An Interview with Sustainability Analyst, Molly Wasserman

Tell us a little bit about how you  first became interested in the environment, sustainability.  

I think it's always been a part of my life. For example, here in Bend, Oregon, in elementary school we would learn about how to recycle, saving energy and water, and environmental stewardship. We started focusing on our environmental impact at a very young age and since we have so much access to nature, it's something that a lot of people really value in this community and want to protect. One thing that affected me more than I really realized when I was younger was that my grandfather would always pick up trash whenever we went on hikes. He would pick up trash and tuck it into the waistband of his pants with his ironically plastic water bottle. My mom said it was something that he had always done and he always said he did it because it was the right thing to do. 

He actually didn't really understand climate change until I was in college and my brother showed him a documentary on it. He spent the majority of his life conducting sustainable actions without really having a concept of Sustainability. As I got older I started to understand what we were doing as “Sustainability” and what it means to live sustainably, but before that it was just something that was part of how I lived, part of growing up and it didn't necessarily have a label. It goes to show that your actions are valuable to you because you believe they’re the right thing to do, not because they have been labeled in some way by someone else. 

Tell us a little bit about what you enjoy most in your field as a sustainability practitioner.  

Well, when I started college, I didn't know what I wanted to pursue. I'm very STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) oriented, so I was thinking I would focus on chemistry or physics. However, in my first year, I took an environmental sociology class, and that inspired me to pursue the environmental science degree. That class opened my eyes to intersectionality and the interconnectedness of everything. Instead of just saying, yeah, we're only talking about numbers, we get to apply those numbers and talk about what they mean from a social impact too because that's what really matters. 

Every field touches the environment in some way and affects us all no matter what and that’s what I enjoy the most: sustainability is connected to everything.

Thank you. So, have you discovered anything in your work experience in sustainability that has changed any aspects in your personal behavior or life.  

I think sustainability has changed everything in my personal life. I don't view sustainability as a 9 to 5, Monday through Friday concept. I see it as a lifestyle. I became vegan a few years ago and I work at a vegan food cart, and everyday I learn more about how our food choices affect all life and the environment. With my work at Mountain Burger and the food cart, I get to dive into the restaurant businesses and understand where they're coming from and what we can do in those spaces. I am instantly reminded of our interconnectedness. Food is essential for us to live and it’s important to understand how our choices in what we eat impact other lives. We don't stop eating outside the hours of 9 to 5. We don't stop moving. Nothing stops. Life just keeps on going. Yes it’s my career, my 9 to 5 role, and I get paid to look at one component, but I am constantly learning about sustainability and how my actions align with my values beyond the desk job. 

I try my best to buy local foods and to turn off the lights, conserve water, reduce my food waste and kind of all the good measures that we have all been told to do. I'm not perfect. Obviously no one is. There's tons of things that I don't do that I probably should be doing. I think about sustainability more than the average person and I probably get a little too consumed with it. But yes, my education and career in the environment has changed pretty much everything in my life and even if I was perfect, I can’t solve climate change by myself.

We're all perfectly imperfect. So, please give  yourself a pass because there's nobody out there who's got it all down.  You referenced Mountain Burger, can you talk a little bit about what you've done for them?  

Yes, so for Mountain Burger specifically I have been working on tracking energy consumption and calculating Scope 1 and 2 emissions, and attempting to calculate Scope 3 missions. It’s been interesting learning where emissions come from in the restaurant industry and what barriers there are to reducing them. Obviously every industry runs into its own roadblocks but I've been able to compare multifamily to the restaurant industry to find two main commonalities: where's the data? And where's the money to make the changes? With restaurants we're primarily talking about food and suppliers, but with both industries you have to learn about where emissions are coming from, how we could possibly calculate them with what we know, and what we need to know to actually have a more accurate calculation and understanding of our impact.  

You've worked in the restaurant industry and now you are with GreenT Climate Software where we're focused on multifamily. What do you like best about GreenT?  

I think the solution simplifies a very complex problem. I've spent over a year just researching sustainability in multifamily. During my research I discovered that everyone felt they needed to do the same things to be more sustainable, reduce carbon, make the building more resilient and achieve their sustainability goals. I was puzzled, “okay, so if we know we need to do X, Y, and Z, why isn't anyone doing it?” Once I understood what the roadblocks and barriers are, it started to make a lot more sense to me as to why it could sound so easy but be so complicated. What I like best is that GreenT really addresses that. It takes the complication out of the equation so it really does become as easy as 1, 2, 3. It enables people to implement the actions to actually get somewhere instead of just being stuck in the mud.  

What do you want to do when you  grow up?/Where do you hope your career and  sustainability will take you?  

Growing up that's the question they always ask: what do you want to be when you grow up? I think my ship has sailed on playing for the New York Yankees, so I'll have to push my athletic career to the side and I'll continue on with sustainability. I don't know specifically what I want to do within the field but I like that it's so open and there's so many different ways that I can go. That's kind of the best part and the worst part. I do know that whatever I end up doing, whether I just focus on one thing or I jump around, I want it to be something that has a positive social and environmental impact. Exactly what my job description will be, I'm not sure. But I guess that's the journey: figuring it all out and not giving up.