Sometimes while walking through the offices around campus, you stumble upon that one staff member that brings a true smile to your face. They are brimming with energy, creativity, enthusiasm and a contagious laugh can be heard across the room. Michael Reese, a well-known personality around campus, is just that kind-of employee.
Michael works as a Career Specialist for the Center for Career Connections. However, helping students find a suitable career match is not all that he does. He is an amazing advocator for sustainable practices and is an active member of the Captains of Sustainability at Bellevue College. I took a moment with Michael to discuss how his role as a Captain impacts his life.
How did you get interested in Sustainability?
I was always very interested in sustainability. I majored as an environmental historian and I also ran the Capstone Program for Environmental Studies.
How do you incorporate sustainability in your daily life?
Well I do ride my bike and take the bus to work every day. We also sold our car and now just have one family car that my wife and I use between us. In fact, since with cut back with that, we save enough of money for another family vacation!
Oh Wow! That’s awesome! So what do you do as a Captain of Sustainability for your department?
[Laughs] Well, I basically pester people to set their printer to default to double-sided and try to get them to get rid of their desktop printers. Most of the time I just show them how to change the print settings or do it for them myself.
How are your composting and printing double sided campaign projects working out?
I’ve helped most of my department with setting their printers to default printing double-sided. I tried to start food composting but my bin disappeared. We are trying to get a new one soon. It was like someone stole away my kitty!
[Laugh] Do you have a kitty?
No, ok fine. It was like some stole my small puppy! It was my puppy!
Do you try to merge your sustainable efforts with your position as a career specialist?
I try to do something slightly different every quarter. There are opportunities all over campus. I sometime guide students to try to get more involved with clubs on campus. I have been advising a couple of student projects, like the Environmental Science Club and the SSA. It is because of students that these clubs were made possible, like student, Shirin Lofti.
What about outside of campus? Do you set goals for improvement and try to make yourself more sustainable?
I am trying to build a partnership with Friends of the CedarRivir WaterShed. It is a SuperCOOL effort! These are High School students, from Big Picture High School and Sammamish High School, that conduct a report on storm water. These student work on everything from writing, producing to putting the reports and videos together. It is an Annual Water Shed Report of the rivers and streams water that go into the lake. It is an amazing effort and it is all on youtube. I also recycle and compost on a regular basis.
[Check out their website if you are interested in this student effort: http://www.cedarriver.org/]
Last Updated November 19, 2013