The Town of Mansfield and UConn are pleased to team up against litter in our town. Join in to meet others in the Mansfield community and do good for our people and planet.

Litter is an unsightly blight on our roadways, and hurts the environment. It can be especially dangerous for wildlife. Small animals may crawl into bottles and get stuck, and litter can blow into storm drains and streams and may eventually make its way to the ocean. When litter gets eaten by animals and sea life, they can starve to death or suffocate. Litter also attracts pests. Be part of the solution, not the pollution!

Since starting this program in 2024, we have collected over 3,684 pounds of litter!

Read last spring’s story about Don’t Mess with Mansfield in UConn Today.

This article, in honor of Black History Month, was written by Toni Odom – Kelly, a sophomore English major and Sustainability Intern at our office. Within her role at the Office of Sustainability, she focuses on storytelling that highlights student perspectives, and engages students with sustainability at our campus-wide events.

At the University of Connecticut, the Office of Sustainability is advancing sustainability across a variety of programs. Whether that be through UConn’s annual submission to the UI Green Metric World University Rankings, or through student engagement events such as the annual Earth Day Spring Fling, this office is working to drive sustainable practices within the university and among its students. The changemakers behind these efforts are students just like you and I—whose passions derive from their personal upbringings and identities. In the realm of sustainability, there is a diverse number of environmentalists who make great efforts and advancements to mend the climate crisis. Unfortunately, the efforts made by people of color often go unrecognized and underappreciated. Or often times, sustainable efforts made by people of color from the past are celebrated despite there being current leaders in the field that are Black, Brown and Latino. At the Office of Sustainability, the unique role our Black interns provide is championed and celebrated. In honor of Black History Month, the Office of Sustainability is commending the impacts our Black interns are making today at our university.  

Many of our interns who are fostering sustainable innovation were drawn to the Office of Sustainability because of their backgrounds. Within two of the Office of Sustainability’s internship programs, the Sustainability Internship and the Sustainability Outreach Internship (SOI), six of our Black interns were interviewed to discuss the impact their identity has had on their goals in the sustainability field and their connection to the environment. 

Kelechi Uzobuife, a freshman SOI who is a PNB major involved in Stem Plus and the Pre-Med Society, describes her job as “promoting environmental success for residence halls and for the UConn community”. As an SOI for Northwest residence hall, she reflects on the impact she’s had on her residents. “Being able to already have an influence on some of the people in our residence halls and teaching them different things about sustainability through our events is such a great way to push that agenda of creating a cleaner space overall. Recently we have been giving out recycling bags for RecycleThon and I have seen people using them. That shows that even the little things can make such a difference. When doing the audits the past two weeks I noticed so many contaminants, and after a week I have seen such a huge improvement.” However, her childhood experience engaging with recycling is what drew her to sustainability. Kelechi shared that growing up she and her family would volunteer at a local soup kitchen. To raise money for resources and supplies, she and her family would recycle bottles. This served as a way to help others while also helping the environment.  

Positive experiences like these help connect our interns to their communities and environments. Take Damian Howson, a first year Environmental and Natural Resource Economics and Geography dual-degree and SOI for North resident hall, describes his early experiences with the environment and connection to sustainability as “Growing up, I’d come up north and go to Lake George every year. A lot of that time was spent in nature and discussing wildlife with my family and going on a sailboat on the lake with my grandfather. That connection with nature is why I am so interested in sustainability.” 

Student experiences are impacted by a variety of factors, including how their identities impact their perspectives. Junior Sustainability Intern and Truman Scholar nominee Brenny Alcantara who leads cleanup events and manages social media production at the OS says his sustainability journey has been influenced by his experience as an Afro Latino. He says his identity “…makes me much more aware of the social conventions that play into environmentalism. It gives people more perspective, flexibility, and enables people to problem solve in different ways. It helps me become more open-minded. Coming from Waterbury and Puerto Rico – both are disparities cities compared to cities around them. Both places are primarily composed of POC, which helps me understand that there is a system that lies underneath it all. It facilitates my ability to understand different perspectives and helps me use those perspectives to build a better team.” 

These perspectives motivate students across the sustainability field at UConn. Students like Junior SOI Judith Otunnu, who is an active member in EcoHusky, Lions Club, and Honors Across State Borders, is driven to “try and make sure that what I’m doing has an inclusive viewpoint. I always want to make sure I’ve included considerations on the impacts of minority populations and not just white ones. Our SOI activities are already rooted in inclusivity and are open to everybody.”  For Judith, the welcoming atmosphere she fosters at her SOI events reflects how her identity informs the way she approaches her role. Judith explains her approach to the sustainability field as, “I think as a Black person you come by with an entirely different perspective. In the sustainability environmental field there isn’t a lot of Black or minority representation. So, you know that you’re going to be one of a few Black people in a white dominated space. I make sure that I am putting my best foot forward to make an impact and make significant decisions in what I do every day.” However, Judith is among many of our interns who consider their identity as a key factor to their perspective in the sustainability field.  

Emily Rodriguez, a sophomore SOI studying English on the Secondary English Education track who is an active member of Her Campus and an Ignite Fellow with Teach for America, further emphasizes the influences that her identity has on her perspective in sustainability and her goals as an SOI. As an Afro Latina, Emily shares, “…I have a goal, especially this semester, to teach others how people in marginalized areas are greatly impacted by climate issues… I live in New Britain, Connecticut, which is a marginalized city and is often impacted for extensive periods of time when there are severe weather conditions because of historic redlining and lower-quality housing. As we’ve had recent snowstorms and the upcoming months tend to expect a lot of rain, I want to educate others on the direct impact that it has on people living in underrepresented communities and who have limited resources in weather disasters.  So, when taking on projects, I aim to focus on how I can represent students who look like me and come from underrepresented areas that are often overlooked in how they’re impacted by climate change and global warming”.  

Emily dreams of becoming an educator. She plans to become both a high school English teacher and later become an English professor. Our interns have very ambitious career aspirations and are planning to use their experiences at the Office of Sustainability to help them reach their goals. Brenny describes his career objectives as an OS intern and beyond as “…ensur(ing) that every single UConn student current and future understands, appreciates, and cares about the environment. Creating a level of understanding and care for environmentalism would be great. I’d like to become a prominent leader, one who promotes the environmental issues of my own community, focused on the systemic level of disparities, and creates solutions.”  

While many of our interns are continuously working on developing as changemakers for UConn every day, our Senior Sustainability Intern Aminieli Hopson reflects on his three years of changemaking at the Office of Sustainability as his time at UConn comes to an end. 

As someone who has embarked on many opportunities while at UConn as a Real-Estate and Urban Economics major, an active member of the UConn Consulting Group, Global Business Ambassadors, and an alumni of both the COP30 Fellowship and the Business Connections Learning Community, Aminieli has acquired a profound amount of wisdom, perspective, and skill in the sustainability field and in career development. These skills have helped him grow into a leader who has fostered innovation at the Office of Sustainability. Reflecting on one of his most meaningful contributions, Aminieli explains, “My first year the most common issues I talked about was the jargon and language we use in sustainability. When we use jargon, it might not be as accessible or relatable to people, even if the topics are relevant to certain demographics.” Aminieli’s advocacy for accessible language brought an overlooked disparity in the environmental field to light. As an African American and Tanzania East African, Aminieli’s roots growing up in both the north and south of the United States as well as living in Tanzania developed a different lens that challenged him to consider disparities when tackling sustainability.  

As Black environmentalists, these interns consider disparities within sustainability efforts and try to ensure their work makes for a greener and more equitable future for all. One of the first steps is recognizing that climate change disproportionately affects Black and Brown communities, and to do this we must prioritize environmental justice in our activism and efforts. Damian emphasizes the importance of environmental justice when sharing a personal environmental inequity back home in South Florida where “there are a lot of Black areas that are more prone to flood hazards and a lack of emergency response assistance. Theres a lack of consideration for Black people in the field of sustainability. It’s important to talk about the environmental justice movement because it’s so essential. Environmentalism is so intersectional and it wouldn’t exist without the intersectional aspect.” Kelechi notes a disparity she has observed by adding, “After learning about how A.I data centers construction targets specific Black and Brown communities, I feel like we need to change ASAP. We need to discover cleaner and safer resources online instead of using ChatGPT or Google Gemini.”   

Although these environmental disparities are realities for these interns, they do not put a damper on their motivations. In actuality, these realities motivate them to continue their efforts and prepare the next generation of future Black environmentalists to pursue this field. When asked what advice they’d give to Black youth interested in pursuing sustainability, Emily stated, “Based on my own research about the environment and present issues, they often focus on white communities rather than being geared towards underrepresented ones and by pursuing the environmental field, it is critical in understanding what’s ailing and how it differs from the story that’s told for the majority. For Black youth who want to pursue the environmental field, they should be ready to do further research and to have meaning and intentional solutions that will benefit Black people who have been historically unrecognized.” Aminieli reminded Black youth that “Everything you have experienced leading up to this decision is rooted in sustainability and no matter what you’re studying, you have a unique opportunity to create meaningful impact within this work as long as you make sure to develop skills and identify projects that speak to what you’re passionate about. Ensure that your skills sets are transferable and the sky is the limit.”  

The sky truly is the limit for UConn’s SOI’s and Sustainability Interns. By highlighting their achievements and celebrating how their race and ethnicities strengthen their ambitions, UConn’s Office of Sustainability will continue championing the diversity within its team and the entire student body. Thank you to our interns for remaining true to themselves and always applying their unique perspectives to foster innovation and solutions toward a sustainable future.  

Special Event Coverage by Ava Naclerio, Sustainability Outreach Intern 

When many people hear the word “sustainability”, they may think of tree-huggers, clean-up volunteers, and environmental science students, but sustainability is much broader than planting trees and picking up litter and includes more professional fields than you could ever imagine. In 2021, the Office of Sustainability held its first ever Green Careers Panel with the goal of exposing students to different opportunities and career paths in sustainability that they might’ve never considered.  February 2 marked the sixth annual panel, and as an attendee, I can confidently say it opened my eyes to a whole new world… a green one, of course.

This event was thoughtfully designed to address any interest or question a student looking to pursue a career in sustainability could have. It began at 3:00 pm with tabling featuring clubs and organizations such as Sustainable CT, EcoHusky, the Department of Earth Sciences, and The Green Garden. Here, students learned about different ways they can get involved with sustainability on campus in addition to various internship, fellowship, and educational opportunities.  

Then, at 4:00 pm, everyone moved into a McHugh classroom to hear from a group of early career panelists from a diverse range of academic backgrounds such as engineering, political science, and geography.  

To start, panelists Thomas Bonitz, geography graduate student, and Deniz Girgin, political science graduate student, shared advice on how to get involved in research. They emphasized the importance of taking the initiative to approach professors that have research that interests you in addition to being academically interdisciplinary. Sustainability has great overlap with various fields, and being conscious of that and actively cultivating one’s knowledge can be a great aid in research and form valuable perspectives.  

Another main point of the discussion surrounded sustainability in management and entrepreneurship. This was a perfect topic for UConn engineering undergraduate students Lucille Ledesma and Audrey Larson. Audrey and Lucille jointly began and run the program, Seeds2Sustain, which supports UConn students experiencing food insecurity by providing instruction on cooking and hydroponic farming. Students even get to keep their mini hydroponic farm to keep in their dorm room after completing the program! They led the conversation and offered insight into the development of management skills and their applications in environmental programming and sustainability. Lucille spoke of adaptation as an essential skill for managers and how learning servant leadership has supported her in various academic and professional facets.  

Looking into the future, current undergraduate engineering student and OS Intern, Morgan Randall, shared her hopes of working another year with the OS and continuing to implement sustainable education into campus life. She also hopes to work with remediation after graduating and finding ways to combat pollution and contamination in sustainable ways.  

When asked about work-life balance, the panelists agreed that if you love what you do, it doesn’t feel like work. Audrey highlighted the idea that personal and social time isn’t always about quantity, but the quality of the activity and people you spend the time with.  

As early career panelist Lucille reminded everyone “sustainability is a mindset”. Sustainability is not an abstract concept strictly for governments and large companies to follow (though, they should), but an inclusive space that anyone can join by having the motivation to fight for a better future and making even the smallest changes to their lifestyle. But, what counts as a sustainable lifestyle change? Sustainability Intern, Brenny Alcantara, posed this exact question to the panelists, and here were some of their suggestions: thrifting and avoiding consumerism, turning the lights off before you leave a room, walking and biking places more, avoiding unnecessary printing, limiting meat consumption and AI use, and educating others.  

The early career panel wrapped up with a meaningful discussion about involving more UConn community members in the sphere of sustainability and environmental science. The concern dictated that many people interested in sustainability are not likely to join because it feels like such a large commitment. Due to the sustainability community having such passion, it sometimes pushes newcomers away. To combat this, the Office of Sustainability hopes to continue to create inclusive and welcoming programming such as Haunted HEEP to introduce students to sustainability in an introductory manner, and hopefully spark further interest and involvement. Some easy ways to get involved is to attend your resident hall’s Sustainability Outreach Intern’s events such as tote bag painting, paint and plant, sewing, and more. Other ways include volunteering with organizations on campus or joining clubs such as EcoHusky.  

Overall, the panel was a great experience for professionals, faculty, staff, and students alike. The Office of Sustainability hopes to see you at the Green Careers Panel next year! 

This story was written by two of our undergraduate student interns: Kate Larson and Emma Dutil

Have you ever read sustainability reports that rank universities on their environmental efforts? Have you heard of Green Metric or UConn’s EcoMadness competition? Did you ever wonder who is behind the data collection and statistics? Here at UConn, our students play a pivotal role in sustainability data collection.

The UConn Office of Sustainability is the leader of many sustainability initiatives on campus and offers a unique opportunity for students to involve themselves in university-wide sustainability data collection and tracking. Undergraduate students pursuing a variety of degrees take part in collecting and organizing sustainability metrics across UConn’s campus. We went out and talked to some of those students to find out what work they’ve done this fall and why it matters to the UConn community.

Claire Lawerence, a senior Sustainability Intern, spearheads the data collection for AASHE STARS and UI GreenMetric at the Office of Sustainability. She describes Green Metric as “a university-wide assessment of sustainability based on multiple avenues of campus. This includes Setting & Infrastructure, Energy & Climate Change, Waste, Water, Transportation, and Education & Research.”

When asked about her passion for data collection, Claire noted, “as a data analytics and public policy major, I am passionate about how data backs policy solutions. Without data analytics, we wouldn’t know where we are excelling, and where we need improvement.”

The Office of Sustainability also conducts EcoMadness each year, a month-long competition between UConn’s residence halls. Students in each hall compete to improve their recycling compliance and conserve the most energy and water. Sustainability data collected during the month is analyzed by Office of Sustainability interns, and after four weeks, the most sustainable residence hall wins the competition!

Sustainability Outreach Interns (SOI) collect the recycling compliance data for each of the residence halls. One intern, Anna Dinkel, described via email this process of auditing trash bins: “I look for contaminants, such as non-recyclables in the recycling or recyclables in the trash [and] I note what types of contaminants I see so that the Office of Sustainability can identify common mistakes residents are making.” To help her residence hall out, Dinkel shares that she has “created an approachable recycling guideline flyer that is posted in all of the trash rooms to reduce confusion about proper disposal.”

SOIs work hard to engage with residents and provide sustainability education in residence halls. Intern Maya Bullied said in an email, “it is encouraging when the data shows progress.” She emphasized that EcoMadness results provide a way to observe the direct impact of the Office of Sustainability’s efforts.

Kate Larson, a Sustainability Intern at the Office of Sustainability, takes part in analyzing the EcoMadness data collected each week by SOIs. When asked about this process, she shared: “It’s amazing to see data from all across the university come together; from this project I’ve learned a lot about how to analyze large amounts of data and share it in a digestible form.”

These examples highlight two of many data-driven sustainability initiatives that take place at UConn during the fall term. Whether it’s around campus or in the office, student interns at the Office of Sustainability help collect and analyze sustainability statistics, contributing to a larger process that helps quantify the university’s sustainability goals. If you’re interested in these opportunities and/or want to learn more about data collection at the university, visit the Office of Sustainability website!