2016-2017 Project Report Thank you for the hard work you have completed during your internship this year. In order to capture the knowledge you have gained through your experience, the Sustainable Stanford Internship Program asks that all interns complete a short project report at the end of their internship. The benefits of completing this report are: A well written project report will be valuable during your upcoming job and/or graduate school search. Project reports are a great way to display your real world experience in your portfolio. The information you share will be used to develop a resource database for future intern cohorts. Please pay it forward by providing detailed responses and honest feedback on both your successes and shortcomings. 1. Team Members: Sophie Christel 2. Supervisor: Sara-Katherine Coxon 3. Internship Title: Communications and Outreach Intern 4. Project Summary: My primary project was to create a short educational video about Stanford’s water use and management practices, for use on the new suwater.stanford.edu website and potentially for dissemination by the Office of Sustainability in future water campaigns. The purpose of the video was to summarize the sources and uses of Stanford’s potable and non-potable water, as well as illuminate ongoing conservation measures, in such a way that the video could useful now and in future years. I used my own equipment to capture footage, and Final Cut Pro X (FCPX) to produce the video, filming both on my own and in collaboration with the water team, the campus Conservation Program, and various friends to stage specific shots. The video underwent many rounds of editing with feedback from Sara-Katherine at various stages, and later on from Lauren Hennessy and from the water team. Final approval was granted on 5/16/17.
Transcript
2016-2017 Project Report
Thank you for the hard work you have completed during your internship this year. In order to capture
the knowledge you have gained through your experience, the Sustainable Stanford Internship Program
asks that all interns complete a short project report at the end of their internship.
The benefits of completing this report are:
A well written project report will be valuable during your upcoming job and/or graduate schoolsearch. Project reports are a great way to display your real world experience in your portfolio.
The information you share will be used to develop a resource database for future intern cohorts.Please pay it forward by providing detailed responses and honest feedback on both yoursuccesses and shortcomings.
1. Team Members: Sophie Christel
2. Supervisor: Sara-Katherine Coxon
3. Internship Title: Communications and Outreach Intern
4. Project Summary:
My primary project was to create a short educational video about Stanford’s water use and
management practices, for use on the new suwater.stanford.edu website and potentially for
dissemination by the Office of Sustainability in future water campaigns. The purpose of the video was to
summarize the sources and uses of Stanford’s potable and non-potable water, as well as illuminate
ongoing conservation measures, in such a way that the video could useful now and in future years. I
used my own equipment to capture footage, and Final Cut Pro X (FCPX) to produce the video, filming
both on my own and in collaboration with the water team, the campus Conservation Program, and
various friends to stage specific shots. The video underwent many rounds of editing with feedback from
Sara-Katherine at various stages, and later on from Lauren Hennessy and from the water team. Final
approval was granted on 5/16/17.
My secondary projects were:
a) Helping plan, coordinate, and execute various elements of Celebrating Sustainability. I workedwith Sara-Katherine to create an art display that included an interactive exhibit for festival-goersto contribute to, contributed photographs for display, and set up the art exhibits at the festival.I also assisted with securing donations for Celebrating Sustainability, including a docent-led tourof Fitzgerald Marine Reserve donated by Bill Gomez for a raffle prize, and a bouquet fromHidden Villa’s CSA which was used for table decorations. I also took photos of the event for useon social media.
b) Attending basketball games and tabling during RecycleMania to raise awareness for thecampaign and collect pledges. I also took photos at the basketball games, again primarily foruse on social media.
c) Gathering feedback from undergraduate event planners to inform the retooling of the GreenEvents program for use by students, and incorporation into the ASSU funding process. Icontacted event planners to fill out a survey and provide feedback on written materials, which Icompiled and shared with Sara-Katherine. I also helped edit the Green Events checklist forclarity in use by student planners.
d) Planning an event for graduate students to raise awareness for Office of Sustainabilitycampaigns and increase involvement amongst the graduate community. This project is ongoing.
5. Project Status:
My primary project (i.e. the video) is complete.
6. Project Timeline:- February
o Identify purpose of video and brainstorm possible contento First draft of script
- March o Revise scripto First draft of storyboardo Identify potential filming locations
- April o Film shots w/o collaboratorso Contact collaborators (Conservation Program, water team, friends)o Continue to revise scripto Assemble shots in FCPXo Film shots w/ collaboratorso Continue to assemble video in FCPXo Get feedback (continuous) from Sara-Katherineo Edit video
- May o Get feedback from Lauren, water teamo Continue editso Get feedback from Tom, water teamo Final edits
7. Internship Time Commitment (hours worked on average- check one):
1-3 hrs/wk 3-8 hrs/wk ✓ 8+ hrs/wk
8. Measureable Outcomes:Describe the measurable outcomes of your primary and secondary projects during this internship. For
example:
- Collaborated with 3 stakeholder groups with interest in my video - Created video with potential viewership >5000 - Collected ~160 pledges for RecycleMania - Procured 2 donations for Celebrating Sustainability - Collected Green Events feedback from 5 student event planners - Constructed interactive art display used by 40(?) Celebrating Sustainability guests
9. Project Highlights/Favorite Moments:
Learning to use Final Cut Pro was useful, since my previous video production experience was only in
iMovie and I have a very negative relationship with that software! Final Cut is a much more versatile
software, less buggy and crash prone, and overall just less infuriating to work with. I don’t plan to seek
out video production opportunities much in the future, but it’s good to know that if asked, I now have
the skills to create a reasonably professional-looking video.
I also enjoyed filming with the Conservation Program to get footage of tiger salamander larvae. Since I
worked with the Program several summers ago, and much of my prior work experience has been in the
field, I felt at home mucking around the shore of Lake Lag and it was a nice way to incorporate my
interest in ecology with the more human- and tech-focused subject of the video.
10. Project Challenges/Lessons Learned:
Learning Final Cut was not without its challenges, as is expected when learning any new software on the
job. But I discovered along the way that YouTube is full of illuminating tutorials, so a bit of searching can
provide step-by-step instructions to almost any FCPX function. I also learned that for functions not
native to the software, there are abundant plug-ins that one can easily download—I used one such
plugin for the captions in my video.
Navigating the bureaucracy around whom to seek feedback from and when was also challenging. Sara-
Katherine was very helpful in guiding me through the process, and thankfully forgiving of the occasional
slip-up, too. I wasn’t used to having to go through a middle-messenger at so many points in the process,
so I found the inefficiency of it a little frustrating. Since I’m going to work in city government after
graduation, though, it’s probably good that I got a taste of burearocracy!
11. Resources Used/Contacts Established:
Campus Conservation Program: Alan Launer, Esther Cole, Wallis Robinson Water team: Julia Nussbaum, Jennifer Fitch OOS staff: Sara-Katherine, Lauren, Moira, Rashmi
12. Attachments/Supporting Materials (specify where these can be found):
Video on YouTube: https://goo.gl/mai1Cp
Photos of events (Celebrating Sustainability, RecycleMania basketball games) are on Sara-Katherine’s
computer
Editable video files to come…(will be on Google Drive, Sara-Katherine will have the link)
Thank you for the hard work you have completed during your internship this year. In order to capture
the knowledge you have gained through your experience, the Sustainable Stanford Internship Program
asks that all interns complete a short project report at the end of their internship.
The benefits of completing this report are:
A well written project report will be valuable during your upcoming job and/or graduate schoolsearch. Project reports are a great way to display your real world experience in your portfolio.
The information you share will be used to develop a resource database for future intern cohorts.Please pay it forward by providing detailed responses and honest feedback on both yoursuccesses and shortcomings.
1. Team Members:Qian Li
2. Supervisor:Lauren Hennessy
3. Internship Title:Web and Multimedia Development Intern
4. Project Summary:In 1-2 paragraphs, describe your primary project(s) in high level detail. If you had secondary projects,
please describe those as well (2-3 sentences each).
My first primary project is the video for RecycleMania, which is intended to educate people about the
waste reduction activities on Stanford campus communities. This year, I came up with an idea about
showing people the feasible way to increase the diversion rate through the process of making a cake,
which was a common activity happening in daily life. I planned and produced the video step by step. The
first step was to sketch the storyboard, planning all the scenes and transition shots. The second step was
to tape the video. The last step was to edit the video in Adobe Premiere Pro, adding scripts and
background music. The final video turned out to be an entertaining video resource both for current and
future use.
My second primary project is the timeline webpage to showcase the sustainability milestones at
Stanford since 1970s. Previously, we only had a pdf version of the timeline, and it was not so accessible.
This new web timeline gives people an interactive way to go through all the achievements we Stanford
people did in the past and all the future insights we are heading for. The whole project uses HTML, CSS
and jQuery and allows people to choose a specific year to quickly glance over the specific events and
awards. It also uses templates for easy future editing.
My other projects include graphic designs, information generation for building rating webpage,
questionnaire design and other web management work.
5. Project Status: What is the current status of your primary project(s)? Is the work completed? Are there any next steps?
The video project has been finished and goes published. The timeline webpage has been completed for
the implantation part and is currently waiting for a web server to be deployed.
6. Project Timeline: Provide a high level timeline of your primary project(s) with deliverables by month.
The video project:
November 2016 – came up with the plot for RecycleMania video, and planned the storyboard
December 2016 – videotaped the process of making a chocolate cake
January 2017 – edited the video in Adobe Premiere Pro
February 2017 – adjusted details for final publication The timeline webpage project:
March 2017 – structured the webpage framework
April 2017 – implemented the webpage using HTML, CSS and jQuery
May 2017 – added a frontpage as well as interaction animations to complete to webpage
June 2017 – adjusted details for final publication
7. Internship Time Commitment (hours worked on average- check one):
1-3 hrs/wk 3-8 hrs/wk 8+ hrs/wk
8. Measureable Outcomes: Describe the measurable outcomes of your primary and secondary projects during this internship. For
example:
- Developed survey that was distributed to XX students and received XX responses - Planned XX events that a total of XX attendees - Produced XX newsletters that reached XXX readers - Composed XX emails that were distributed to XX recipients - Tracked the energy use of XX residents - Developed XX reports or case studies - Met with XX project stakeholders - Weeded XX gardens
- Produced a video in 1min20sec that reached hundreds of students on Facebook - Planned and implemented a timeline webpage in 1138 lines of JavaScript and 858 lines of CSS,
which covers Stanford’s sustainability achievements for the past 40 years - Designed 2 email ads for sustainable energy course and 6 posters for winter closure pledge - Gathered information for 135 campus buildings to help complete the building rating webpages - Generated a new webpage to show 19 Green Chemistry courses and 25 Green Chemistry
professors at Stanford
9. Project Highlights/Favorite Moments:The video project gave me such a feeling of achievements and I almost felt like I was a movie director
that could manage everything. It was such a great moment when my friend and I enjoyed the cake that
we made ourselves and discussed about the environmental issues that we are interested in.
I also worked on the timeline webpage, most of the time with my supervisor Lauren. And I didn’t feel
the power of my webpage until I delivered the presentation to summary my work in front of all the SSIP
interns. Everyone seemed really interested in the timeline page and I received much praise from the
design and interactions. I hope the influence of the webpage would continue after it goes published.
10. Project Challenges/Lessons Learned:It was my first time ever to play around video production, and it definitely wasn’t that easy as it seemed.
I redid it from the scratch because I didn’t handle the angle of the camera well in the first experiment.
However, it was really joyful to do the second round because I became more confident and proficient in
it. I am really thankful for this project as I learned to always explore new things and there will always be
surprises.
11. Resources Used/Contacts Established:Did you work with any on or off campus organizations? If so, please include the organization and the contact information of the person/people you worked with and their role in the project. -
12. Attachments/Supporting Materials (specify where these can be found):For example: project plans, project budgets, photos, outreach materials, important emails, reports, links to websites, links to document sharing sites, etc.
2016-2017 Project Report 1. Team Members: Andrew Epstein2. Supervisor: Moira Hafer3. Internship Title: OoS Athletics Intern
4. Project Summary:
Recycling/Composting in athletic facilities: Surveyed the student athlete body to determine recycling
needs and began placing recycling in locker rooms. We also began rolling out desk side recycling and
break room composting in the AFSC.
Pac 12 Zero Waste Bowl: Analyzed the data and reports of other university athletic department
operations during the 2016 Pac 12 Football Zero Waste Competition and the 2017 Pac 12 Basketball
Zero Waste Competition.
Sustainability Sponsorships: Spoke with CU boulder about their sustainability related sponsors and put
together a small report on their practices to help with Stanford’s evaluation of potential opportunities to
collaborate with sponsors on sustainability projects.
SAAC Collaboration: Began working with the student athlete council in an effort to internalize
sustainability within the student athlete body. Our first project will be to create some video content
promoting student athlete sustainability projects and calling fans to engage with sustainability. In
developing this partnership I spoke with Jesikah Cavanau from Oregon State who has had some good
success starting a student athlete sustainability group.
5. Project Status:
Waste bins are currently being purchased to be placed in athletic locker rooms including men’s and
women’s basketball, women’s volleyball, men’s and women’s soccer, lacrosse, and hopefully football.
The Arillaga Family Sports Center has been outfitted with deskside recycling bins.
In our partnership with SAAC, we are now scouting student athletes to participate in our video content
and preparing to produce the video this summer.
6. Project Timeline:January:
Survey of current student athletes on their recycling needs and practices in locker rooms
Compilation and analysis of Pac 12 Football Zero Waste statistics and practices from all Pac 12schools.
February:
Pac 12 Zero Waste Bowl signage, setup, and measurement at two basketball games.
Walkthrough of locker rooms to identify bin needs
Coordination of deskside recycling and breakroom composting in AFSCMarch:
Initiate meetings with SAAC
Spoke with Brandon Leimbach at CU Boulder
Process Pac 12 Basketball Zero Waste BowlApril:
Continue to foster a relationship with SAAC, Met with Kristen Azevado in athletics about how tobest proceed with SAAC driven initiatives
May/June:
Begin planning video project with SAAC and coordinating how the project will get done over thesummer
7. Average Internship Time Commitment: roughly 2-5 hrs/wk8. Measureable Outcomes:
- Analyzed data and reports from Pac 12 Zero Waste Bowls to inform Stanford’s sustainabilityefforts
- Started sustainability projects within Stanford’s Student Athlete Council - Initiated the placement of recycling bins in locker room spaces and athletic facilities
9. Project Highlights/Favorite Moments:
I liked starting to collaborate with SAAC because it felt like there was an energy to get things done which
frequently lacked from the Athletic Department. The energy from student athletes is encouraging for
the future.
10. Project Challenges/Lessons Learned:
The largest obstacles are not finding solutions to the problems but instead getting the people involved
all ready and interested in solving the problems. The athletic department was frequently unexcited
about the sustainability initiatives we presented to them.
11. Resources Used/Contacts Established:Brandon Leimbach, CU Boulder Sustainability Sponsorships
Jesikah Cavanou, OSU Student Athlete Sustainability Group
Stanford SAAC, Arden Pettit, Patrick Perrier and Liam Egan
12. Attachments/Supporting Materials (specify where these can be found):I will send a compiled set of files to Moira Hafer.
Team Members:
Aron Ramirez
Supervisor:
Sea Gill
Internship Title:
Student Water Conservation Intern
Project Summary:
When I decided to dedicate my project this year to residential water conservation, most of California was in the midst of exceptional drought. I understood the importance of poor water usage habits in exacerbating drought conditions, and was particularly troubled by the knowledge that many residents in Roble could possibly be from areas where water consumption may not be a concern. As such, my goal was to find ways to conserve water in Roble Hall. One of those ways came through an upgrade in technology: the Nebia showerhead. (To begin the year, though, I completed a survey of about fifteen residents to assess general attitudes in Roble regarding sustainability. The results of that survey revealed a discrepancy in the way residents compared their water usage to their peers’ usage. For example, residents stated they believed their average shower times to be rather short – around eight minutes – while their peers’ showers were said to be longer by about five minutes. Regardless of their accuracy, these estimates reveal a fundamental difference in the way residents saw their own sustainability and that of everyone else; someone has to have overestimated the sustainability of their practices.)
The Nebia showerhead is an ultra-low-flow unit that “atomizes” water into a fine mist, according to their own description. The end result is a flow of 0.75 liters per minute (LPM), though that could be adjusted to including a harder spray, a separate wand, or both. At most, the Nebia uses 1.5 LPM, which is slightly more than the 1.28 LPM showerheads that were installed in Roble and other residences. Early in the Fall Quarter, I surveyed the bathrooms to find stalls I thought suitable for the ten units we planned to install. Afterwards, I went to Roble hall meetings to speak to the students about the planned initiatives and to sell them on using the Nebia once we installed them. Installation of the ten units was set for the first week of January, before students moved back into the residences from the winter recess. However, the Nebia team was only able to install two of the units; the placement of nearly every showerhead in Roble was nestled in a corner in an arrangement that the Nebia wouldn’t fit in. (Of the two, only one would end up being functional due to a broken shower handle in one stall.) The pilot eventually started, and proved successful. The occupancy sensors we installed showed that students used the Nebia stall on a regular basis. Initial student feedback was incredibly enthusiastic. However, I’m not sure that further investment in Nebia shower heads would be a wise next step. Both times the Nebia team came to install units (first in Roble, later in other dorms like Wilbur, Mars, and others), the dorm infrastructure posed problems for the installation. That is not to say that residential systems are unworkable, but that instead indicates that products like Nebia are best-suited – indeed, engineered for – typical, private residences. In dormitories like those here at Stanford, where quantity is (rightfully) valued over luxury, perhaps the Nebia’s utility would be limited. (It should be noted that I’m otherwise biased in favor of Nebia: since I visited their headquarters in November 2016, I’ve fallen in love with the product and the team, and am trying to save up to purchase one for my mom’s house.) In reality, this shouldn’t pose an issue since the shower heads in most of Stanford residence halls are water-efficient.
Nebia shower heads, in that sense, are technological upgrades that, when feasible, would make welcome additions; not investing in more units will not hamper water conservation efforts.
Besides technological improvements, I sought to encourage behavioral changes, which should hypothetically promote sustainability even in situations where technological upgrades are too costly. In conjunction with the Roble Living Laboratory for Sustainability at Stanford (ROLLSS), I helped run a competition in Roble where residents substituted their normal showers for navy showers. Though I initially expected modest participation, nearly thirty residents participated in taking over two hundred navy showers. During the competition, I sent out emails regularly to update the residents of the leaderboard for the competition, as well as including facts about water scarcity, the importance of conservation, and – my personal favorite – how much water the hall had saved so far. Our hope is that the residents will have understood the importance of water conservation through means like navy showers, and choose to replace unsustainable actions with sustainable ones.
Besides my main involvement in water conservation, I undertook other projects in smaller roles. In October 2016, I volunteered with Julie Muir to make President Marc Tessier-Lavigne’s inauguration a zero-waste event. I continued involvement with waste management in the fall and winter quarters by assisting in the labeling and stacking of the new multi-stream recycler bins. In total, I must have stickered between 3,000 and 5,000 bins. I wrote an email to the dorm informing them of their purpose, and later helped Sea Gill install them in the residences in Roble. However, I was disappointed in the initial (in)effectiveness of the bins: in the spring quarter, I undertook a waste audit for Roble. In my data, I saw that landfill was – nearly every day – the most-filled corral. The average level for landfill was 3.28, with a standard deviation of 0.84. By comparison, the second most-filled was one paper bin, with an average rating of 3.19, but a standard deviation of 1.03; therefore, not only was landfill, on average, fuller than paper, but landfill was more consistently close to its nearly-full capacity. While disappointing (and different from other dorms, as I found out), I am confident that Roble can undertake initiative next year through ROLLSS to achieve further progress in diverting less and less trash to landfill.
Project Status:
As of this week, the week of May 22, 2017, my main projects with water conservation are completed. The navy shower competition, my most recent project, ended recently and I’ve just tied the loose ends to finish the year. The next steps for water conservation will probably be an end-of-the-year conversation with Jeffrey Ball and ROLLSS. Looking forward, in the last few weeks of the academic school year, I will work toward labelling and stacking a new shipment of 3,000 multi-stream recycling bins. I will also work with Sea Gill to devise a plan to bring sustainable practices – probably related to waste management – to my hometown, Downey, California.
Project Timeline:
September: I moved in for the year in the last week of September.
October: I attended orientation for the internship at the (beautiful) Stanford power plant. I began my meetings with Sea to concretely start my project. By the second week of October, I began my initial survey of sustainability attitudes in Roble. By the end of October, I had chosen restrooms where the Nebia units would be installed in Roble. I also participated in the inauguration for President Tessier-Lavigne.
November: I visited Nebia headquarters in San Francisco to discuss logistics of the unit installations. I attended hall meetings throughout Roble to discuss the findings of my initial survey, and inform residents of the upcoming projects they could expect.
December: I further coordinated the Nebia installations, setting the installation date for the first week of January. I began putting stickers on the multi-recycler bins.
January: The Nebia team installed two units in Roble. I worked to help coordinate the official beginning of the pilot, including placing sensors in the stalls to measure student usage of the units. I continued placing stickers on the bins.
February: With the Nebia pilot officially running, I worked to gauge initial student interest. I sent an email to the dorm announcing the beginning of the pilot. I continued to place stickers on the bins. I worked with Sea Gill and the Roble custodial staff to decide optimal locations for large multi-stream recycling bins.
March: I began planning the upcoming navy-shower competition with ROLLSS, as well as offering support for their other initiatives. I finished placing stickers on the bins, and helped Sea install them in the student residences before leaving for spring break.
April: I worked with Kayland Harrison, the peer health expert in Roble (and purported Snapchat star) to create a script to introduce the navy shower competition to students. We filmed the video, released it to the dorm, and planned the competition to begin promptly after that. I also completed a waste audit in Roble.
May: We ran the competition in the first two weeks of May. During those weeks, I visited Roble often to update the data and standings. I sent emails to the dorm with the updated standings. At the conclusion of the competition, we decided a mechanism to break a six-way tie, and wrapped up the event. I began working on my year-end report.
Internship Time Commitment:
☐3-8 hrs/wk
Measureable Outcomes:
Developed a water conservation attitudes survey that was responded to by sixteen residents.
Spoke at eleven hall meetings to about 150 residents.
Developed an email informing students about the Nebia installations, which went out to all of Roble (around 308 students).
Tracked the occupancy of usage in one shower, which read 924 transitions to occupied (though many readings for the first month appear to be students peeking their head in to see the Nebia unit).
Put stickers on three-to-five thousand multi-recycler bins, which were distributed to students in Roble, Wilbur, and Florence Moore.
Created an email informing students of aforementioned multi-recycler bins, which was distributed to all of Roble (around 308 students).
Met and communicated with at least four members of Nebia team, including Philip Winter, CEO.
Wrote a script for and created a video with Kayland Harrison that reached his sixty Snapchat followers, as well as all of Roble via another email.
Completed a waste audit of Roble, done over thirteen days, which found the diversion rate of plastics, metals, and glasses, and paper to be 25.59%; the diversion rate of cardboard and paper towels was 66.13%.
Developed a navy shower competition in Roble where 26 residents combined to replace 202 of their regularly-scheduled showers with sustainable navy showers.
Produced five standings-update emails for the navy shower competition that reached all of Roble (about 308 residents).
Project Highlights/Favorite Moments:
I enjoyed going to the Nebia headquarters to discuss logistics with the Nebia team. I thought it was pretty neat to be meeting, through the duties of my internship, the CEO of a Silicon Valley startup. I also enjoyed planning for the Nebia pilot, and hearing the overwhelmingly positive feedback from students.
Project Challenges/Lessons Learned:
I learned the reality of working in bureaucratic environments. When writing emails, for example, I needed at least two levels of approval before they could be sent. In many cases, this delayed the sending of what was time-relative information. I also learned to not be surprised by unexpected issues, like the difficult arrangements of shower heads in Roble.
Resources Used/Contacts Established:
I worked with Julie Muir of PSSI, who can be reached at julie at pssirecycling dot com. I also worked with Philip Winter at Nebia, who can be reached at Philip at nebia dot com.
Attachments/Supporting Materials:
Roble Navy Shower Competition final standings
Final Navy Shower update email, sent to Roble on May 20, 2017
Roble Waste Audit data, part 1
Roble Waste Audit data, part 2
Roble Waste Audit data, part 3
Link to Nebia end-of-year feedback survey: https://stanforduniversity.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bQJfEhFho8Qu6Ud
Roble Corral Audit
Date Landfill in lbs PMG 1 in lbs PMG 2 in lbs PMG 3 in lbs Paper 1 in lbs Paper 2 in lbs Paper 3 in lbs Compost 1 in lbs Compost 2 in lbs Carboard in lbs
Thank you for the hard work you have completed during your internship this year. In order to capture
the knowledge, you have gained through your experience, the Sustainable Stanford Internship Program
asks that all interns complete a short project report at the end of their internship.
The benefits of completing this report are:
A well written project report will be valuable during your upcoming job and/or graduate schoolsearch. Project reports are a great way to display your real-world experience in your portfolio.
The information you share will be used to develop a resource database for future intern cohorts.Please pay it forward by providing detailed responses and honest feedback on both yoursuccesses and shortcomings.
1. Team Members:Molly Uyeda
2. Supervisor:Rashmi Sahai
3. Internship Title:School of Medicine intern
4. Project Summary:In 1-2 paragraphs, describe your primary project(s) in high level detail. If you had secondary projects,
please describe those as well (2-3 sentences each).
The main project I worked on was the spring sharing event. The event took place on April 12, 2017 on
the LKSC lawn. Approximately 180 people checked into the event, representing over 100 labs, and over
$100,000 in materials was exchanged. Groups involved: Stanford Bioscience Student Association (SBSA)
provided the funding for the event services (cost/receipts attached at end) and hosted the event on
their Facebook page, EH&S provided carts for transportation of heavy items or for users taking many
items too difficult to carry (ID’s were taken as collateral for checking out carts), Stanford Surplus
collected all the remaining items at the end of the day, and Property Management provided support for
exchange of capital equipment (items costing more than $5,000). As for non-affiliated Stanford
stakeholders, E&K was there to collect cold packs and to distribute reusable bags as a swag item.
Describe the measurable outcomes of your primary and secondary projects during this internship. For
example:
- # of attendees (lab, and building represented) 180 signed in - Cost of materials saved (over $100,000) - Inventory of equipment exchanged (see sheet) - 150 bins for plastic, metal, glass and around 200 bins for mixed paper plus an additional 20 bins
to Clark.
9. Project Highlights/Favorite Moments: It was great seeing people really excited bringing carts full of equipment to the event. It was good to
see that some people were already familiar with the event and were excited that it was happening
again.
10. Project Challenges/Lessons Learned:
Now that the spring sharing event is quite large, it would be great to have more volunteers. If we could
have 1 person per every two tables or station, then the volunteers could sign out the items as the
attendees take them that way we can get more notes on the items for better cataloging. There was a
wave of people coming in and out so sometimes it would get really crowded and other times it was a bit
slow, so it would be nice to have more volunteers help out especially during the peak times. Next time
on the flyer note that we are accepting capital equipment. An issue was that some people were
entering from different areas and so not everyone checked into the event, in addition some people
didn’t want to check into the event because they felt that if they weren’t taking anything, they didn’t
need to sign in.
The rainy day contingency plan was difficult to organize. Our back up plan was to use Fairchild Atrium
and while there is not a formal online booking process, we were able to contact Mayumi Beppu
[mailto:[email protected]] to reserve the space. Make sure to contact event services 3 days before
the event if you have changes to the reservation such as location.
11. Resources Used/Contacts Established: Did you work with any on or off campus organizations? If so, please include the organization and the contact information of the person/people you worked with and their role in the project. Neeraja Akilla [email protected] account manager, E&K Scientific
Provided reusable bags at spring share event, tip samples, cold pack collection
12. Attachments/Supporting Materials (specify where these can be found): For example: project plans, project budgets, photos, outreach materials, important emails, reports, links to websites, links to document sharing sites, etc.
100 pounds of waste annually by recycling materials--paper, metal, and
uncontaminated plastics.
Two types of bins are available:
paper / thin film recycling
plastics recycling
Taste First, Waste Less: A Sampling Pilot at Stanford University
María Chicuén and Chiamaka Ogwuegbu
Sustainable Stanford Internship Program Project Report
May 2017
Executive Summary
Food waste is a pressing issue for Stanford University’s Residential and Dining Enterprises (R&DE). Because there are numerous
factors that contribute to the generation of food waste, this pilot project focused on one that has been studied by other universities in
the Bay Area and across the United States: food quality. In order to assess the impact of students’ conceptions of food quality on food
waste production, the pilot used food sampling to help students determine whether or not they liked the one of the main entrees served.
Sampling was meant to equip diners with sufficient knowledge to serve themselves a quantity that was congruent with their initial
perception of the sampled dish. After conducting observational research for two quarters at the Gerhard Casper Dining Commons, we
found that sampling was effective for specific diners, but the majority of patrons ultimately preferred to select foods without the
sampling intervention. If R&DE were to implement samples at a larger scale, the success of this strategy would be contingent on the
simultaneous adoption of other initiatives that directly address and inform diners about food waste reduction. Further, as part of any
sampling program R&DE should focus on increasing its usage of compelling advertising and marketing techniques to heighten the
salience of reducing food waste to its diners as well as empower staff members with sufficient information about the sampling
program to maximize the potential of samples in the long-run.
Introduction
Food waste analysis can take two pathways: pre- and post-consumer waste. According to Lean Path, a typical institutional food
service provider wastes between 4% and 10% of food before it ever reaches a consumer. Dining hall managers and chefs around
campuses across the country estimate that, when comparing both pathways, students waste far more than their kitchen operations.
When assessing the overall impact of food waste at a 1-to-1 ratio of pre- to post-consumer food waste, researchers have gathered that
approximately 9% of food purchases go to waste.1 While more research is still needed to calculate the total economic impact of food
waste across university food service operations, it is clear that there are significant factors that augment the overall cost of food waste.
Focusing on Stanford’s culture of food waste can serve to highlight problem areas and future solutions. Relative to most schools in the
United States, Stanford has taken several steps to mitigate the factors contributing to food waste. Examples of these include cutting
down on tray usage, reducing the size of plateware, and implementing the “small-plate” lunch option. Although pre-consumer food
waste data has not been released by the University, R&DE has been vocal about the need to target food waste before it reaches the
consumer, as noted under the Strategic Objectives of R&DE’s sustainability initiatives.2
Despite the university’s efforts, post-consumer food waste at Stanford remains a significant issue. It is a particularly challenging
problem because of the diversity of dining patterns and behaviors displayed by students. These patterns have been studied by several
researchers in order to better gauge why dining hall patrons waste as much food as they do. One example is Yuting Lam’s study Why
do UC Berkeley Students Waste Food at Dining Halls, which was published in 2010. After surveying 500 UC Berkeley students, Lam
found that one of the primary reasons why students were wasting food was due to poor food quality. That reasoning was listed by 50%
of surveyed students. Research by Seungsuk Lee3 at Arkansas Tech University in 2015 also identified poor food quality as a
significant impetus for food waste by college students at several Arkansas schools. These findings led us to design a project that would
provide a Stanford-specific answer to the question of whether sampling a dish prior to serving a full portion could help students assess
whether or not they would like the dish in question, and therefore be able to make a more informed quantity decision.4
Methodology
Methods:
1 http://blog.leanpath.com/food-waste-prevention-a-key-opportunity-amid-rising-labor-costs 2 https://rde.stanford.edu/sustainability 3https://www.atu.edu/research/facultyresearchgrants/14-15/Lee-FinalReport-Food%20Waste%20Management%20in%20University%20Dining%20Services.pdf 4UC Davis implemented a “Try-a-Taste” Program, which allowed guests to sample soups or plated entrees before committing to a full serving.
This program led to a 40% food waste reduction.
➔ Only one entree was sampled at a time in order to isolate the results of each sampling session.
➔ Samples were generally placed on the glass platform immediately above the menu item in the servery.
➔ Samples were offered at dinner, which features a high variation of entree choices.
➔ A small display encouraged diners to try a sample before making their meal decision.
➔ We did not standardize the duration of each sampling session, choosing instead to sample until a clear trend had emerged in
each session.
➔ Options for serving the samples depended on the entree in question, and included:
◆ Dessert plates with forks
◆ Toothpicks
◆ Finger samples
➔ Samples were offered for the study during dinner on the following dates:
◆ January 24, 2017
◆ January 31, 2017
◆ February 7, 2017
◆ February 21, 2017
◆ February 28, 2017
◆ April 12, 2017
➔ Researchers were positioned in an unobtrusive location within the servery in order to record observations and to periodically
intercept diners that took samples to request a 5-minute interview.
Data:
Data collection was divided into aggregate and individual data. The aggregate data points focused on high-level numerical patterns in
how students interacted with the samples, while the individual data attempted to glean information that might not be readily
discernible from numerical data.
➔ Aggregate
a. Number of students who visited the servery station in question
b. Total number of samples taken
c. Number of students who took the food item and took a sample
d. Number of students who took the food item and didn’t take a sample
e. Number of students who took a sample and didn’t take the food item
f. Number of students that took a sample and tried it immediately
g. Number of students that took a sample and put it on their plate for later
h. Rate at which samples were taken over a meal cycle (observed through time it took for each set of 5 samples to be
taken)
The final aggregate data measures were not finalized until the third sampling session on February 7. During week 1 of sampling, only
measures a & b were recorded. During week 2, all of the final measures except for f & g were recorded. We increased the specificity
or our collected data as we realized that the complexity of students’ individual interactions with the samples could not be simplified to
whether or not they had taken one.
➔ Individual
a. Researcher observational notes
b. Intercept interview questions:
● How were samples useful in your food selection process, if at all?
● Did trying this sample inform/impact quantity served? In what way?
● Which types of food items would benefit from samples?
Results
Key Takeaways
➔ Given that there is no penalty for wasting food in the dining halls, students have no real incentive to take the time to taste a
menu item while they are in the servery before making a portioning decision. Diners can just take as much as they think that
they might eat, and throw the item away if they don’t like it. This dynamic was reflected in the low average number of samples
taken, as well as the low average number of samples eaten on the spot within the servery as opposed to taken with the diner.
➔ Offering smaller portion sizes of dishes that are generally served in only one, large portion size could significantly reduce food
waste from such entrees. For the Torta Ahogada sampling, many diners mistook the samples for a smaller portion size of the
sandwich, and were grateful for the additional option.
➔ Samples are most successful when a direct visual connection can be made between the samples and the entree on the line. We
found that diners were so accustomed to getting their food and getting out of the servery that they tended to ignore displays
perched atop the islands.
➔ Sampling that’s directly facilitated by a dining hall staff member has the potential to yield higher participation rates. This was
the case with the Torta Ahogada sampling, which had the highest number of samples taken. It is worth noting, however, that
the Torta did not have the highest rate of samples taken (number of samples taken divided by the number of students that
visited the servery station). That distinction went to the Malai Chicken Curry samples, which only had a pair of arrows to
guide diners to the samples.
Item
# Students
Visiting
Station
# Samples
Taken
Item +
Sample
Item + No
Sample
No Item +
Sample
Take sample
and try
Take sample
and hold
Timestamp
(P.M.)/5
samples
Duration
(min)
1/24/17
Adobo
Roasted
Seitan 70 1 40
1/31/17
Torta
Ahogada 142 24 4 58 20
5:22, 5:41,
5:53, 6:02 63
2/7/17
Vegan Liang
w/ Seitan 106 5 0 25 5 0 5 5:26 53
2/21/17
Mochi Ice
Cream 76 5 0 44 5 0 5 6:20 20
2/28/17
Seafood &
Chicken
Paella 67 7 0 30 7 0 7 5:27 30
4/12/17
Malai
Chicken
Curry 74 16 10 23 6 14 0
5:15, 5:24,
5:45 42
Weekly Observations
January 24, 2017 - Adobo Roasted Seitan
Notes
➔ Of the three stations available, the samples were at the station farthest to to the left. We noticed that diners tended to gravitate
immediately to the center station, since that’s where the most popular items are usually placed. This relegated the side stations
to an afterthought, and may have depressed the popularity of the samples.
➔ Patrons seemed apprehensive about burdening themselves with another plate, and as a result often opted not to bother with the
samples. We decided that for future iterations we should try to use toothpicks for the samples, so that diners could just grab
them and eat them quickly with less hassle.
➔ Ensuring that the item to be sampled is paired with a popular item might help with foot traffic.
➔ We decided to list the food item on the signage in the future, because it seemed as though there was a disconnect between what
was being offered on top of the serving station and the actual entree item below.
➔ Leaving the samples out for too long may impact how they taste, both in terms of the food’s temperature and consistency. This
is only really a problem when the samples are not very popular.
Interview Excerpts
➔ “Nothing springs to mind as an idea [for which foods samples might benefit]. I think the idea of a sample works better with
some dishes than others. Anything that [Dining] serves on a whole plate as a whole dish would benefit from a sample.”
January 31, 2017 - Torta Ahogada
Notes
➔ The main sandwiches were distributed from a large pan on the left side of the dining hall from the entrance towards the back of
the servery by one of the dining hall staff, and the samples were placed on the island closest to the pan.
➔ Given the distance between the samples and the entree item, we asked the staff member distributing the Torta to offer samples
to diners. For the most part she was consistent in offering, but she did skip it every once in awhile.
➔ The Torta Ahogada sandwiches were so large that a lot of diners took the samples thinking that they were just a smaller portion
size of the regular sandwich, which could be a useful concept for portioning in the future.
➔ It was clear that if the staff member hadn’t explicitly pointed out the samples, very few diners would have bothered with them.
Interview Excerpts
➔ “I liked that the [torta] had a sample because it's so big and you don't have to commit if you don't like it.”
➔ “I didn't know it was a sample. You should probably put the sample in a more visible spot, like at the end of a counter. I
thought that the samples were just smaller plated entree options.”
➔ “I think that samples would be a good idea for something big like the torta because it's a big portion that you have to commit to
when you get it, for everything else you can sort of sample it on your own. I think that any big entree would be good to sample,
side dishes don't matter as much.”
February 7, 2017 - Vegan Liang with Seitan
Notes
➔ The samples were by themselves on a cart on the left side of the back of the servery. The food that they corresponded to was
located in the back left station.
➔ It seemed as though diners weren’t making the connection between the food that was available for sampling and the food it
corresponded to.
Interview Excerpts
➔ “The sample made me full, so I’m unlikely to get more. But I think that that being able to sample increases my chances of
taking more of an item in general.”
➔ “Yes, the samples were useful. It was nice to taste something else. A connection to the item on the main line was missing.”
➔ “I think that we could just take a small quantity of food from main line if we wanted to sample, rather than having dedicated
samples.”
February 21, 2017 - Mochi Ice Cream
Notes
➔ The primary change for the Mochi ice cream sampling was the use of toothpicks for the samples. This removed much of the
hassle diners had to go through with plated samples, and was also less messy than finger samples.
➔ Before choosing to sample the Mochi, we did not realize that it was an extremely popular item that students were already very
familiar with. As a result, most students felt no need to try the item beforehand, and just rushed to grab as many Mochi as they
could while supplies lasted.
February 28, 2017 - Seafood and Chicken Paella
Notes
➔ We set up the station for students to see the samples and take their food flowing from left to right, but the line ended up
changing directions after only a few minutes, making our setup less effective.
➔ Up until this point the aim of our signage had been to create name recognition for the sampling pilot. However, we concluded
that it would be helpful to be more direct in our signage about the food waste aim of the initiative so that students can more
easily make that mental connection.
April 12, 2017 - Malai Chicken Curry
Notes
➔ We had a dining staff member draw bright arrows next to the name of the dish, pointing towards the samples. We thought that
the arrows might help to draw diners’ attention away from the food in the servery and direct them to the samples given that
many students were either not noticing them, or ignoring them. This strategy seemed to be the most effective of all the ones we
tried. Compared to prior weeks, this trial had the highest proportion of visitors to the servery take a sample and try it
immediately, which was one of the primary goals of the pilot.
➔ For the final sampling trial, we attempted to create a connection to the waste reduction aim on the initiative by altering the
signage. The sign, pictured above, reads “Taste First, Waste Less”.
Interview Excerpts:
➔ “If the samples weren't there, I wouldn't have gotten the chicken. decided to try the small portion. doesn't usually like chicken,
but took one and liked it, had more.”
Conclusion
During this study, we set out to test the impact of food samples on food waste reduction at the Gerhard Casper dining hall and our
conclusions are not entirely generalizable to other dining halls on campus given the differences in production scales and customer
base. Nevertheless, there are key takeaways from this observational period at this dining hall that could help inform future food waste
reduction strategies at Stanford.
Although Stanford’s dining halls are headed towards a zero-waste future, there are specific production practices that are still derailing
this objective from the desired goal. One major factor that we observed was the excess food production taking place across dining
halls. According to R&DE managers, dining periods must have sufficient food throughout the entire duration of the meal, meaning
that whether students are walking in at 5:00 P.M. or 8:55 P.M. to grab dinner, for example, dining options and quality should not
differ for consumers. Given that the waves of students grabbing a meal differ on both an hour-to-hour basis, production levels for all
foods should differ depending on the dining hour. This is a food waste-producing mechanism that is inherent to the R&DE production
cycle.
Post-consumer food waste was augmented by diners’ inclination to serve themselves multiple dishes during one dining period.
Students were more likely to leave the dining hall with several dishes of food when more than one main entree was available.
Stanford’s dining culture encourages a “mix-and-match” selection of foods, overwhelming students with several enticing options.
Although it was difficult to measure how much food waste was produced at the individual level, we did observe a correlation between
the number of main dishes available and food wasted per diner simply by walking around the seating area during the meal.
Taking into account the cost of a meal plan, we can assume that diners want to ensure that their meal swipe goes a long way, leading
them to serve themselves quantities of food that equate to the dollar value of a meal swipe. While this cost analysis may play a
significant role before diners serve their meals, after the food selection process has taken place, diners may not be able to fully
appreciate the total cost of their food, internally labeling it as a sunk cost and feeling less guilty about throwing their food away.
Transitioning to our specific results, even though the final quantity of food samples taken by students was low, the samples that were
successful in helping students decide how much food to serve on their plate did provide crucial insights into students’ decision-
making. As noted above, the Torta Ahogada was the most sampled item by students. Even though students were not aware that the
torta that was on display was the sample-sized version as opposed to the actual entree, students appreciated the smaller version
because it was a lower commitment relative to the larger serving. With this in mind, students were more willing to try one piece, and if
this sat well with them, they would come back for a second serving. We observed that some students who did not try the sample and
instead selected the full-size torta did not finish the item entirely. This process should therefore speak to the importance of entree size
in reducing food waste in the dining halls, however more research is needed to determine the overall effect of smaller portions.
Other limiting factors that we encountered during our research were sample visibility and guidance. For certain items, we were unclear
as to whether the reason for low sample consumption was because students were simply unaware of the samples presence in the dining
hall. The low budget and limited personnel of our study restricted our ability to advertise the samples. While visibility is crucial to the
effectiveness of samples, guiding students to the samples is also necessary. Without instruction, some students were not sure whether
or not to take a sample. The Torta example illustrated how having a dining worker instruct students to sample the item prior to serving
their meal increased sample uptake; the Malai Chicken Curry samples exemplified the effect of having signage plus arrows pointing to
the sample item on overall sample participation. In the future, having dining workers direct students to the samples from the onset
could help increase the effect of sample uptake, however we do acknowledge that the feasibility of this for a dining hall from a
personnel perspective may be dubious.
We kicked off our observational research under the assumption that students would benefit from samples because they would be able
to try their food before serving it on their plates, decide whether or not they enjoyed the sample enough to commit to a full-sized
serving, and then eat that serving in full without wasting their food. From our interactions with students and observations in the dining
halls, we gathered that samples are just one, small part of the process of reducing food waste. As evidence by the data, some students
valued their addition, while many others opted to take food as they normally would. Overall, a critical issue that post-consumer food
waste reduction efforts at Stanford will continue battling is the fact that, in the current all-you-care-to-eat format, students are
ultimately responsible for the quantity of their food selection. Although sampling efforts might help mitigate the immediate effect of
over-serving, students and other diners need targeted information about the negative effects of food waste before they are already
involved in the food selection process.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Dara Olmsted Silverstein, our internship supervisor, for her support and guidance throughout the process of
conducting our research. We would like to thank Chef Joe Guinto and his staff at Gerhard Casper Dining Commons for their
cooperation and flexibility over the last several months. Lastly, we would like to thank Twitter for its provision of continuous comedic
relief throughout this trying academic year.
2016-2017 Project Report
Thank you for the hard work you have completed during your internship this year. In order to capture
the knowledge you have gained through your experience, the Sustainable Stanford Internship Program
asks that all interns complete a short project report at the end of their internship.
The benefits of completing this report are:
A well written project report will be valuable during your upcoming job and/or graduate school search. Project reports are a great way to display your real world experience in your portfolio.
The information you share will be used to develop a resource database for future intern cohorts. Please pay it forward by providing detailed responses and honest feedback on both your successes and shortcomings.
1. Team Members: Alison Chen
2. Supervisor: Julie Muir
3. Internship Title: Zero Waste Intern
4. Project Summary: In 1-2 paragraphs, describe your primary project(s) in high level detail. If you had secondary projects,
please describe those as well (2-3 sentences each).
Primary:
My main project for the year was continuing to post and create content for the PSSI Facebook page that
I established the year prior. As always, I aimed to increase the page’s following, which has grown,
although not as rapidly as the first year. Another change that occurred was a shift towards more zero-
waste-centered posts, rather than general sustainability-related, that helped to refine the focus of our
Facebook page. I also made efforts to share posts from other Stanford sustainability organizations more
frequently.
My second major project, sustainability intern spotlights, was also a continuation from last year. The
goal for this undertaking was to both raise greater awareness about the work that sustainability interns
do on campus and create additional original content for the PSSI Facebook page. In the end, I chose to
create spotlights for Brittany Morra and Stephanie Fischer, the other interns at PSSI. I started by using
their initial survey response to formulate a few deeper questions that I interviewed them about. Then, I
created initial spotlight designs and got feedback from them. After making any requested updates, I
posted the spotlights on Facebook. The spotlights are probably among the page’s most well-received,
widely-shared posts of all time, so there is definitely something very compelling behind the stories of
student interns.
Secondary:
To further spread awareness of PSSI on campus, I designed stickers that could be distributed at tabling
events. We chose to create stickers to give out, as opposed a one-time use, disposable giveaway,
because we wanted to minimize the amount of waste generated. Furthermore, we realized stickers
would give us a lot of additional visibility, as they often end up on the computers or water bottles of
students that they bring around with them.
To support the Facebook page and provide future interns with some resources, I developed a
‘Sustainability Themes of the Month’ document and updated an ongoing social media calendar. The
themes document organizes previous posts on Facebook into common themes, such as ‘Zero Waste’ or
‘Food Waste,’ with one for every month of the year. It is intended to serve as a reference for common
online sources for sustainability-related content. The social media calendar contains sustainability-
related and general major holidays by date and acts as a reference for when it would be especially
pertinent to post about certain topics.
5. Project Status: What is the current status of your primary project(s)? Is the work completed? Are there any next steps?
- Facebook (social media)–ongoing - Sustainability Intern Spotlights–ongoing - Promotional Stickers–completed - Sustainability Themes of the Month–completed - Update Social Media Calendar for 2016-2017 Year–completed
6. Project Timeline: Provide a high level timeline of your primary project(s) with deliverables by month.
- Facebook (social media) o Ongoing posts on weekly basis–no specific timeline
- Sustainability Intern Spotlights o November: create updated survey to send to sustainability interns o December: email out survey o March: interview chosen interns o March: design first draft o April: get feedback o April: post updated version
7. Internship Time Commitment (hours worked on average- check one):
1-3 hrs/wk 3-8 hrs/wk 8+ hrs/wk
8. Measureable Outcomes: Describe the measurable outcomes of your primary and secondary projects during this internship. For
example:
- Shared 4 posts with original content on Facebook - Accumulated 44 likes on Facebook - Interviewed 2 other interns for sustainability intern spotlight - Designed 2 sustainability intern spotlights and shared on Facebook - Created 9 potential promotional sticker designs - Had 2 sticker designs printed and distributed at tabling events - Tabled at 2 events for PSSI/Stanford Recycling
9. Project Highlights/Favorite Moments: - Interviewing fellow interns about their project experiences/accomplishments and thoughts on
sustainability
10. Project Challenges/Lessons Learned: - Difficult to consistently increase social media following, stagnation can occur easily - Original content (especially involving people that followers recognize) results in the most
follower engagement and interest
11. Resources Used/Contacts Established: Did you work with any on or off campus organizations? If so, please include the organization and the contact information of the person/people you worked with and their role in the project.
N/A
12. Attachments/Supporting Materials (specify where these can be found): For example: project plans, project budgets, photos, outreach materials, important emails, reports, links to websites, links to document sharing sites, etc. https://www.facebook.com/stanfordrecycling/ https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4AZjgAa8tWjcVFIS0VObENLOHc
Thank you for the hard work you have completed during your internship this year. In order to capture
the knowledge you have gained through your experience, the Sustainable Stanford Internship Program
asks that all interns complete a short project report at the end of their internship.
The benefits of completing this report are:
A well written project report will be valuable during your upcoming job and/or graduate school search. Project reports are a great way to display your real world experience in your portfolio.
The information you share will be used to develop a resource database for future intern cohorts. Please pay it forward by providing detailed responses and honest feedback on both your successes and shortcomings.
1. Team Members: Chiamaka Ogwuegbu
Maria Chicuen
2. Supervisor: Dara Olmsted Silverstein
3. Internship Title: Sustainable Food Program
4. Project Summary: In 1-2 paragraphs, describe your primary project(s) in high level detail. If you had secondary projects,
please describe those as well (2-3 sentences each).
Food waste is a pressing issue for Stanford University’s Residential and Dining Enterprises (R&DE). Because there are numerous factors that contribute to the generation of food waste, this pilot project focused on one that has been studied by other universities in the Bay Area and across the United States: food quality. In order to assess the impact of students’ conceptions of food quality on food waste production, the pilot used food sampling to help students determine whether or not they liked the one of the main entrees served. Sampling was meant to equip diners with sufficient knowledge to serve themselves a quantity that was congruent with their initial perception of the sampled dish. After conducting observational research for two quarters at the Gerhard Casper Dining Commons, we found
that sampling was effective for specific diners, but the majority of patrons ultimately preferred to select foods without the sampling intervention. If R&DE were to implement samples at a larger scale, the success of this strategy would be contingent on the simultaneous adoption of other initiatives that directly address and inform diners about food waste reduction. Further, as part of any sampling program R&DE should focus on increasing its usage of compelling advertising and marketing techniques to heighten the salience of reducing food waste to its diners as well as empower staff members with sufficient information about the sampling program to maximize the potential of samples in the long-run.
5. Project Status: What is the current status of your primary project(s)? Is the work completed? Are there any next steps?
The work for our project is completed and we’ve submitted our report to Dara.
6. Project Timeline: Provide a high level timeline of your primary project(s) with deliverables by month.
December: Preliminary meetings with Dara
January – April: Sampling pilot
May: Preparation of final report
7. Internship Time Commitment (hours worked on average- check one):
1-3 hrs/wk x 3-8 hrs/wk 8+ hrs/wk
8. Measureable Outcomes: Describe the measurable outcomes of your primary and secondary projects during this internship. For
example:
- Piloted a sampling program during 6 dinners at Gerhard Casper Dining Commons - Developed a 17-page report on our findings
9. Project Highlights/Favorite Moments: - Working with Dara - The Gerhard Casper staff was incredibly helpful
10. Project Challenges/Lessons Learned: - Having to work within the limitations of the dining hall’s planned servery arrangement as
opposed to being able to test the exact sampling arrangement that we desired. - Extracting generalizable conclusions when each trial was fairly different - We should have started much earlier than we did.
11. Resources Used/Contacts Established: Did you work with any on or off campus organizations? If so, please include the organization and the contact information of the person/people you worked with and their role in the project.
We primarily worked with Dara and Chef Joe from Gerhard Casper.
12. Attachments/Supporting Materials (specify where these can be found): For example: project plans, project budgets, photos, outreach materials, important emails, reports, links to websites, links to document sharing sites, etc. Document attached alongside this report.
Thank you for the hard work you have completed during your internship this year. In order to capture
the knowledge you have gained through your experience, the Sustainable Stanford Internship Program
asks that all interns complete a short project report at the end of their internship.
The benefits of completing this report are:
A well written project report will be valuable during your upcoming job and/or graduate school search. Project reports are a great way to display your real world experience in your portfolio.
The information you share will be used to develop a resource database for future intern cohorts. Please pay it forward by providing detailed responses and honest feedback on both your successes and shortcomings.
1. Team Members: Helen Stroheker
2. Supervisor: Moira Hafer
3. Internship Title: Athletics Intern
4. Project Summary: During the football season, I was focusing on waste diversion and reduction in the football stadium and
at tailgates. Because this was the first year that compost bins were added to the stadium’s main level, I
monitored the success of those bins by checking throughout games to see which bins were full, and
which were contaminated. I also added signage to those bins which detailed what waste products,
specific to the stadium and the vendors there, should be thrown into each bin. I handed out composting
bags at tailgate areas, and monitored the bins there in a similar fashion. I then created a map and best
practices list to give to PSSI outlining where bins of each type should go, around the stadium entrances
and in tailgating areas. I also spent some time speaking to vendors to see what their practices were in
disposing of waste.
5. Project Status: The work is completed, although Moira and I are still checking to ensure that the maps are correct and
have an adequate level of detail to distribute to PSSI staff. In the future, we hope to be able to better
manage waste by adding more composting bins to tailgate areas, but that is outside of the scope of my
responsibilities.
6. Project Timeline: August 2016: Compost bins were added to stadium
September 2016: Signs were added to stadium bins
September-November 2016: Continued monitoring of bins in tailgate areas, around entrances, and
inside stadium, to better inform map for PSSI staff.
March-May 2017: Created maps for PSSI staff.
7. Internship Time Commitment (hours worked on average- check one):
1-3 hrs/wk 3-8 hrs/wk during Fall 8+ hrs/wk
8. Measureable Outcomes: -Laminated 300 signs to add to bins inside stadium
-Put up 300 signs on bins inside stadium
-Worked with five volunteers to hand out composting bags at tailgates
-Did outreach at AERC about athletics’ waste reduction during the Pac 12 Fitness Challenge
-Did outreach at football games and Fan Fest about waste reduction and different types of waste
specific to stadium vendors
-Created two maps, one of the stadium entrances and one of tailgate areas, for distribution to PSSI staff
-Created a best practices list to distribute to PSSI staff with maps
9. Project Highlights/Favorite Moments: I loved working with Moira and getting to know her as we did the often cumbersome job of putting up
signs on all the trash bins in the stadium. Although it was somewhat tedious, it was great to note that
this small action actually made a noticeable impact in terms of reducing bin contamination at the games
from then on.
10. Project Challenges/Lessons Learned: It was valuable to learn that sustainability work comes from the ground up. It isn’t always glamorous
work, and it is just as important to be the one laminating signs and pinning them up as someone
collecting statistics and presenting to a board on the university’s progress.
11. Resources Used/Contacts Established:
Other than Mora, the main resource for me was Julie Muir, who helped monitor waste bins at some of
the games and provided valuable information about how the waste services work, which I was able to
incorporate into the map I created.
12. Attachments/Supporting Materials (specify where these can be found): For example: project plans, project budgets, photos, outreach materials, important emails, reports, links to websites, links to document sharing sites, etc. Attached to email as ‘CompiledFootballWasteBins’ attachment
Tanvi Gambhir B.S. Civil and Environmental Engineering
Class of 2018
Sea Gill Project Supervisor
Lawn Surveying for Water Conservation
2016-2017 Project Report
Project Summary
For the lawn surveying project, my job was to survey all the lawns owned by Stanford along the
undergraduate and graduate residential areas on campus. A survey incorporates the following
quantitative and qualitative measurements:
Estimate of lawn area
Sprinkler count
Slope at the point of maximum slope
Percent shade
Protection from wind (Yes/No)
Frequency of use (Low/Medium/High)
GPS coordinates of the lawn location and description of nearby buildings
Based on these measurements, I further calculated the sprinkler to lawn area ratio, and used scoring
criterions developed by previous groups to determine the possible lawns that can be replaced. Using the
average rate, in gpm, of the sprinklers and a guideline on the number of times a week to water the
lawns found on the Stanford Water Resources website, I calculated the approximate gallons of water
consumed by each lawn in an average year.
This project was started by a former Sustainability intern and was picked up by Students for a
Sustainable Stanford (SSS) last year. I worked on the project through SSS last year and continued
working on the project this year as a Sustainability Intern. The main motivation behind this project were
the water rebates during the long period of drought; however, now the motivation has shifted to one of
keeping an inventory of the lawns on campus to use in for future purposes.
Project Status
The lawn surveying was completed on May 23, 2017 and the analysis was completed June 3, 2017.
Project Timeline
The primary task for the project was to complete surveying all of the lawns. I had the task of surveying
the lawns in the graduate housing behind Mirrielees, Cowell Cluster, Row housing, the housing behind
the Knoll, Florence Moore, and all of west campus housing. The graduate housing and Cowell Cluster
areas were completed in Fall 2016. No surveying was done in Winter 2017 due to the rain, so the rest of
the lawns were surveying in Spring 2017.
October 2016- graduate housing behind Mirrielees
November 2016- Cowell Cluster
April 2017- West Campus & Florence Moore Area
May 2017- Housing behind the Knoll & Row housing
May-June 2017- Data analysis
Internship Time Commitment (hours worked on average- check one):
1-3 hrs/wk 3-8 hrs/wk 8+ hrs/wk
Measurable Outcomes
Assumptions:
1. All of the sprinklers are in working condition and are being used
2. The lawns are watered in 3 cycles for 10 minutes per cycled whenever they are watered.
3. During the fall and spring the lawns are watered 2 days a week.
4. During the summer the lawns are watered 3 days a week.
5. The watering rate for each sprinkler is 1.825gpm (average between the rotor and spray head
sprinklers)
The following table was created based on the above assumptions:
Section 1 (EV) 2 (Manz
Area) 3 (Wilbur
Area)
4 (Cowell Cluster Area) 5 (Row)
6 (FLOMO
Area)
7 (GovCo Area) Total
Gals/day used 34219 16151 12045 6023 11552 8541 4544
According to the table, the Row houses use the greatest amount of water per square foot of area. This is
followed by the lawns in sections 2 and 3, which include lawns belonging to Manzanita and Wilbur.
Project Highlights/Favorite Moments:
One of the advantages of this project was that I was able to visit residential areas around campus that I
have never before been to. Overall it has been a fantastic experience.
Project Challenges/Lessons Learned:
During the actual lawn surveying, measuring the area of the irregularly- shaped lawns was a challenge
since they had shapes like curved sides and pointed edges.
I did not consider noting the different types of sprinklers used when I began surveying, so I had to use an
average sprinkler rate based on the rates of the two different types of sprinklers used on campus (rotor
and spray head).
Also, I was not able to find exact information of the frequency and time duration that the lawns were
watered, so I based my calculations on a guide recommended by Stanford Water Resources & Civil
Infrastructure website.
From these challenges, I realized that I need to have a careful plan before beginning a large project like
this.
Resources Used/ Contacts Established:
I briefly worked on this project as a member of Students for a Sustainable Stanford. At that time Erin
Pang and Erik Rosenberg were leading the project. This year, Erin Pang and Stanley Gu, wo of the SSS
members working on this project last year helped me survey the lawns. My supervisor Sea Gill also took
the time out of her busy schedule to help out during spring quarter. I am highly grateful for their help!
Attachments/Supporting Materials:
I am uploading the excel spreadsheets that contain all the data collected during the lawn surveys to the
shared R&DE Irrigation Survey 2015-16 folder on google drive. I will also upload the lawn watering
guideline pdf from the Stanford Resources & Civil Infrastructure website.
2016-2017 Project Report
Thank you for the hard work you have completed during your internship this year. In order to capture
the knowledge you have gained through your experience, the Sustainable Stanford Internship Program
asks that all interns complete a short project report at the end of their internship.
The benefits of completing this report are:
A well written project report will be valuable during your upcoming job and/or graduate school search. Project reports are a great way to display your real world experience in your portfolio.
The information you share will be used to develop a resource database for future intern cohorts. Please pay it forward by providing detailed responses and honest feedback on both your successes and shortcomings.
1. Team Members: Stephanie Fischer
2. Supervisor: Julie Muir
3. Internship Title: Zero Waste Outreach Intern
4. Project Summary:
My goal this year was to focus environmental communication and outreach on community
centers/organization on campus. To do this I wanted to meet individually with community center
staff/leaders and learn about their challenges and successes surrounding their sustainability. This goal
surfaced to become a consciousness called Earth in Color; an initiative developed to raise awareness
about environmental justice, and build economic infrastructure for community centers/groups may hold
sustainable events.
Another project I was working on was Stanford Powwow. Powwow is the largest student run event on
campus, so it was great that I was able to be on board. During my time as a volunteer, I sought out to be
an “environmental consultant” as the preparation for the event took place, and as well as during the
event itself. Earth in Color was a larger, theoretical aspect of my internship, while Stanford Powwow
was the logistical, “hands-on” aspect of the year.
5. Project Status:
Earth in Color is still in the works of gaining its momentum. The next steps for this would be to get
meetings with community center staff and discuss their ideas for it/involvement with it. Stanford
Powwow occurred this past Mother’s Day weekend, and I look forward to working with the Stanford
American Indian Organization (SAIO) next year to make next year’s Powwow even more sustainable.
6. Project Timeline:
Autumn Quarter:
Met with the Asian American Activities Center (A3C) to discuss concerns/successes of sustainability in
their practices. I also reached out to SAIO to see if I would be able to volunteer with Stanford Powwow.
Winter Quarter:
I created letters to Powwow vendors asking them to use earth-friendly products, and created an
advertisement for Powwow’s program (stating Powwow’s goal of being more sustainable and how the
attendees can help). Also reached out to Students for Sustainable Stanford (SSS) to discuss their
involvement in Earth in Color.
Spring Quarter:
I assisted in the final preparations for Powwow and volunteered about 30 hours during the event
weekend. I also met with SSS again to create more concrete framework for Earth in Color and get
contacts for community center staff.
7. Internship Time Commitment (hours worked on average- check one):
1-3 hrs/wk 3-8 hrs/wk 8+ hrs/wk
8. Measureable Outcomes:
-Powwow’s waste that went to landfill went down 20% from last year and we were able to
recycle 252 pounds of cardboard.
-Met with SSS three times
-Met with A3C one time
-Sent ~120 emails about Earth in Color and related causes
-Created environmental advertisement for Powwow
-Created letter for Powwow vendors
9. Project Highlights/Favorite Moments:
My favorite project was working with Stanford Powwow. Before this year, I never had the chance to go
to the event, and even though I was making trash runs most of the time, I still thoroughly enjoyed the
event! During my time volunteering, the environmental mindset was spreading amongst the other staff,
and that was very heartwarming to see. Even though the Powwow wasn’t the picturesque green event,
it made lots of headway in improving it’s sustainability – even if most of it was in mindset (which I
believe is the most important place to start anyways!)
10. Project Challenges/Lessons Learned:
The most difficult challenge this year was the very slow moving pace of Earth in Color. Even though I
must have sent up to 4 follow-up emails regarding meeting with community center staff; only one
meeting ever happened. I’m not sure why this was the case, perhaps email is not the best form of
communication, but I think focusing on finding personal contacts (which SSS has helped me out with)
will be the way I contact them all again next year.
11. Resources Used/Contacts Established:
-Stanford American Indian Organization/Native American Cultural Center
-Names: Isabella Robbins (Powwow coordinator) and Taylor Billey (Powwow staff)
REPORTProject by Cecily FooteSupervised by Sea Gill
Supported by the Sustainable Stanford Internship Program
01
INTERNSHIP DATES 4 Oct 2016 (orientation) – 5 Jun 2017 (report submission) AVERAGE TIME COMMITMENT 1-3 hrs/wk
02
CONTENTS
03 Glossary of Terms 03 Project Summary 04 Current Status 05 Next Steps 07 Project Timeline 08 Measurable Outcomes 09 Project Highlights 09 Challenges & Lessons 10 Resources & Contacts 10 Supporting Materials
03
GLOSSARY OF TERMS RSC Red Solo cup (or equivalent alternatives like the Kirkland Signature Chinet Big Red Cup), some of which are blue and all of which are made of plastic #6 a.k.a. polystyrene OAPE The Stanford Office of Alcohol Policy and Education OAPE cup Clear reusable cup with red lines for alcohol portioning. They were purchased by OAPE from Eco Promotional Products, independent of this project, and chosen for compatibility with drinking games
PROJECT SUMMARY The problem of waste in fraternity parties is twofold: first, most houses use RSCs, which are not recyclable; second, clean-up after parties is often sorely insufficient, including problems like poorly-sorted waste, overflowing dumpsters, and messes left unaddressed in and around the house. The latter problem also places undue burden on housing building managers, cleaning staff, and PSSI waste corral pick-up crews. The goal of this project was to find an alternative cup that worked within the behavioral and budgetary constraints of fraternities open to change. We partnered with Sigma Nu and OAPE to pilot OAPE cups in major parties and casual settings. The broad conclusion: the OAPE cups work in place of RSCs and the residents really like them. But: they have a limited lifespan, we still need more usage data, and other houses – all of which have their own nuances – are yet to be addressed.
04
CURRENT STATUS
- Our partnership with OAPE is sealed Joe Kaczorowski agreed to distribute flyers with cup deliveries and is still happy offering extra cups to houses like Sigma Nu for testing. - Sigma Nu responded well They’ve been using the cups and they really like them. They also haven’t needed any extra dumpster pick-ups, which is great. The chapter has also created a new position, Sustainability Chair, to which the enthusiastic Andrew Quirk was elected. However, they continue to have problem like overflowing trash inside the house, poor sorting, and reversion back to RSCs. - Other houses are interested, too Multiple other houses including Sigma Chi have reached out to Sea on their own volition, interested in sustainability. This is promising! I think they’ll need some hand-holding, though. KEY TAKEAWAY: Frats are not committed to using RSCs but rather are willing to use good, functional alternatives like the OAPE cups. Convenience is huge because customs and behaviors are strongly ingrained.
05
NEXT STEPS
- Go to Ernie’s Liquor (3870 El Camino Real) Ernie’s Liquor is the go-to source for kegs and for cups. The problem is they’re selling RSCs. Because Ernie’s is easy, local, convenient, and baked into the party planning process, frats will buy whatever cups they’re supplying. Change the source and we’ll change the waste! Talk to whoever is in charge and see if we can get them to sell recyclable cups instead. If they’re concerned about price increase, suggest making up for any extra cost by raising the price of the kegs. - Follow up on flyer distribution Make sure they get printed and sent with cups in the fall when OAPE delivers cups to houses. Catching houses early in the year would go a long way toward changing behavior since staff and residents are still figuring out how to run things. - Extend reach to other houses Continue pursing sustainability with all housed frats (Kappa Alpha, Kappa Sigma, Phi Kappa Psi, Sigma Chi, Sigma Nu, and Theta Delta Chi). Reach out to Carter if you need help working with them or want to bring them all together for a meeting. You can also extend efforts to self-ops and co-ops that regularly host parties (EBF (happy hour), Kairos (wine & cheese), Haus Mitt (beer & pretzels), Terra (happy hour), French House (crepe night), Casa (pizzeria), etc.). - Create a sustainable party planning resource This could be a flyer, a video (see Nick Peters’s video in the Supporting Materials section), a website, or whatever is going to be easiest to use. Try to make it general to all possible party contexts but include very specific tips like Amazon links to good recyclable and compostable cups to buy and their price points at different quantities. You could also include cost/benefit comparisons and environmental footprints.
06
- Measure parties better Some ideas: photos of corral bins before and after the party, a dedicated bin for just used OAPE cups (with signage), # people at the party, # cups set out, # cups broken, # cups found the next morning, time it took for clean-up, weight and/or volume of waste, sources and types of waste, ideas for mitigating that waste… - Rally houses together Explain to them that they could all pitch in for a large bulk order at the beginning of the year, possibly in conjunction with OAPE, to save money. They could collectively buy extra and individually refill their stocks as they break/disappear. To extend life of cups, suggest washing by hand instead of repeatedly subjecting cups to the intense heat of Hobart.
07
PROJECT TIMELINE October Orientation to SSIP and to the landscape of party waste at Stanford Met with Joe Kaczorowski (Operations Manager at OAPE) Met with Michael Kim, resident and sustainability champion at Sigma Nu November Moved forward with OAPE cups as a possible solution Met with Joe again for details about the cups December Winter break January Coordinated the first pilot party with Sigma Nu February Officially tried out the cups at Sigma Zoo, Sigma Nu’s first all-campus of the year (~500 people) Made a first draft of the OAPE cup flyer to distribute with the cups March Debriefed the party and planned for spring Spring Break April Planned detailed metrics for trying the cups at a large, all-campus spring party Attempted to coordinate said party Finalized OAPE cup flyer May Wrapped things up Wrote final report
08
MEASUREABLE OUTCOMES - Produced 1 flyer that will reach all houses that OAPE delivers cups to next year (up to 35,
counting all Greek houses, cooperative houses, and self-operated houses) to encourage sustainable party planning
- Developed 1 final report with detailed next steps for effective project transition
- Distributed 200 OAPE cups to 1 house to use in place of red solo cups for the last 4.5 months of the academic year, diverting hundreds of RSCs from landfill
- Coordinated 1 pilot party to try out OAPE cups in an all-campus setting with estimated attendance of 500 people
- Met with 5 project stakeholders o Joe Kaczorowski, Operations Manager at OAPE o Sigma Nu’s Michael Kim, house sustainability advocate of the past few years (‘17) o Sigma Nu’s Keyur Mehta, Social Chair i.e. one of the party planners (‘17) o Sigma Nu’s Andrew Quirk, Sustainability Chair (‘19) o Chris Carter, Program Manager for housed fraternities and FSL (Interfraternity Council
and the Multicultural Greek Council)
09
PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS Teaming up with Joe at OAPE was awesome. It was really cool having his support and perspective and this project wouldn’t have gotten nearly as far without his help. Meeting with Carter was also fun and fascinating. He has a wonderful, very grounded, and very critical perspective of Greek life that was incredibly helpful for me as someone who knows almost nothing about their world. Overall, my favorite moments were talking with people in fraternities who genuinely seemed to care and wanted to see positive change happen. My first conversation like this was with Michael Kim but I also had similar exchanges with a few friends in TDX that fed me energy.
CHALLENGES & LESSONS Communication with Sigma Nu was one of the biggest challenges. It was hard to get responses and hard to set meetings, especially toward the end of the year when I was pushing for a second trial party. It was also difficult to try and capture data about the parties. Parties are not particularly easy to quantify, but it was made even more challenging because the members of Sigma Nu were uncomfortable with me coming to their parties to take notes and photos. They eventually conceded to letting me come take more data in exchange for a refill of free OAPE cups, but never responded to my organizational efforts. My two biggest lessons: 1) Talking to people in person is unbelievably more effective and fun than any other efforts. I
really can’t encourage this heartily enough. You’ll make so much progress this way. 2) Behavior change is the biggest obstacle in this project.
010
RESOURCES & CONTACTS Me (Cecily Foote) Feel very free to contact me with any questions or advice about the project (512) 922-9713 Joe Kaczorowski He’s your go-to for everything OAPE-related, including the cups! [email protected] Chris Carter Reach out to Carter with any fraternity-related troubles or questions (650) 206-3871 (text is best) Nick Peters He heads the house kitchens and has a ton of knowledge about custodial-related issues [email protected] / (650) 520-0673 Julie Muir All-knowing PSSI waste wizard! [email protected] Matt Geenen Row housing building manager and on-the-ground expert of waste statuses at houses [email protected]
SUPPORTING MATERIALS All important documents can be found in this Google Drive folder: http://bit.ly/2qW2Ibe This includes this report, the OAPE cup flyer, assets like photos and logos, details about the February pilot party, Julie Muir’s sustainably party planning flyer for inspiration, and Nick Peters’s kitchen cleanliness video, also for inspiration. I also found an interesting presentation from George Washington University estimating the impact of RSCs. There are no citations or real credibility but it was an interesting find: https://prezi.com/j5uc6pwagxki/infamous-red-solo-cup/
2016-2017 Project Report
Thank you for the hard work you have completed during your internship this year. In order to capture
the knowledge you have gained through your experience, the Sustainable Stanford Internship Program
asks that all interns complete a short project report at the end of their internship.
The benefits of completing this report are:
● A well written project report will be valuable during your upcoming job and/or graduate school search. Project reports are a great way to display your real world experience in your portfolio.
● The information you share will be used to develop a resource database for future intern cohorts. Please pay it forward by providing detailed responses and honest feedback on both your successes and shortcomings.
1. Team Members:
N/A
2. Supervisor:
Sea Gill
3. Internship Title:
Low-Flow Shower Head Trials
4. Project Summary: In 1-2 paragraphs, describe your primary project(s) in high level detail. If you had secondary projects,
please describe those as well (2-3 sentences each).
Throughout this year, the main goal of my project was to install and help study student behavior with
respect to trial low-flow showers produced by Nebia. Initially, it took a couple of months for the showers
to be installed in the necessary buildings because of some issues with the manufacturer. However, we
were able to successfully install at least one shower in 4 residences across campus by the beginning of
spring quarter. From there,
I designed a feedback survey to help gauge student’s perspectives on the shower to see if it these
showers are user friendly. After receiving some feedback data, there is an even divide among the
number of students who like and dislike the low-flow shower head. This is result brings up some
questions because although the divide was even with students liking or not liking the new shower head,
two-thirds of students say that at least one of these shower heads should be installed in every
bathroom. Most of the students cite that it is an option to students who do like the shower head or for
students who want to be conscious about how much water they are using.
5. Project Status: What is the current status of your primary project(s)? Is the work completed? Are there any next steps?
The current status of the project is that there is still data being analyzed on the occupancy side of things
to see how many students actually used the shower. Also more concrete steps to get the behavioral
aspect of the students is needed.
6. Project Timeline: Provide a high level timeline of your primary project(s) with deliverables by month.
September: Initial work and trial of Nebia showerhead
October: Planning on which residences will receive showerhead
November: Contact Nebia to tell them where they will need to install overbreak
January: Remain in contact with Nebia as they cannot install the showerheads yet
March: Finalize where the showers are going based on interns in the buildings
April: Occupancy data collection
May: Finalize feedback survey
June: Analyze occupancy and feedback survey data
7. Internship Time Commitment (hours worked on average- check one):
☐1-3 hrs/wk ☐3-8 hrs/wk ☐8+ hrs/wk
8. Measureable Outcomes: Describe the measurable outcomes of your primary and secondary projects during this internship. For
example:
Developed survey that was distributed to hundreds students and received 72 responses
9. Project Highlights/Favorite Moments:
Developing a relationship with Sea was nice because I had been working for Kristin all of the 2015-2016
school year. Trying the new showerhead for the first time was a refreshing experience that I hope many
other students will experience
10. Project Challenges/Lessons Learned:
Working with Nebia was frustrating because of the problems that came up when needing to install the
shower heads and they weren’t ready to give them to use
11. Resources Used/Contacts Established: Did you work with any on or off campus organizations? If so, please include the organization and the contact information of the person/people you worked with and their role in the project.
Nebia (Sea has contact information)
12. Attachments/Supporting Materials (specify where these can be found): For example: project plans, project budgets, photos, outreach materials, important emails, reports, links to websites, links to document sharing sites, etc. All supplemental spreadsheets will be sent to Sea when they are done
Nate Marshall
R&DE Wilbur Sustainability Intern Spring Quarter 2017
5/31/17
Internship Report
Summary
During the past academic quarter, I have been the Wilbur Sustainability Manager, a
position that R&DE created in March 2017 to facilitate sustainability projects in a freshmen
dorm complex. Despite the short duration of my internship, I have learned valuable lessons, and,
I believe, achieved tangible results. Details about the projects that I took on and about the
internship’s successful elements and aspects that I would like to change are found later in this
report. In general, I spent about 5 hours per week on the internship. I met weekly with Sea Gill,
R&DE’s internship coordinator, to discuss the upcoming projects, adjust project prioritization,
check-in, and discuss any necessary resources. Personally, I deeply enjoyed working on
sustainability projects this quarter and was pleased with the impact that a short ten-week
internship had. Sustainability internships at freshmen dorms, such as Wilbur, are a promising
prospect to continue investing in.
Projects
My initial objective was to organize my priorities for the quarter. Over the course of
several meetings with Sea, my supervisor, as well as Michael Meehan, my contact at R&DE
Dining, I developed a document to list my intended projects for the quarter, schedule what
projects I would work on each week, and compile beneficial information and emails of RAs and
other individuals that I would likely interact with during the quarter. Throughout the quarter, this
schedule guided me, and now, it provides a record of the projects that I worked on. I highly
recommend that future interns develop a similar week-by-week schedule, even if it is modified
as the quarter progresses.
The first project I did was introducing myself to Wilbur residents and establishing myself
as a resource for sustainability-related questions. I accomplished this by sending out an email
through the Wilbur front desk to all Wilbur residents containing a link to a survey, listing the
projects that I would be working on, and providing my contact information. I was pleased that
several times during the quarter, Wilbur residents did reach out to me via email with questions or
concerns, and I served as a bridge between students and Sea/R&DE, who could respond to the
students’ needs. The following week, I sent an email through the RAs with a Green Tip of the
Week and information about upcoming field trips. Though I asked the RAs to copy me when
they forwarded the email to their residents, I did not hear from all RAs, so I am not sure if all
Wilbur residents received this email (though I know at least 6 of 8 dorms did). I would have
liked to send out more Green Tips of the Week and have more frequent email contact with
Wilbur residents, but sending emails through RAs was difficult, and the Wilbur Front Desk did
not want to overload residents with emails. The lack of ability to communicate regularly with
residents also made it difficult to do field trips (though organizing field trips was probably too
ambitious for my ten-week internship in the first place). The two field trips that happen in late
April to the Central Energy Facility and Stanford Farm were poorly attended, but these are good
locations for future field trips if an intern has more time to promote these events well and
perhaps, provide an incentive for attendance to entice more residents to come.
I found the results of the survey that I sent to residents at the beginning of the quarter
quite interesting, so I listed the insights that I gained from the survey below. Parenthesis indicate
the number of students who provided a particular response.
Positive current sustainability initiatives that students can identify:
o Multirecyclers/recycling program (12)
Generally positive feedback about multirecyclers, though a student
suggested landfill bin liners, and two suggested a bin for each roommate
o Food donations (2)
o Dining hall composting (1)
o Nebia showerheads (4)
o Dining hall gardens and farm (1)
Ideas for improvement and future programs
o Enthusiastic support of the Wilbur Thrift Store and Give-n-Go donations
o Make compostable bins more accessible (5)
o Incentives to use less electricity
o Automatic light occupancy sensors in common areas
o Removing paper towels room so hand dryers are used exclusively (2)
o Orientation about how to use compost, in particular
o Compost bins in dorm kitchens
o Use LED ceiling lights
o Serve less beef and pork
o Train cards
o Prominently featured guides about waste sorting
In general, students believe that sustainability is important but are not entirely sure about
how to live a sustainable lifestyle. They think that Stanford and Wilbur are doing a good job with
sustainability but are not very knowledgeable about what projects Stanford and R&DE are doing
with regard to sustainability.
Though I did not complete this project until week 8, another way I reached out to Wilbur
residents was to place conservation posters on dorm bulletin boards. The posters that I put up
were from students in a Conservation Photography class that I took who gave me permission to
use their posters. Since these poster are laminated, I am hoping to collect them at the end of the
year so they can be used again.
One of the most effective forms of outreach, in my opinion, were the waste trainings that
I did during house meetings in Wilbur dorms. Almost all Wilbur dorms hold dorm meetings at
10 PM on Wednesday evenings, so I originally planned to do two waste trainings per Wednesday
evening to fit in all 8 dorms in the middle of the quarter. In practice, however, this was not really
possible. Because I only ended up doing one waste training per Wednesday during weeks 3-7, I
only made it to five dorms. During the waste trainings, I made announcements, particularly about
the Give-n-Go program and did an interactive sorting activity. For the activity, I handed out
cards with pictures of common items that students would need to dispose of. I set bins in the
room labeled compost, cardboard, PMG, paper, compost, and landfill, and the students placed
their card in a bin. I then reviewed whether items were sorted correctly with the students,
answered questions, and explained why sorting is important. I finished by discussing trends that I
noticed from doing waste audits around Wilbur, and I often brought in examples of mis-sorted
waste that I had noticed in the waste corral near the dorm I was presenting at.
During the quarter, I performed three waste audits. The first was an audit of the Zero-
Waste Bin (ZWB) that Arroyo received at the beginning of the quarter. The audit took place
from April 11 to May 2. Rather surprisingly, the bin was not frequently used, and I am curious
about how the usage of the ZWB in arroyo’s lounge compared to ZWB usage in other dorm
lounges. The bin did, however, result in significant percentage landfill diversion for the items
that were placed in it. The second waste audit I did, which occurred April 11-April 25, was at the
Junipero/Okada and the Otero/Rinconada waste corrals. At this time, Okada and Junipero had
received new multirecyler bins in each room, but Otero and Rinconada had not. Both in terms of
the quantitative results of the audit and the qualitative observations that I made over the course of
the audit, I concluded that the multirecycler bins had a positive effect on landfill diversion and
sorting. This conclusion can be further tested when I examine the results of my third audit, which
covered all of the waste corrals in Wilbur from May 8 to May 22. I have not yet studied the
results of this audit, but I am excited to search for insights from this data. Among the things that
I intend to study are whether there is additional evidence that the multirecyclers increased
landfill diversion and sorting accuracy by comparing this most recent audit with the April
audit. Since Rinconada and Otero received the multirecyclers on May 5, between the conclusion
of the April audit and the beginning of the May audit, I would expect an improvement in landfill
diversion to confirm my initial conclusion of multirecycler effectiveness. I also plan to examine
bin sizing and quantity and attempt to better optimize these. Additionally, I want to compile a list
of observations about sorting mistakes and make a plan to address these. I will calculate the
landfill diversion percentage and search for other trends in the data. One observation that I
frequently made was that the bathroom paper towels in compostable bags were often being
placed in the landfill dumpsters rather than the compost, often because the compost bin was full.
This issue is not particularly complicated to correct but is rather significant around the Wilbur
complex.
Several new projects began this spring quarter in Wilbur, among these the Arroyo ZWB
and multirecycler stacking for the entire complex. Additionally, Okada received a Nebia low-
flow mist showerhead in each bathroom, with a 0.75 gallon/minute flow rate (60% of the flow of
the regular 1.25 gallon showerheads). I am helping collect feedback from Okada residents, which
another intern will analyze, and I studied the data from occupancy sensors that were in place at
each Nebia shower for the first several days after the installation. Among the relevant
observations that I obtained from the sensor data were that the average shower length in Okada
was 5-6 minutes (likely an overestimate because the sensor could be triggered if the shower is
occupied but the shower is not running), and the showers were used just over twice per hour, 24
hours per day. Though the sensors were only running for a couple of days (sensors ran out of
battery at variable times), I estimated that the Nebia showers saved 2200 gallons of water relative
to a standard showerhead, which came out to just over 5 gallons saved each hour for the dorm as
a whole. One of the important takeaways from the occupancy sensors was that students used the
Nebia showerheads even though standard showerheads were still present in each bathroom not
just for the first day or two but consistently after the showerheads were installed. Further
information will be available once the resident surveys are complete.
I only completed one project with R&DE dining, though a future intern could potentially
work on more dining-related projects. I contacted the organizations that receive food donations
from Wilbur dining hall and asked for information about their organization and about Stanford’s
donations. I compiled their information and photos into a poster that can be placed in the kitchen
to inform kitchen staff about the impact of the food donation program and encourage employee
support for the food donation program. I also provided a template poster so that other dining
halls can paste their food donation information and easily create similar posters.
In addition to studying waste audit data, my other ongoing project that is supporting the
Give-n-Go donations program at Wilbur and implementing a Wilbur Thrift Store. As far as I
know, Stanford has not tried a thrift store concept at move-out before, but I decided to try this at
Wilbur immediately before the Give-n-Go program begins. I will use a few outdoor tables to
collect goods for two days, and students will be free to take items that they need or would like.
After two days, all remaining items will be contributed to the Give-n-Go bins. After this occurs
next week, I will discuss the project’s effectiveness with Sea. In addition to the Thrift Store, I
will check Give-n-Go bin fullness, encourage students to return all dining hall utensils and
plates, and monitor the size and quality of items being placed in Give-n-Go bins.
Lessons and Conclusions
I am grateful for the opportunity to work as Wilbur Sustainability Manager this quarter,
and I believe this position has vast future potential, especially because each class of new
Stanford students must be re-educated about practices of sustainability. I believe this internship
position was beneficial for several reasons. Students in Wilbur approached me as Sustainability
Manager with questions, and I could provide them with access to resources to fit their needs. The
Sustainability Manager also serves as a representative of the university’s, R&DE’s, and fellow
Stanford students’ commitment to a sustainable future. Because the Sustainability Manager is a
resident, they can more easily reach out to fellow Wilbur residents to seek feedback or to provide
trainings or facilitate workshops or events. Also, the student can easily collect data within the
Wilbur complex because of their proximity. I learned, however, that it is difficult to reach out to
all eight Wilbur dorms as one individual. I did not, for example, have the opportunity to present
waste trainings at every dorm, though only interning for ten weeks caused me to have a limited
timeframe for waste trainings. I would have liked to do more events such as create resident-
drawn posters for paper towel dispensers in each dorm. The waste trainings, I think, are a
particularly important component of the position and should ideally occur at each dorm every
year. Particular now that Green Living Representatives no longer exist in Wilbur dorms,
increasing contact between the R&DE intern and fellow peers will make the sustainability
manager position more effective. There are two solutions to this issue: the Wilbur Sustainability
Manager intern, if the position to to continue, could begin working earlier in the year, or there
could be an East and a West Wilbur Sustainability Manager (two Sustainability Managers).
Ideally, there would be two interns in Wilbur so more in-dorm outreach, as I described above,
could be done. If there are financial or other limitations, however, I think that one Wilbur
Sustainability Manager is sufficient for most of the necessary tasks, especially with a several
additional weeks for the internship. Starting early in winter quarter would probably allow
students to adequately settle and R&DE to identify an intern.
There are several additional opportunities for improvement of the Wilbur Sustainability
Manager position. First, communication would the Wilbur Front Desk about the quantity of
emails that the intern can send would be great in the future so the intern can better plan their
email messaging to Wilbur residents. To help students better sort waste, I think waste corrals
could have informational posters, with graphics showing what bin common items (especially
pizza boxes, red Solo cups, bubble wrap, and boba tea cups) go in. This could be a project for a
future intern. I do think field trips would be great for the sustainability intern to organize.
Because of the short timeframe, busyness, and communication issues, I failed to effectively
organize and promote field trips. Students could greatly benefit from physically experiencing
sustainability-related sites, such as the Recycling Center, Central Energy Facility, Stanford Farm,
or by volunteering with a local sustainability-related organization, so a future intern could devote
more effort to field trips. There is also potential for increased collaboration with R&DE dining,
possibly on a project to reduce student food waste.
Overall, I think the requirements of the sustainability manager position are not too
demanding for a student intern, and there are benefits for both the intern and residents.
Particularly if the intern can start their job and get acquainted with their tasks earlier in the year
and can arrange field trips and waste trainings at the beginning of the quarter, when residents
tend to have greater availability to participate, I think this internship will help to educate
incoming Stanford students about the importance of sustainability and contribute to future
R&DE projects.
My secondary projects were:
a) Helping plan, coordinate, and execute various elements of Celebrating Sustainability. I worked with Sara-Katherine to create an art display that included an interactive exhibit for festival-goers to contribute to, contributed photographs for display, and set up the art exhibits at the festival. I also assisted with securing donations for Celebrating Sustainability, including a docent-led tour of Fitzgerald Marine Reserve donated by Bill Gomez for a raffle prize, and a bouquet from Hidden Villa’s CSA which was used for table decorations. I also took photos of the event for use on social media.
b) Attending basketball games and tabling during RecycleMania to raise awareness for the campaign and collect pledges. I also took photos at the basketball games, again primarily for use on social media.
c) Gathering feedback from undergraduate event planners to inform the retooling of the Green Events program for use by students, and incorporation into the ASSU funding process. I contacted event planners to fill out a survey and provide feedback on written materials, which I compiled and shared with Sara-Katherine. I also helped edit the Green Events checklist for clarity in use by student planners.
d) Planning an event for graduate students to raise awareness for Office of Sustainability campaigns and increase involvement amongst the graduate community. This project is ongoing.
5. Project Status:
My primary project (i.e. the video) is complete.
6. Project Timeline: - February
o Identify purpose of video and brainstorm possible content o First draft of script
- March o Revise script o First draft of storyboard o Identify potential filming locations
- April o Film shots w/o collaborators o Contact collaborators (Conservation Program, water team, friends) o Continue to revise script o Assemble shots in FCPX o Film shots w/ collaborators o Continue to assemble video in FCPX o Get feedback (continuous) from Sara-Katherine o Edit video
- May o Get feedback from Lauren, water team o Continue edits o Get feedback from Tom, water team o Final edits
7. Internship Time Commitment (hours worked on average- check one):
1-3 hrs/wk 3-8 hrs/wk ✓ 8+ hrs/wk
8. Measureable Outcomes: Describe the measurable outcomes of your primary and secondary projects during this internship. For
example:
- Collaborated with 3 stakeholder groups with interest in my video - Created video with potential viewership >5000 - Collected ~160 pledges for RecycleMania - Procured 2 donations for Celebrating Sustainability - Collected Green Events feedback from 5 student event planners - Constructed interactive art display used by 40(?) Celebrating Sustainability guests
9. Project Highlights/Favorite Moments:
Learning to use Final Cut Pro was useful, since my previous video production experience was only in
iMovie and I have a very negative relationship with that software! Final Cut is a much more versatile
software, less buggy and crash prone, and overall just less infuriating to work with. I don’t plan to seek
out video production opportunities much in the future, but it’s good to know that if asked, I now have
the skills to create a reasonably professional-looking video.
I also enjoyed filming with the Conservation Program to get footage of tiger salamander larvae. Since I
worked with the Program several summers ago, and much of my prior work experience has been in the
field, I felt at home mucking around the shore of Lake Lag and it was a nice way to incorporate my
interest in ecology with the more human- and tech-focused subject of the video.
10. Project Challenges/Lessons Learned:
Learning Final Cut was not without its challenges, as is expected when learning any new software on the
job. But I discovered along the way that YouTube is full of illuminating tutorials, so a bit of searching can
provide step-by-step instructions to almost any FCPX function. I also learned that for functions not
native to the software, there are abundant plug-ins that one can easily download—I used one such
plugin for the captions in my video.
Navigating the bureaucracy around whom to seek feedback from and when was also challenging. Sara-
Katherine was very helpful in guiding me through the process, and thankfully forgiving of the occasional
slip-up, too. I wasn’t used to having to go through a middle-messenger at so many points in the process,
so I found the inefficiency of it a little frustrating. Since I’m going to work in city government after
graduation, though, it’s probably good that I got a taste of burearocracy!
11. Resources Used/Contacts Established:
Campus Conservation Program: Alan Launer, Esther Cole, Wallis Robinson Water team: Julia Nussbaum, Jennifer Fitch OOS staff: Sara-Katherine, Lauren, Moira, Rashmi
12. Attachments/Supporting Materials (specify where these can be found):
Video on YouTube: https://goo.gl/mai1Cp
Photos of events (Celebrating Sustainability, RecycleMania basketball games) are on Sara-Katherine’s
computer
Editable video files to come…(will be on Google Drive, Sara-Katherine will have the link)
