of the things weshould be doing is kind of
leading the way. And we are theonly institution in the region
that has three electric vehiclecharging stations on our campus.
One of the things that I reallylove too, is the fact that we're
so close to interstate 90 thatyou could have an electric
(08:26):
vehicle looking to drive acrossthe country hops off to do a
charge, takes a walk and thenwintergreen gorge realizes what
a beautiful campus we are,starts bragging about it to
their friends and family andmaybe their potential college
student. So, ya know, it'sreally great.
Dr. Ralph Ford (08:44):
That's a very realisitc scenario because one
of those Evie charging stationsis down by the School of Science
near the trailhead.
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (08:49):
We have two down there with four ports,
so we can charge four electricvehicles down right close to the
one of the entrances to thewintergreen gorge. And then we
have two electric vehiclecharging ports up near the
School of Engineering and BlackSchool of Business in the Burke
parking lot.
Dr. Ralph Ford (09:05):
So how are our students been involved in this
process?
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (09:09):
Yeah, actually. So we started a
sustainability Ambassadorsprogram last spring. And so
students to become asustainability ambassador, they
have to take a class we reallymodeled this off of the EcoReps
program that's at UniversityPark. And so I used the students
in my sustainability ambassadorsclass to help me get some of the
(09:29):
data that we needed for theSTARS assessment.
Dr. Ralph Ford (09:32):
So a student in any major comes to Behrend they
can become a sustainabilityambassador?
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Ma (09:37):
Absolutely.
Yeah. And that class counts istheir leadership credit toward
getting a sustainability minoras well. So I'm really trying to
funnel more and more studentsfrom any major into that minor
and into these types ofprograms. The big selling point
of course, being that this isthe future, employers now that's
what they're looking for. Youknow, a lot of the employees
(09:58):
they already have maybe don'thave that sustainability mindset
because it's still kind of anewish field. And we are
training students to have thatmindset. And so then they're a
real asset to companies whenthey leave here.
Dr. Ralph Ford (10:13):
Now, we've been talking about sustainability in
terms of campus impact,obviously, environmental,
energy, waste, all those thingsthat go on. But there's also the
aspect when you look at the UN17 goals are very broad, they
look at everything fromdiversity, equity inclusion, is
that part of our starsassessment?
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Ma (10:29):
Absolutely.
It was one of actually thethings that we improved a lot on
was the diversity, equityinclusion. And so I was really
pleased with that. So yeah, Imean, if you look at
sustainability, kind of what issustainability? There's a social
component or a people component,there's an economic component,
and then there's theenvironmental piece, I think
people tend to think about thatenvironmental piece, but
recognizing that, that povertyand hunger and you know, decent
(10:52):
work, and economic growth, theseare all pieces of having a
sustainable society. And sothere's so many kinds of areas
to sustainability. And I thinkit's one of the things that's
really attractive to students,it doesn't matter what you're
majoring in, there's a place foryou in sustainability. You can
go into nursing and have asustainability mindset, right?
(11:13):
You can go into engineering andhave a sustainability mindset,
you can go into business. And soit's, it's really kind of how
you can use your degree, how youcan use your life, to help us as
a society move into a morepositive direction.
Dr. Ralph Ford (11:29):
I think that's a really great point. Because in
every field of study, right,it's unique, and it's different.
And I'll just speak to my fieldright now, engineering. If
you're trying to design aproduct, what has changed, I
would say in the last 10,15, 20years is the lifecycle analysis,
how do we design a product sothat you can recycle the parts
so you can start to think aboutwhat's the carbon footprint and
(11:52):
by the way, there's still a longways to go, right? The tools are
still developing. But it's,that's the super important stuff
that actually makes adifference. Because you can do
things that make you feel good.
But then you can do things thatyou can measure, and you can
really see if it has an impact.
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (12:05):
Yeah, and designing things from the
get go understanding that thisobject is going to have a life.
Right. So what are we doing withit at the end of its life, and
thinking about that at the verybeginning. And I think that's a
big shift and engineering andbusiness that we've seen over
the course of our lives, right?
That wasn't necessarily themindset when you know, my dad
was starting off as an engineer,right? You were thinking about
(12:29):
making a product that peoplecould use and making it
attractive, and you werethinking about the use of it,
not the end of its life. And nowwe're designing things for the
end of its life as well as howit's been used during its life.
Dr. Ralph Ford (12:43):
So when you talk to our students, I mean, how
important is this? I mean, isit? You know, 90% of the
students are really thinkingabout this or hearing what's
going on in climate change.
What's, you know, I realizedthis is hard to answer that
question, but, you know, howimportant is it we hear that it
is to the younger generation? Ihate to say it that way, but
it's true, right?
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (13:01):
Yeah, absolutely. And to be honest,
you know, one of the things thatwe're working as a as a
university, Penn State wide isto do a sustainability
assessment of where our studentsare at. And and so that's
something that's still kind ofin progress. We're developing at
university wide, not just onthis campus. So we don't have
great numbers on that. But whatI can tell you is from national
assessments, where they'velooked at this, you've seen,
(13:23):
especially with COVID, you saw adramatic increase in the number
of students that have this as aforefront of their mind. And so
it's, it's definitely north of90% of the young population,
especially with climate change.
And you're seeing the impacts ofclimate change happening in real
time. This is on their mind, andthey want to be part of that
(13:44):
solution.
Dr. Ralph Ford (13:46):
That's great.
How about are, you know, youcame in here, you started on
this venture, you decided wewould pursue this STARS rating,
but you must have run into? Itcouldn't have all been super
easy. So you had to get faculty,staff and students on board? I
mean, what was the reception andhow did you get people to start
to buy into this?
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (14:06):
Yeah, I mean, I have to say that one of
the really pleasant thingscoming to Behrend was at from
the get go of stepping foot ontothis campus, people were willing
to be on board. They were like,what can we do to help you? That
was not my experience prior tocoming to Behrend. So it was
really pleasant surprise, I kepthitting walls before and then I
came here and people wereimmediately kind of on board
(14:28):
with it. Getting people tounderstand really what
sustainability is and how broadit is. That it's not just about
being environmentallysustainable. That's one aspect
of it, but kind of understandingthat there is a role for
humanities and social sciencesand engineering and business.
It's not just the science sideof campus. So that's kind of one
hurdle that we've been kind ofovercoming but I think for the
(14:50):
most part, I mean, it's it'sbeen really encouraging. And
then the data some of the datais easier to get than others.
This last STARS assessment I wasworried came with somebody in
purchasing, they're like, oh, weshould start recording this data
differently, we should put thisinto our system differently. So
that every three years whenyou're coming and asking for
this information, it's easierfor us to extract, right. And so
(15:13):
those are things that we then welearn about how we operate, and
in order to extract that data inan easier way.
Dr. Ralph Ford (15:21):
So in terms of faculty, are you seeing
integration of sustainability?
Is there a change in the coursesis the curriculum changing?
Because because of the focus onsustainability?
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Ma (15:32):
Absolutely.
I mean, this is another placewhere we really did a huge
improvement was in the number ofclasses that we have that have
our sustainability focused orsustainability related.
Sustainability related is alittle bit lower of a threshold,
you may have a component of it.
Sustainability focus is reallymore the entire class is about
sustainability. And we have moreprograms. And a big kudos to our
(15:55):
Black School of Business,because as part of their
accreditation, sustainability,ESG is now part of that
accreditation process. And so itis now part of, you know, any
student in the Black School ofBusiness is now really kind of
coming out with a degree thatinfuses sustainability across
their education. And so that's,that's really great. That was a
(16:16):
tremendous boost to us, helpedus really kind of improve the
number of students that we showgraduating with some kind of
sustainability mindset. Youknow, from down in, like the
30s, up to in the 70s.
Dr. Ralph Ford (16:29):
BIt's a great story, any, any particular
examples or anecdotes that standout of faculty members adopting
this and putting it in a course?
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (16:37):
Well, we have two Black School of
Business faculty that actuallyburn earned awards for their
sustainability efforts. CarolPutman, and Scott Stroupe. So I
had nominated them because ofhow engaged they are, and how
much they're working toincorporate this in their
classrooms and outside of theirclassrooms. Carol, for example,
(16:58):
guided our first entrance into aschool of business
sustainability case competition,this last year. It was the first
time Behrend was represented inthis. And we ended up in third
place, which I was prettypleased for our first kind of
entry into this field. To end upthird place, I was really
pleased. So huge, hugeappreciation to all of the
(17:20):
faculty that we have that areinvolved in these efforts, but
especially those two.
Dr. Ralph Ford (17:23):
We will recognize that a number are
involved. And that brought me tomy next point, which is in the
spring, you hold this largeforum on campus, you're gonna
have to help me with the name ofit.
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (17:32):
It's the Worldwide Climate Justice
Dr. Ralph Ford (17:35):
And I should know that. I've been there both
Teach-in.
years that you've helped. Butwhat really strikes me every
time I've been there is how manypeople show up in the room. Like
it's full of students, and it'sfull of faculty. Yeah, what is
this? What is this about?
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (17:49):
since starting here, right, you want
to have events that havesustainability is kind of a
focal point in order to kind ofreally gain energy and traction
with the entire campuscommunity. So I've been kind of
trying to figure out what thatevent would be. Or is today is
so close to the end of ourschool year here, that it really
made it hard to have that be ourfocal point. And then I learned
(18:11):
about the worldwide teach-in,which is a an event that started
at Bard College, and they'vebeen spreading it out to over
1,000 different universitiesacross the globe. And this
occurs the last Wednesday inMarch. And I really liked not
only the timing of when itoccurs, but kind of the
framework on how they establishit. And so it's set up as almost
(18:32):
like a conference. And then wehave different breakout rooms
under different themes, but alltouching on the idea of either
climate change or environmentaljustice. And so we've had
anywhere from things talkingabout plastics, to to trash to
just what is climate change?
What is environmental justice,to thinking about climate
resiliency, you know, as we areseeing these changes happening
(18:53):
in real time, what can we as acommunity, as a globe do to
become more resilient to climatechanges effects. So you have
kind of a wide range of topicsthat we can cover. And this also
then gives access points todifferent faculty members. So we
try and design those thosebreakout rooms, we have a panel
(19:15):
of four faculty, and we try andget one from each of the
different schools to be onboard. It also helps to build
those bridges between thedifferent schools and the
different buildings you have oncampus. Half the time is devoted
to the faculty talking but thenthe other half of the time is a
whole discussion that happenswith the students and the
faculty. And I think thatengagement across you know, the
(19:38):
audience in the speakers is oneof the real selling points to
why we get so many peopleparticipating.
Dr. Ralph Ford (19:47):
But are they tried to solve any particular
problems or think about thesolutions in those in those
breakouts?
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (19:53):
Oh, absolutely. You know, it's it's
Dr. Ralph Ford (19:53):
Yeah, I think you said something that's really
one kind of raising awarenessthat these things are
complicarted. But to thinkingout there are solutions, some
are easier than others. Andthere's different ways for
people to be engaged, right? Sothere's things you can do in
your everyday life. And thenthere's something like voting
and becoming politicallyengaged, and advocating for
(20:15):
things to happen with regard tokind of that level. So you can
go anywhere from local to globalin terms of your actions and
trying to find those solutionsall along that chain.
key to me there, which is thatis complicated. And that is not
to, you know, sometimes you justyou hear on the surface of a
(20:35):
problem, but you have tounderstand, okay, these things
have evolved over decades, thesepractices, there are six or 7
billion people on Earth, it'snot so easy to change the ship.
But you know, I also think thatsometimes we overlook some of
the change that is happening.
You're right, right, like, wecan see the daily climate
change, and we see the CO2 inthe atmosphere. But
(20:56):
interestingly, if you look atthe United States, right now,
the carbon footprint per personis actually peaked in the 70s.
And it's going back down. Sowe're moving in the right
direction, in a lot of ways, yetthe world is still producing
more carbon in the environment,and are more people and people
in the developing world, youknow, so how are you you
understand the complexity ofthat? It's just not so simple.
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (21:18):
Right?
Exactly. No, I mean, I think youreally do, I think, especially
for students in the 18 to 22year old range, right?
Generally, most of our studentsare in that range. And you're at
that point where everythingseems on the surface to be so
simple, like, why don't we justput up solar panels? Like, why
is that hard? And then I startedtalking to them about okay,
well, not all of our roofs cansupport a solar panel. And we
(21:41):
are the northernmost campus withthe cheapest electricity. And so
we're really not in terms ofPenn State, the best campus for
putting solar panels, right,that those solar panels could be
better used, generate moreelectricity, if they're down and
say the State College area.
Yeah. So you have to kind of bethinking about the complexities
(22:03):
of all these things. Well, whycan't we just put them up in the
parking lot? Well, that's easyif you build the parking lot to,
to have solar panels. Butotherwise, you have to
deconstruct that entire parkinglot in order to install them,
right. And so you have to kindof start understanding some of
those complexities. And that Ithink, is part of what our job
is, as an institution of highereducation, we should be leading
(22:25):
by example. But we should alsobe educating on the complexities
and thinking about these thingsas systems. And where can we
integrate into those systems tocreate the changes that we
really want to see?
Dr. Ralph Ford (22:36):
And those things will happen more broadly?
Because, you know, this look,this my area as well, you know,
solar panels used to be they'renotoriously inefficient, but
we've made a lot of gains inefficiency and cost and
everything else, which will makethem so that you can put them in
more and more places. Yeah, butit just takes time for the the
economics to work. So you'reexactly right. For the time
being, you should really focus,we're gonna get the most bang
(22:58):
for your buck.
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (22:59):
Yeah.
Which for us is actually thingslike windows. Right? It's, it's
the envelope. And this is truefor a lot of homeowners too,
that you want to be thinkingabout these kinds of sexy
things. But oftentimes, it's thethings that aren't as sexy that
are more important, likeinsulating your walls and having
better windows, as opposed tothe more visible things like
having a solar panel on yourroof. Right. So you, you figure
(23:22):
out kind of where where can Imake changes? You know, where
are the economic incentives inthe right place, that it's
economically viable for me,right, and thinking about all of
those things?
Dr. Ralph Ford (23:36):
Let's switch a little bit to things to campus
again. Yeah. And one event thatwe have every year is Trash 2
Treasure. Why is that animportant part of our
sustainability?
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (23:50):
Oh, my goodness, any, like go around
any college campus at the end ofa at the end of an academic
year, and it can break yourheart at the amount of, of
perfectly usable items that getput into dumpsters. So I was
really happy that y'all weredoing that event when I showed
up, because it's so incrediblyimportant. So I just got to take
(24:11):
the lead on on continuing thateffort. But it's really about
kind of focusing and gettingstudents to think about well is
this item that you're about tothrow out usable? And if it is,
then you know, donate it tosomebody else, so that you know
what you were going to justtrash is actually somebody
else's treasure. And we'reworking actually not sure if
(24:31):
you're even know but we'reworking on creating a
sustainability store where wewould be taking in some of those
items. So for example, I noticedevery year that we have the
risers that people put undertheir beds so that they can put
shelving or something underneathit or you know, there's certain
things that every year you see,and rather than like you know
(24:54):
selling them are frequently alot of those things get donated
to Salvation Army and may If wecan hold on to them, and we can
have them available for studentsin August, then they're not
making a run to the store to gobuy something that, you know,
three months ago somebody wasgoing to put in a trash can, you
know, so we're constantly tryingto find ways of exemplifying
(25:17):
what a circular economy lookslike on this campus. And the new
store that we're creating forthe read Student Union as part
of that.
Dr. Ralph Ford (25:25):
Let's switch again to the wintergreen gorge,
wintergreen gorge is atremendous asset. And I will
tell you, when I moved here fromout west, myself, it was one of
the selling points when I sawthat gorge and said, well, I've
got a great outdoors place hereon campus. But, boy, there's
been a real transformation inthe last, you know, I'll say
(25:45):
decade planning efforts fromyour predecessors to you, you
know, we've made a lot ofimprovements. So tell everybody
a what are the challenges we arefacing challenges in the in the
gorge with erosion? There's alot of use, but what are what
are the things that are going onthat we're doing to improve it?
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (26:02):
Yeah, so erosion is the big thing that
we're kind of fighting against.
And it's, you know, a lot ofthe, because it's a lot of
user-created trails. And whenpeople go walking in a forested
area, it's usually a nice day,but you're gonna follow areas,
which there's not plant life.
And those are usually areas inwhich during a storm event,
there's water flowing. And thenas you're walking on those same
(26:24):
areas, you compact the soil, andit just kind of becomes this
positive feedback loop where youend up exacerbating the erosion
that's taking place, killing offplants, you know, tree roots
through compaction, and so itjust becomes this really
positive feedback loop thatnegatively affects the
environment. So we're workingto, to remedy that by creating a
(26:47):
sustainable main trail with someoffshoot loops, and then putting
up signage. We built thesewattle fence panels with
volunteers actually from ErieInsurance. So a little kudos to
them for coming and helping uswe build these panels out of
sticks that are being installedas we speak, to keep people off
some of the trails that we wantto restore and keep them on the
(27:10):
main trail. We're also puttingin some nice boardwalks over the
watershed areas, sorry, wetlandareas, to keep people from
trotting within these verysacred, it's very special
spaces, right, where you havecertain plants and animals that
can only exist within thosewetland type environments. And
(27:31):
when people are walking throughthem, it can be very disruptive
to that natural ecosystem. Sowe're build a putting in
boardwalks to keep people out ofthe wetlands, but allow them the
ability to enjoy and appreciatethe wetland area, we put in the
parking lot. That was a hugething as part of phase one to
keep people I mean, talkingabout how sustainability is not
(27:51):
only that environmental piece,but the social piece, you want
people to be able to park theresafely and get their kids out of
their cards safely. Right i Itwas shocking to me that people
used to just park on that curveup the hill
Dr. Ralph Ford (28:05):
The steepest hill of you know, it's like 20%
grade up there.
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (28:09):
At some point, people are driving and
I'm just like your getting yourlittle kids. I mean, as a
parent, I just made my heartpalpitate thinking of how many
kids could have been injured inthat process. And so now we have
these safe parking lots wherethey can get in and out of their
cars. And what's really great tothinking about that social
aspect is that all of thetrails, or as much of the trail
(28:30):
as we can do will be ADAaccessible. Right. So through
phase three, we're currently inphase two. Phase three will be
putting in a bridge across troutrun. Once you get past trout
run, it gets really steep andwe're gonna have to put in
stairs to get up to the scienceparking lot. But prior to that
it's all ADA accessible. Andthere's just so few green spaces
(28:54):
that our and so it makes it justit warms my heart that we are
giving this to the community,right? Bring your kids bring
your grandparents, you know comeout to this space and enjoy it
regardless of kind of your yourphysical ability. It's
completely ADA accessible. Andit's going to be several miles
(29:14):
of trail that are completely ADAaccessible.
Dr. Ralph Ford (29:16):
And I will tell you it is changed as you said
it's it's changed so much. Asyou know, I like this campus a
lot. I would never go down therein the past. It wasn't the
trailhead wasn't actually allthat nice now it's very
pleasant. But you see familiesand you see people of all ages
and you see, you know, fromtheir grandparents to young kids
walking together, and it's madepossible by all that work.
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (29:37):
Yeah, absolutely. And what's kind of
an added bonus to that we hadour international Coastal
Cleanup this past weekend. And Iwas telling the students that in
the past, we would always go andclean the wintergreen gorge,
that as we're doing theserestoration efforts, we're
finding that there's less trash,right because as people see
people taking care of the space,they want to take care of the
(29:59):
space. And so rather thancleaning up the gorge this year,
we went and cleaned the Bayfrontconnector all the way from
campus all the way down to thewaterfront, like three and a
half miles. We had students, youknow, 50 students out, yeah, it
was great. It was wonderful. Soit's really nice to see that
kind of added benefit thatyou're seeing less litter as a
(30:22):
result of this restorationeffort.
Dr. Ralph Ford (30:24):
So your message to people though, is stay on the
trail.
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (30:27):
Stay on the trail, and pack it in, pack
it out. You know, a lot ofpeople did say y'all should put
in garbage cans, but thatrequires maintenance to go out
and empty those garbage cans.
And, you know, that's just notsomething that we can feasibly
do. We are we are not a parksdepartment. We are not, you
know, we have a beautifulcampus. We have beautiful
(30:48):
spaces, but it really becomes acommunity effort in order to
take care of those. So pack itin, pack it out and stay on the
trail.
Dr. Ralph Ford (30:56):
All right. Well, you have your friends of
wintergreen gorge Facebook page.
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (31:00):
Yes, we do. Yeah.
Dr. Ralph Ford (31:01):
Interested, too.
And you find latest information.
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (31:04):
Yeah, friends of the wintergreen gorge
on Facebook. And we also takedonations.
Dr. Ralph Ford (31:10):
There's the plug, so go find it. If you
haven't been to the gorge,you're missing something special
in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (31:17):
Yeah.
And you can find it on GoogleMaps now. So I think there was a
period of time where you reallycouldn't. But now that we have
that trailhead, you can actuallyfind it.
Dr. Ralph Ford (31:24):
Alright, we're coming to the lightning round
where I asked questions, youknow, few quick, so what's going
to get us to gold STARS? Right?
What's next?
Dr. Sherri "Sam" (31:32):
Sustainability Faculty Fellows. So trying to
continue to increase oursustainability across the
curriculum. That's one. Thesustainability store that we're
working to develop and the readwill be another kind of key
piece to that. And then we'reworking to increase our
recycling rate as a campus.
Those are probably my three bigplugs in the near future.
Dr. Ralph Ford (31:51):
Okay, I want to focus on the last one, how do
you get the recycling rate up oncampus?
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (31:55):
We're really going to work on an
education and outreach campaign,we're getting new signage for
our bins on campus, and we'regoing to actually have
consistent signage across thecampus, we're going to specify
exactly where all the trash andrecycling bins should be. So
that they're consistenteverywhere, there's a recycling
bin, there's going to be a trashcan everywhere there's a trash
can, there's going to be arecycling bin so that they're
(32:17):
paired together. Because rightnow, it's pretty haphazard. And
frequently, you find fourdifferent recycling bins
together, but then that makesyou think that you recycle
different things in differentcompartments. I don't know. But
there's no signage, so we'rereally trying to address those
issues and see if that can help.
Dr. Ralph Ford (32:33):
Okay, next question, then is there is a lot
going on in this world right nowwe hear about what's going on in
the environment, climate change,reaction people might have is,
there's nothing I can do aboutthis. But I don't think we want
that to be the reaction. So whatare the practical things that
people can do to make a realdifference?
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mas (32:52):
Everything you do makes a difference. And
everything you don't do makes adifference. So think about that.
It's it's, you know, it's can besomething from as simple as
bringing your reusable bags tothe grocery store, to, as I
said, insulating the walls andchanging to more energy
efficient windows, you know,there's just so many things. So
(33:13):
people should not at all feelthat they are that they don't
have power, they don't havecontrol, or they don't have some
kind of place in this.
Everything you do you findsomething that you care about.
And you focus in on that, youknow, if it's taking care of
people, if it's taking care ofanimals, do those things, if
it's going for a walk in thewoods do that. You know, there's
just so many places that you caninterject. So really hope hope
(33:37):
people feel empowered to be partof those solutions, because they
really, truly are.
Dr. Ralph Ford (33:44):
Well, that is great advice. We're coming to
the end of our time. So I'llgive you the last word. Anything
you'd like to add?
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (33:50):
Vote.
That's one other solution. Yeah.
My you know, I think the bigthing is kind of the motto that
I have, which is "Be the changeyou wish to see in the world".
Wise words from Mahatma Gandhi,but really encourage people to
think about that and be thatchange.
Dr. Ralph Ford (34:08):
Right. Well, great advice.Thank you so much
for being here. My guest todayon Behrend Talks has been Dr.
Sam Mason, Director ofsustainability. Thanks for
joining us and good luck and I'msure we're gonna get to the gold
level of STARS. But not onlythat, we're doing a lot of great
things here on campus withsustainability. So anybody out
(34:29):
there who is interested, theycan reach out to you.
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Ma (34:32):
Absolutely.
All right. Thanks a lot.
Dr. Ralph Ford (34:33):
Thank you.
Hi, I'm Dr.
(00:00):
Ralph Ford, Chancellor of PennState Behrend. And you're
(00:02):
listening to Behrend Talks. Myguest today is Dr. Sherry, Sam,
we will call you, Sam. Sherri,Sam Mason, associate research
professor and the director ofsustainability here at Behrend.
So welcome to the show. Sam.
It's your second time here. Sowelcome back.
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (00:18):
Thank you for having me.
Dr. Ralph Ford (00:20):
Well, you're here to talk today about an
interesting development amongmany other things. But this is
something known as our STARSrating. And we're gonna talk a
lot about that. But it is acomprehensive assessment of our
sustainability efforts. Andwe've got some nice news to
share there. So I said you werea guest back in 2020, as we were
just talking about during thepandemic, when we were doing
(00:42):
this via zoom. So a little bitdifferent experience. But I'll
run through your backgroundagain, you have a bachelor's in
chemistry from the University ofTexas in Austin. You got your
Ph.D. in physical chemistry fromthe University of Montana. And
before joining Penn StateBehrend back in 2019, you taught
at SUNY Fredonia and theUniversity of Montana. As we
(01:07):
well know, you are a researcherwho looks at microplastic
pollution in the Great Lakes andother waterways, including Lake
Erie. Some of this your work hasled to federal legislation, I'm
not going to get through this.
So bear with me. With theMicrobeads Free Waters Act of
2015, which ended the use ofplastics, plastic, microbeads,
and cosmetics and otherproducts. And in 2016, you were
(01:28):
named an EPA EnvironmentalChampion. And you are the
recipient of the Heinz Award inpublic policy, and the Great
Lakes Leadership Award, which ispresented by the Great Lakes
Protection Fund. I remember thatyou're getting that award as
well. So a lot there. I'm sureothers again, welcome to the
show.
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (01:48):
Thank you for having me very much.
Dr. Ralph Ford (01:51):
So as I said, we recently received news that we
have a new STARS rating, we'reSilver STARS. Tell our audience,
what is the STARS rating? Why isthis important? What is this new
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (02:02):
As you indicated, it's an assessment of
news?
our sustainability as a campus.
There are over 300 institutionsacross the world that
participate in this program. ItWell, so a lot of metrics. I
think you're you're absolutelywas established by the
Association for the Advancementof Sustainability in Higher
Dducation or ASHEE for short.
And it's a way of campuses,evaluating how they're doing on
(02:25):
sustainability across all thedifferent kind of areas of a
university. Right. So I thinkwhen most people think of higher
education, they think of thatacademic side. But this
assessment also includes thingslike our operations and our
planning and how we invest ourmoney. So it's much of our
engagement as a campus, both inthe campus and in the community.
(02:48):
Right. So it's much broader thanjust our academics, and it looks
across all of those differentmetrics.
right. We run a small city, hereare a lot of people who live
here each and every day. So welook at everything from
sustainable practices, what infood and residential, you know,
(03:09):
Housing and Food residence hallsas well, you measure all of
those things.
Yeah, our waste and recycling,for example, right? Have you
know, it's really kind ofexciting to look at the last
five years. And we've had adecrease in our waste production
by 40%, which is quitefantastic. I mean, a big part of
that was COVID. But was what wasexciting was like looking post
(03:29):
COVID. Even as students cameback, our waste production
didn't go up. And then quitefrankly, I think a big part of
that is the fact that facultygot trained to move more
electronic, and they didn't goback to kind of the hard copies
that they had been handing outbeforehand.
Dr. Ralph Ford (03:48):
So how do you attribute so you say 40%? So
that's clearly measurable. We'vemeasured it. And what you're
saying is a lot of it is justdue to recycled papers, but it
must be other things as well.
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (03:59):
Yeah, I mean, we're looking here at
waste. So it's more like what'sin the trash. And so you know,
we get those numbers from wastemanagement, who comes and picks
up all of our garbage. Ourrecycling rate, unfortunately,
has stagnated at 10%. So that'skind of the next frontier. What
we're going to be looking at ishow can we increase our
recycling rate as a campus andwe have some definitely some
(04:19):
areas of improvement to work onthere.
Dr. Ralph Ford (04:22):
Well, you made me think of something there. So
we have areas to improve, butone is actually when I went to
graduate school, I remember wehad a famous faculty member who
was a cardiologist who I swearto you, this is true, go back,
go look it up. But in Arizona...
Arizona, yeah, I was gonnasay...
In Arizona, all these coresamples to really understand
what's going on. It's actuallyfascinating because you learn a
(04:42):
lot about humanity that way. Soyou made me think of that. I
don't want to take us too faroff track, but, you know,
somebody's got to measure thewaste and understand what's in
there. What's in landfills.
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (04:53):
I remember hearing about that
biologist. I could not tell youhis name, but I do remember
hearing about him when I was anundergrad.
Dr. Ralph Ford (04:59):
So, well, so when you look at so we've talked
about some of the aspects, butthen how do we get graded? So
how did they come up with thissilver number? Before we were
bronze, so it's really nice.
We've gone up and now we'resilver, how do they? How do they
come up with that number?
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (05:13):
So there's 64 different metrics
across these, like four mainareas of academics, engagement,
operations, and planning andassessment. There's also an
innovation category where we canjust get points added on for
doing innovative things likerestoring the wintergreen gorge,
for example. So that earned us ajust 1.0, just through those
(05:33):
efforts. So 64 differentmetrics. And there you have
anywere from, you know, kind ofwhat classes are we teaching?
And how many of thoseincorporate sustainability? To
how many programs do studentsgraduate and have some kind of
component around sustainabilityin their degree? You know, to
how we engage the campus, how weengage with the community, our
(05:54):
water usage, our wasteproduction, you know, how we
invest our money. So there's 64different metrics that we supply
data on. And then based upon howwe do in those metrics, we earn
points. And based upon thepercentage of points, we get a
rating then. So as youindicated, the first time we did
(06:15):
this, so I started in 2019, wesubmitted our first stars report
in 2020, is one of the firstthings that I really wanted to
work on. And we earned a Bronzerating then. And so you do this
every three years. So we're inour third assessment, our second
assessment Three years later,and we have progressed to the
silver category. And honestly,we're inches away from being
(06:36):
gold.
Dr. Ralph Ford (06:37):
Inches from gold? Well, yeah, we've got
three years to get there. So wehave a sustainability minor here
on campus. What's that about?
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (06:44):
We do we have a sustainability leadership
minor. It's a really flexibleminor. I love that. So it's
really easy to add on regardlessof what your major is. And I
have to say that one of thethings I'm most proud of is that
we're the only institution inthis region that offers a minor
in sustainability. But this islike where companies are going
right. This is the futuremindset of any engineering, any
(07:07):
business, any place that you'replanning to do after college.
That's what you need to have.
And we're the the institutionthat offers it. So it's, I
think, a real feather in the capof Penn State Behrend.
Dr. Ralph Ford (07:18):
Well, not only that, I think we're also unique
with the STARS rating as well.
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (07:23):
That's true. Yeah, we are the only
school in the region that hascompleted a STARS assessment. In
fact, we're the onlycommonwealth campus in the Penn
State system that has completeda STARS assessment. And we've
done it twice. So I'm reallyproud of that as well. Not only
the fact that we've completedit, but then we've progressed
from a bronze into a silverrating, I think really says a
(07:44):
lot about what we're doing onthis campus around
sustainability, both in thecurricular sense, but in terms
of our operations and everythingthat we are and we do.
Dr. Ralph Ford (07:53):
A great accolade. Well, one thing I
don't want to forget here aswell is that there's another
development on campus this year,which is we've added electric
vehicle charging stations and Ithink just this summer.
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (08:05):
Yeah, absolutely. As we're talking
about, like demonstration, rightas an institution of higher
education, one of the things weshould be doing is kind of
leading the way. And we are theonly institution in the region
that has three electric vehiclecharging stations on our campus.
One of the things that I reallylove too, is the fact that we're
so close to interstate 90 thatyou could have an electric
(08:26):
vehicle looking to drive acrossthe country hops off to do a
charge, takes a walk and thenwintergreen gorge realizes what
a beautiful campus we are,starts bragging about it to
their friends and family andmaybe their potential college
student. So, ya know, it'sreally great.
Dr. Ralph Ford (08:44):
That's a very realisitc scenario because one
of those Evie charging stationsis down by the School of Science
near the trailhead.
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (08:49):
We have two down there with four ports,
so we can charge four electricvehicles down right close to the
one of the entrances to thewintergreen gorge. And then we
have two electric vehiclecharging ports up near the
School of Engineering and BlackSchool of Business in the Burke
parking lot.
Dr. Ralph Ford (09:05):
So how are our students been involved in this
process?
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (09:09):
Yeah, actually. So we started a
sustainability Ambassadorsprogram last spring. And so
students to become asustainability ambassador, they
have to take a class we reallymodeled this off of the EcoReps
program that's at UniversityPark. And so I used the students
in my sustainability ambassadorsclass to help me get some of the
(09:29):
data that we needed for theSTARS assessment.
Dr. Ralph Ford (09:32):
So a student in any major comes to Behrend they
can become a sustainabilityambassador?
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Ma (09:37):
Absolutely.
Yeah. And that class counts istheir leadership credit toward
getting a sustainability minoras well. So I'm really trying to
funnel more and more studentsfrom any major into that minor
and into these types ofprograms. The big selling point
of course, being that this isthe future, employers now that's
what they're looking for. Youknow, a lot of the employees
(09:58):
they already have maybe don'thave that sustainability mindset
because it's still kind of anewish field. And we are
training students to have thatmindset. And so then they're a
real asset to companies whenthey leave here.
Dr. Ralph Ford (10:13):
Now, we've been talking about sustainability in
terms of campus impact,obviously, environmental,
energy, waste, all those thingsthat go on. But there's also the
aspect when you look at the UN17 goals are very broad, they
look at everything fromdiversity, equity inclusion, is
that part of our starsassessment?
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Ma (10:29):
Absolutely.
It was one of actually thethings that we improved a lot on
was the diversity, equityinclusion. And so I was really
pleased with that. So yeah, Imean, if you look at
sustainability, kind of what issustainability? There's a social
component or a people component,there's an economic component,
and then there's theenvironmental piece, I think
people tend to think about thatenvironmental piece, but
recognizing that, that povertyand hunger and you know, decent
(10:52):
work, and economic growth, theseare all pieces of having a
sustainable society. And sothere's so many kinds of areas
to sustainability. And I thinkit's one of the things that's
really attractive to students,it doesn't matter what you're
majoring in, there's a place foryou in sustainability. You can
go into nursing and have asustainability mindset, right?
(11:13):
You can go into engineering andhave a sustainability mindset,
you can go into business. And soit's, it's really kind of how
you can use your degree, how youcan use your life, to help us as
a society move into a morepositive direction.
Dr. Ralph Ford (11:29):
I think that's a really great point. Because in
every field of study, right,it's unique, and it's different.
And I'll just speak to my fieldright now, engineering. If
you're trying to design aproduct, what has changed, I
would say in the last 10,15, 20years is the lifecycle analysis,
how do we design a product sothat you can recycle the parts
so you can start to think aboutwhat's the carbon footprint and
(11:52):
by the way, there's still a longways to go, right? The tools are
still developing. But it's,that's the super important stuff
that actually makes adifference. Because you can do
things that make you feel good.
But then you can do things thatyou can measure, and you can
really see if it has an impact.
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (12:05):
Yeah, and designing things from the
get go understanding that thisobject is going to have a life.
Right. So what are we doing withit at the end of its life, and
thinking about that at the verybeginning. And I think that's a
big shift and engineering andbusiness that we've seen over
the course of our lives, right?
That wasn't necessarily themindset when you know, my dad
was starting off as an engineer,right? You were thinking about
(12:29):
making a product that peoplecould use and making it
attractive, and you werethinking about the use of it,
not the end of its life. And nowwe're designing things for the
end of its life as well as howit's been used during its life.
Dr. Ralph Ford (12:43):
So when you talk to our students, I mean, how
important is this? I mean, isit? You know, 90% of the
students are really thinkingabout this or hearing what's
going on in climate change.
What's, you know, I realizedthis is hard to answer that
question, but, you know, howimportant is it we hear that it
is to the younger generation? Ihate to say it that way, but
it's true, right?
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (13:01):
Yeah, absolutely. And to be honest,
you know, one of the things thatwe're working as a as a
university, Penn State wide isto do a sustainability
assessment of where our studentsare at. And and so that's
something that's still kind ofin progress. We're developing at
university wide, not just onthis campus. So we don't have
great numbers on that. But whatI can tell you is from national
assessments, where they'velooked at this, you've seen,
(13:23):
especially with COVID, you saw adramatic increase in the number
of students that have this as aforefront of their mind. And so
it's, it's definitely north of90% of the young population,
especially with climate change.
And you're seeing the impacts ofclimate change happening in real
time. This is on their mind, andthey want to be part of that
(13:44):
solution.
Dr. Ralph Ford (13:46):
That's great.
How about are, you know, youcame in here, you started on
this venture, you decided wewould pursue this STARS rating,
but you must have run into? Itcouldn't have all been super
easy. So you had to get faculty,staff and students on board? I
mean, what was the reception andhow did you get people to start
to buy into this?
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (14:06):
Yeah, I mean, I have to say that one of
the really pleasant thingscoming to Behrend was at from
the get go of stepping foot ontothis campus, people were willing
to be on board. They were like,what can we do to help you? That
was not my experience prior tocoming to Behrend. So it was
really pleasant surprise, I kepthitting walls before and then I
came here and people wereimmediately kind of on board
(14:28):
with it. Getting people tounderstand really what
sustainability is and how broadit is. That it's not just about
being environmentallysustainable. That's one aspect
of it, but kind of understandingthat there is a role for
humanities and social sciencesand engineering and business.
It's not just the science sideof campus. So that's kind of one
hurdle that we've been kind ofovercoming but I think for the
(14:50):
most part, I mean, it's it'sbeen really encouraging. And
then the data some of the datais easier to get than others.
This last STARS assessment I wasworried came with somebody in
purchasing, they're like, oh, weshould start recording this data
differently, we should put thisinto our system differently. So
that every three years whenyou're coming and asking for
this information, it's easierfor us to extract, right. And so
(15:13):
those are things that we then welearn about how we operate, and
in order to extract that data inan easier way.
Dr. Ralph Ford (15:21):
So in terms of faculty, are you seeing
integration of sustainability?
Is there a change in the coursesis the curriculum changing?
Because because of the focus onsustainability?
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Ma (15:32):
Absolutely.
I mean, this is another placewhere we really did a huge
improvement was in the number ofclasses that we have that have
our sustainability focused orsustainability related.
Sustainability related is alittle bit lower of a threshold,
you may have a component of it.
Sustainability focus is reallymore the entire class is about
sustainability. And we have moreprograms. And a big kudos to our
(15:55):
Black School of Business,because as part of their
accreditation, sustainability,ESG is now part of that
accreditation process. And so itis now part of, you know, any
student in the Black School ofBusiness is now really kind of
coming out with a degree thatinfuses sustainability across
their education. And so that's,that's really great. That was a
(16:16):
tremendous boost to us, helpedus really kind of improve the
number of students that we showgraduating with some kind of
sustainability mindset. Youknow, from down in, like the
30s, up to in the 70s.
Dr. Ralph Ford (16:29):
BIt's a great story, any, any particular
examples or anecdotes that standout of faculty members adopting
this and putting it in a course?
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (16:37):
Well, we have two Black School of
Business faculty that actuallyburn earned awards for their
sustainability efforts. CarolPutman, and Scott Stroupe. So I
had nominated them because ofhow engaged they are, and how
much they're working toincorporate this in their
classrooms and outside of theirclassrooms. Carol, for example,
(16:58):
guided our first entrance into aschool of business
sustainability case competition,this last year. It was the first
time Behrend was represented inthis. And we ended up in third
place, which I was prettypleased for our first kind of
entry into this field. To end upthird place, I was really
pleased. So huge, hugeappreciation to all of the
(17:20):
faculty that we have that areinvolved in these efforts, but
especially those two.
Dr. Ralph Ford (17:23):
We will recognize that a number are
involved. And that brought me tomy next point, which is in the
spring, you hold this largeforum on campus, you're gonna
have to help me with the name ofit.
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (17:32):
It's the Worldwide Climate Justice
Dr. Ralph Ford (17:35):
And I should know that. I've been there both
Teach-in.
years that you've helped. Butwhat really strikes me every
time I've been there is how manypeople show up in the room. Like
it's full of students, and it'sfull of faculty. Yeah, what is
this? What is this about?
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (17:49):
since starting here, right, you want
to have events that havesustainability is kind of a
focal point in order to kind ofreally gain energy and traction
with the entire campuscommunity. So I've been kind of
trying to figure out what thatevent would be. Or is today is
so close to the end of ourschool year here, that it really
made it hard to have that be ourfocal point. And then I learned
(18:11):
about the worldwide teach-in,which is a an event that started
at Bard College, and they'vebeen spreading it out to over
1,000 different universitiesacross the globe. And this
occurs the last Wednesday inMarch. And I really liked not
only the timing of when itoccurs, but kind of the
framework on how they establishit. And so it's set up as almost
(18:32):
like a conference. And then wehave different breakout rooms
under different themes, but alltouching on the idea of either
climate change or environmentaljustice. And so we've had
anywhere from things talkingabout plastics, to to trash to
just what is climate change?
What is environmental justice,to thinking about climate
resiliency, you know, as we areseeing these changes happening
(18:53):
in real time, what can we as acommunity, as a globe do to
become more resilient to climatechanges effects. So you have
kind of a wide range of topicsthat we can cover. And this also
then gives access points todifferent faculty members. So we
try and design those thosebreakout rooms, we have a panel
(19:15):
of four faculty, and we try andget one from each of the
different schools to be onboard. It also helps to build
those bridges between thedifferent schools and the
different buildings you have oncampus. Half the time is devoted
to the faculty talking but thenthe other half of the time is a
whole discussion that happenswith the students and the
faculty. And I think thatengagement across you know, the
(19:38):
audience in the speakers is oneof the real selling points to
why we get so many peopleparticipating.
Dr. Ralph Ford (19:47):
But are they tried to solve any particular
problems or think about thesolutions in those in those
breakouts?
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (19:53):
Oh, absolutely. You know, it's it's
Dr. Ralph Ford (19:53):
Yeah, I think you said something that's really
one kind of raising awarenessthat these things are
complicarted. But to thinkingout there are solutions, some
are easier than others. Andthere's different ways for
people to be engaged, right? Sothere's things you can do in
your everyday life. And thenthere's something like voting
and becoming politicallyengaged, and advocating for
(20:15):
things to happen with regard tokind of that level. So you can
go anywhere from local to globalin terms of your actions and
trying to find those solutionsall along that chain.
key to me there, which is thatis complicated. And that is not
to, you know, sometimes you justyou hear on the surface of a
(20:35):
problem, but you have tounderstand, okay, these things
have evolved over decades, thesepractices, there are six or 7
billion people on Earth, it'snot so easy to change the ship.
But you know, I also think thatsometimes we overlook some of
the change that is happening.
You're right, right, like, wecan see the daily climate
change, and we see the CO2 inthe atmosphere. But
(20:56):
interestingly, if you look atthe United States, right now,
the carbon footprint per personis actually peaked in the 70s.
And it's going back down. Sowe're moving in the right
direction, in a lot of ways, yetthe world is still producing
more carbon in the environment,and are more people and people
in the developing world, youknow, so how are you you
understand the complexity ofthat? It's just not so simple.
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (21:18):
Right?
Exactly. No, I mean, I think youreally do, I think, especially
for students in the 18 to 22year old range, right?
Generally, most of our studentsare in that range. And you're at
that point where everythingseems on the surface to be so
simple, like, why don't we justput up solar panels? Like, why
is that hard? And then I startedtalking to them about okay,
well, not all of our roofs cansupport a solar panel. And we
(21:41):
are the northernmost campus withthe cheapest electricity. And so
we're really not in terms ofPenn State, the best campus for
putting solar panels, right,that those solar panels could be
better used, generate moreelectricity, if they're down and
say the State College area.
Yeah. So you have to kind of bethinking about the complexities
(22:03):
of all these things. Well, whycan't we just put them up in the
parking lot? Well, that's easyif you build the parking lot to,
to have solar panels. Butotherwise, you have to
deconstruct that entire parkinglot in order to install them,
right. And so you have to kindof start understanding some of
those complexities. And that Ithink, is part of what our job
is, as an institution of highereducation, we should be leading
(22:25):
by example. But we should alsobe educating on the complexities
and thinking about these thingsas systems. And where can we
integrate into those systems tocreate the changes that we
really want to see?
Dr. Ralph Ford (22:36):
And those things will happen more broadly?
Because, you know, this look,this my area as well, you know,
solar panels used to be they'renotoriously inefficient, but
we've made a lot of gains inefficiency and cost and
everything else, which will makethem so that you can put them in
more and more places. Yeah, butit just takes time for the the
economics to work. So you'reexactly right. For the time
being, you should really focus,we're gonna get the most bang
(22:58):
for your buck.
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (22:59):
Yeah.
Which for us is actually thingslike windows. Right? It's, it's
the envelope. And this is truefor a lot of homeowners too,
that you want to be thinkingabout these kinds of sexy
things. But oftentimes, it's thethings that aren't as sexy that
are more important, likeinsulating your walls and having
better windows, as opposed tothe more visible things like
having a solar panel on yourroof. Right. So you, you figure
(23:22):
out kind of where where can Imake changes? You know, where
are the economic incentives inthe right place, that it's
economically viable for me,right, and thinking about all of
those things?
Dr. Ralph Ford (23:36):
Let's switch a little bit to things to campus
again. Yeah. And one event thatwe have every year is Trash 2
Treasure. Why is that animportant part of our
sustainability?
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (23:50):
Oh, my goodness, any, like go around
any college campus at the end ofa at the end of an academic
year, and it can break yourheart at the amount of, of
perfectly usable items that getput into dumpsters. So I was
really happy that y'all weredoing that event when I showed
up, because it's so incrediblyimportant. So I just got to take
(24:11):
the lead on on continuing thateffort. But it's really about
kind of focusing and gettingstudents to think about well is
this item that you're about tothrow out usable? And if it is,
then you know, donate it tosomebody else, so that you know
what you were going to justtrash is actually somebody
else's treasure. And we'reworking actually not sure if
(24:31):
you're even know but we'reworking on creating a
sustainability store where wewould be taking in some of those
items. So for example, I noticedevery year that we have the
risers that people put undertheir beds so that they can put
shelving or something underneathit or you know, there's certain
things that every year you see,and rather than like you know
(24:54):
selling them are frequently alot of those things get donated
to Salvation Army and may If wecan hold on to them, and we can
have them available for studentsin August, then they're not
making a run to the store to gobuy something that, you know,
three months ago somebody wasgoing to put in a trash can, you
know, so we're constantly tryingto find ways of exemplifying
(25:17):
what a circular economy lookslike on this campus. And the new
store that we're creating forthe read Student Union as part
of that.
Dr. Ralph Ford (25:25):
Let's switch again to the wintergreen gorge,
wintergreen gorge is atremendous asset. And I will
tell you, when I moved here fromout west, myself, it was one of
the selling points when I sawthat gorge and said, well, I've
got a great outdoors place hereon campus. But, boy, there's
been a real transformation inthe last, you know, I'll say
(25:45):
decade planning efforts fromyour predecessors to you, you
know, we've made a lot ofimprovements. So tell everybody
a what are the challenges we arefacing challenges in the in the
gorge with erosion? There's alot of use, but what are what
are the things that are going onthat we're doing to improve it?
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (26:02):
Yeah, so erosion is the big thing that
we're kind of fighting against.
And it's, you know, a lot ofthe, because it's a lot of
user-created trails. And whenpeople go walking in a forested
area, it's usually a nice day,but you're gonna follow areas,
which there's not plant life.
And those are usually areas inwhich during a storm event,
there's water flowing. And thenas you're walking on those same
(26:24):
areas, you compact the soil, andit just kind of becomes this
positive feedback loop where youend up exacerbating the erosion
that's taking place, killing offplants, you know, tree roots
through compaction, and so itjust becomes this really
positive feedback loop thatnegatively affects the
environment. So we're workingto, to remedy that by creating a
(26:47):
sustainable main trail with someoffshoot loops, and then putting
up signage. We built thesewattle fence panels with
volunteers actually from ErieInsurance. So a little kudos to
them for coming and helping uswe build these panels out of
sticks that are being installedas we speak, to keep people off
some of the trails that we wantto restore and keep them on the
(27:10):
main trail. We're also puttingin some nice boardwalks over the
watershed areas, sorry, wetlandareas, to keep people from
trotting within these verysacred, it's very special
spaces, right, where you havecertain plants and animals that
can only exist within thosewetland type environments. And
(27:31):
when people are walking throughthem, it can be very disruptive
to that natural ecosystem. Sowe're build a putting in
boardwalks to keep people out ofthe wetlands, but allow them the
ability to enjoy and appreciatethe wetland area, we put in the
parking lot. That was a hugething as part of phase one to
keep people I mean, talkingabout how sustainability is not
(27:51):
only that environmental piece,but the social piece, you want
people to be able to park theresafely and get their kids out of
their cards safely. Right i Itwas shocking to me that people
used to just park on that curveup the hill
Dr. Ralph Ford (28:05):
The steepest hill of you know, it's like 20%
grade up there.
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (28:09):
At some point, people are driving and
I'm just like your getting yourlittle kids. I mean, as a
parent, I just made my heartpalpitate thinking of how many
kids could have been injured inthat process. And so now we have
these safe parking lots wherethey can get in and out of their
cars. And what's really great tothinking about that social
aspect is that all of thetrails, or as much of the trail
(28:30):
as we can do will be ADAaccessible. Right. So through
phase three, we're currently inphase two. Phase three will be
putting in a bridge across troutrun. Once you get past trout
run, it gets really steep andwe're gonna have to put in
stairs to get up to the scienceparking lot. But prior to that
it's all ADA accessible. Andthere's just so few green spaces
(28:54):
that our and so it makes it justit warms my heart that we are
giving this to the community,right? Bring your kids bring
your grandparents, you know comeout to this space and enjoy it
regardless of kind of your yourphysical ability. It's
completely ADA accessible. Andit's going to be several miles
(29:14):
of trail that are completely ADAaccessible.
Dr. Ralph Ford (29:16):
And I will tell you it is changed as you said
it's it's changed so much. Asyou know, I like this campus a
lot. I would never go down therein the past. It wasn't the
trailhead wasn't actually allthat nice now it's very
pleasant. But you see familiesand you see people of all ages
and you see, you know, fromtheir grandparents to young kids
walking together, and it's madepossible by all that work.
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (29:37):
Yeah, absolutely. And what's kind of
an added bonus to that we hadour international Coastal
Cleanup this past weekend. And Iwas telling the students that in
the past, we would always go andclean the wintergreen gorge,
that as we're doing theserestoration efforts, we're
finding that there's less trash,right because as people see
people taking care of the space,they want to take care of the
(29:59):
space. And so rather thancleaning up the gorge this year,
we went and cleaned the Bayfrontconnector all the way from
campus all the way down to thewaterfront, like three and a
half miles. We had students, youknow, 50 students out, yeah, it
was great. It was wonderful. Soit's really nice to see that
kind of added benefit thatyou're seeing less litter as a
(30:22):
result of this restorationeffort.
Dr. Ralph Ford (30:24):
So your message to people though, is stay on the
trail.
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (30:27):
Stay on the trail, and pack it in, pack
it out. You know, a lot ofpeople did say y'all should put
in garbage cans, but thatrequires maintenance to go out
and empty those garbage cans.
And, you know, that's just notsomething that we can feasibly
do. We are we are not a parksdepartment. We are not, you
know, we have a beautifulcampus. We have beautiful
(30:48):
spaces, but it really becomes acommunity effort in order to
take care of those. So pack itin, pack it out and stay on the
trail.
Dr. Ralph Ford (30:56):
All right. Well, you have your friends of
wintergreen gorge Facebook page.
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (31:00):
Yes, we do. Yeah.
Dr. Ralph Ford (31:01):
Interested, too.
And you find latest information.
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (31:04):
Yeah, friends of the wintergreen gorge
on Facebook. And we also takedonations.
Dr. Ralph Ford (31:10):
There's the plug, so go find it. If you
haven't been to the gorge,you're missing something special
in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (31:17):
Yeah.
And you can find it on GoogleMaps now. So I think there was a
period of time where you reallycouldn't. But now that we have
that trailhead, you can actuallyfind it.
Dr. Ralph Ford (31:24):
Alright, we're coming to the lightning round
where I asked questions, youknow, few quick, so what's going
to get us to gold STARS? Right?
What's next?
Dr. Sherri "Sam" (31:32):
Sustainability Faculty Fellows. So trying to
continue to increase oursustainability across the
curriculum. That's one. Thesustainability store that we're
working to develop and the readwill be another kind of key
piece to that. And then we'reworking to increase our
recycling rate as a campus.
Those are probably my three bigplugs in the near future.
Dr. Ralph Ford (31:51):
Okay, I want to focus on the last one, how do
you get the recycling rate up oncampus?
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (31:55):
We're really going to work on an
education and outreach campaign,we're getting new signage for
our bins on campus, and we'regoing to actually have
consistent signage across thecampus, we're going to specify
exactly where all the trash andrecycling bins should be. So
that they're consistenteverywhere, there's a recycling
bin, there's going to be a trashcan everywhere there's a trash
can, there's going to be arecycling bin so that they're
(32:17):
paired together. Because rightnow, it's pretty haphazard. And
frequently, you find fourdifferent recycling bins
together, but then that makesyou think that you recycle
different things in differentcompartments. I don't know. But
there's no signage, so we'rereally trying to address those
issues and see if that can help.
Dr. Ralph Ford (32:33):
Okay, next question, then is there is a lot
going on in this world right nowwe hear about what's going on in
the environment, climate change,reaction people might have is,
there's nothing I can do aboutthis. But I don't think we want
that to be the reaction. So whatare the practical things that
people can do to make a realdifference?
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mas (32:52):
Everything you do makes a difference. And
everything you don't do makes adifference. So think about that.
It's it's, you know, it's can besomething from as simple as
bringing your reusable bags tothe grocery store, to, as I
said, insulating the walls andchanging to more energy
efficient windows, you know,there's just so many things. So
(33:13):
people should not at all feelthat they are that they don't
have power, they don't havecontrol, or they don't have some
kind of place in this.
Everything you do you findsomething that you care about.
And you focus in on that, youknow, if it's taking care of
people, if it's taking care ofanimals, do those things, if
it's going for a walk in thewoods do that. You know, there's
just so many places that you caninterject. So really hope hope
(33:37):
people feel empowered to be partof those solutions, because they
really, truly are.
Dr. Ralph Ford (33:44):
Well, that is great advice. We're coming to
the end of our time. So I'llgive you the last word. Anything
you'd like to add?
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Mason (33:50):
Vote.
That's one other solution. Yeah.
My you know, I think the bigthing is kind of the motto that
I have, which is "Be the changeyou wish to see in the world".
Wise words from Mahatma Gandhi,but really encourage people to
think about that and be thatchange.
Dr. Ralph Ford (34:08):
Right. Well, great advice.Thank you so much
for being here. My guest todayon Behrend Talks has been Dr.
Sam Mason, Director ofsustainability. Thanks for
joining us and good luck and I'msure we're gonna get to the gold
level of STARS. But not onlythat, we're doing a lot of great
things here on campus withsustainability. So anybody out
(34:29):
there who is interested, theycan reach out to you.
Dr. Sherri "Sam" Ma (34:32):
Absolutely.
All right. Thanks a lot.
Dr. Ralph Ford (34:33):
Thank you.
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