Diet, Exercise, and Lowering Your Carbon Footprint

Atlanta's sustainability director Mandy Schmitt on the city's green roof. Schmitt acknowledges driving environmental change takes time, but once first steps are taken, initial results catalyze more change.

“Meet the problem where it is not where you want it to be” is something my mother often said to me growing up. It’s a sentiment that surfaces daily on the job as Atlanta's director of sustainability. 

For me, sustainability as a concept is elegant, holistic, even grand. But I have learned that for many not in the field, it is a cumbersome, vague term. To lots of people I work with routinely, for instance, like building managers, firefighters, and human resources professionals, the word sustainability aches with pangs of elitism -- some en vogue word that some outsider is pushing. In a similar vein, the academic or consultant answer to institutionalizing sustainability across large organizations is typically to undertake a change-management program -- also not a process that generally resonates. 

So, a good place to start when introducing new ways to become more sustainable is finding the common ground and developing a process that is not painful. I like to draw a parallel between the practice of sustainability and a routine of diet and exercise. People stick with diets and exercising if they are gratifying, complement their lifestyle, and produce results. Commitment to living more sustainably is not much different.

The city’s mail room supervisor, Valerie Bryant, is a prime example. After seeing An Inconvenient Truth, she made it her mission to eliminate junk mail the city received to cut down on wasted paper. According to Valerie, “The city was recycling returned mail, but I looked into purging lists and eliminating magazine subscriptions so that the mail isn’t even printed!” Reduced solid waste isn't the only benefit; Valerie estimates that significant manpower has been eliminated too. This success led her to expand her green efforts, and she’s become a vocal champion among her peers.

Starting Small Before Going the Distance

Sustainability is a lot like training for a marathon. You start by running your first mile or two and getting comfortable with that distance before you push yourself further. In the case of the city, the key is undertaking simple projects that can build the foundation for and momentum toward whole system change. It’s the theory that results produce more results.

Building the right team is important, but probably the most critical element is developing a transparent, collaborative process for operating. Aligning a team around the core problem, identifying desired outcomes, and developing an action plan create a shared undertaking that embodies the goals and needs of all stakeholders rather than just a few. In this way all parties engage and are committed to making change happen.

Now, no matter how strong the collaborative operating system is, change does not occur overnight. Rather, the process leads to lasting adaptation over time. Once people take the first steps and keep them up, the 20 pounds melt off, long-distance running is routine. In the case of the city, we begin effecting change.

A case in point is how we've homed in on trimming Atlanta's energy budget. We started by creating an energy task force composed of our department leadership, building managers, technical consultants, and the communications team. A main objective was to decrease utility usage in our existing buildings. The primary pathways to achieving this goal take the form of building upgrades and employee engagement. In this time of budget shortfalls and goals to reduce our carbon footprint, reducing utility use is a true win-win. Results so far? The process is ongoing, but we have begun to cut our budget, reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, and engage employees on how they have the power to drive change through their individual actions. We're meeting the problem where it is, and we're starting to see results in reduced electricity bills.

Mandy Schmitt (Duke, MEM 2005) is the sustainability director for the City of Atlanta. (Learn more about Mandy in this video profile.)