School of Sustainability Graduate Culminating Experiences

The commonly accepted goal of sustainability, to fulfill our current needs and maintain the worlds systems so future generations can also fulfill their needs, unifies efforts efficiently and aligns people with future thinking. But the concepts related, and their applications are fairly ambiguous in guiding people to what exactly they can do to make choices for sustainability. Individuals choices make a difference, adding up to societal shifts that change the world for the better. In such a complex world, there is a clear need for guidance through these systems. Sustainability and Resilience (S&R) is an optimistic podcast that journeys through thought-provoking science-based sustainability challenges with a bit of comedic relief. Listeners are entertained and become empowered to know what sustainable choices are, and why they are sustainable. S&R podcast uses systems thinking to pinpoint, realistic actionable items that empower listeners with a broad-spectrum sustainability knowledge for making everyday choices. Foundational research proved, developed and formed the idea of the podcast. Recording research lead to the ability to record test episodes, gather listener feedback and update the podcast concept. The podcast was officially created with the release of the debut episode that can anyone can listen to for free on all major platforms.

COVID-19 brought so much uncertainty into the world and has molded this project into what it is today. The first project journey that was chosen was meant to show the impact of how much plastic waste was being produced at Starbucks. Then due to COVID-19 yet again, it changed into how much paper waste there was within the State of Washington Department of Licensing (DOL) Business and Professions Division (BPD). DOL BPD is a state agency division that licenses over forty plus professional and business licenses to the residents of Washington state. Due to the pandemic, the project transformed into how the three pillars of sustainability impacts remote work within BPD. BPD is in this new and unique paradigm where the deliverable that was brought forth as this project completed are, “The 9 Benefits of Sustainability through Remote Work” (Appendix D) where this specifically showed DOL why remote work is sustainable and how it should be implemented even further throughout the agency. This list was put together with the benefits that best fit DOL BPD.