1. EcoNauts
• Main goal is to interact and educate fellow students about sustainability
• Invited by resident advisors or other organizations on campus to educate by
giving presentations and leading educational games and activities, such as:
• Water Bar (blind water taste test to promote water conservation, image
above)
• Water Conservation Jeopardy
• Trash Sort Game (cuts outs of items that need to be properly place in
different categories)
• Reusable Bag Decorating (provide reusable bags and educate about
plastics)
• Actual trash sorting in hazmat suits
• Education and outreach via Social media
Birch Aquarium Sustainability Internship
• Marked observations down as to how the guest interacted with the waste
and recycling receptacles
• Noted specific aspects and procedures that could be changed to increase the
overall sustainability of the aquarium
• Researched ways to integrate news techniques and sustainable practices
and compiled them
• Created a new payout for current and future waste containers
• Noted diversion rates which focused my area to the waste education and the
need for a sustainability team due to lack of resources
Birch Aquarium Sustainability Team and Action Plan
By: Haley Kunert, University of California San Diego, EcoNaut and Sustainability Intern
Supervisor: Krista Mays Faculty Mentor: Cheryl Peach
Introduction Past ThreeYears:Diversion of Waste Summary and Future Actions
EcoNauts and Birch Internship Responsibilities
I became the Sustainability Intern with the training received from my EcoNauts position
References
Action Plan for Birch Aquarium
Sustainability Team
"Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institute of Oceanography." :: Birch Aquarium:
The Interpretive Center for Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San
Diego ::. Scripps Institute of Oceanography, n.d. Web. 09 May 2015.
<http://aquarium.ucsd.edu/>.
Brundtland, Gro Harlem. Our Common Future. Nairobi, Kenya: UN
Documents Cooperation Circles, 2007. Print.
Moldan, Bedřich, Svatava Janoušková, and Tomáš Hák. "How to
Understand and Measure Environmental Sustainability: Indicators and
Targets." Ecological Indicators 17 (2012): 4-13. Web.
• Best view of environmental sustainability is to look at how actions affect
the world around, by maintaining, and improving the Earth and it’s
supporting systems (Moldan 2012)
• As society develops, people need to take caution in a way that “meets the
needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs” (Brundtland 2007)
• There are positions in Housing, Dining and Hospitality, the EcoNauts,
student workers, that promote and educate about sustainable living
• Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institute of Oceanography has the mission “to
provide ocean science education, to interpret Scripps Institution of
Oceanography research, and to promote ocean conservation” (Birch 2015)
• Aquariums are instructional institutions that focus on education and it
appears that they would benefit from developing and adopting a team, like
the EcoNauts, at Birch in order to help further their conservation and
sustainability goals
A special thanks to:
Krista Mays the Housing, Dining and Hospitality Sustainability
Manager at UCSD
Cheryl Peach, Director, Scripps Educational Alliances at Birch
Aquarium
Sheri Knox the Senior Planning Analyst at Birch Aquarium
My Fellow EcoNauts , coworkers , who helped create and develop
different means of promoting sustainable practices and inspiring
this project
Figure 1.) Represents the immediate action that
can be taken at Birch Aquarium once a
Sustainability Team has been created from staff
members.
Figures A and B: There is a need for Birch
Aquarium to push towards more education on
sustainability when compared to UCSD’s campus to
focus on their waste diversion because so little is
being recycled
Acknowledgements
• Birch Aquarium would benefit by empowering staff to create
a sustainability team to help further sustainability aims by:
• Creating further educational opportunities for visitors
and staff to learn about sustainable lifestyles
• Helping the aquarium reduce its own carbon footprint
• Save money by using less and more efficient resources
• Most people do not fully understand the impacts their actions
have on the planet and need to be taught at an earlier age,
such as:
• Habitat destruction
• Resource depletion
• Pollution
• Biodiversity loss
• Deterioration of ecosystem services
• All are impacts if people do not live sustainably and
change habits now, which can cause major issues later on
• People need to live and learn more sustainable lifestyles in
order to prolong security of ecosystems and resources
Plan/Specific
Component
Action Steps
Cos
t (0-
$$$$)
Aspects of
Sustainability
Addressed
Photo Credit: Haley Kunert (left 2), CleanRiver® Mini Bin (Rightmost)
Photo credit: Birch Aquarium at Scripps
Institution of Oceanography:
Photo Credit: http://libraries.ucsd.edu/
Photo Credit: EcoNauts Facebook Page, taken by the EcoNauts
A
B