Week 4:
Water Bottles, AP Style, and Shifting Expectations

June 27, 2016

June 22 – June 28

This week I became aware of a fairly new Eco Hawks initiative, wrote more, and recognized a universal truth about working.

Down at the central U of I lost and found people have thirty days to claim their lost goods. If those thirty days pass and nobody comes to take an item it gets thrown away. Among these lost goods are multitudes of reusable water bottles and mugs. Since the beginning of 2016 the Sustainability Office has been collecting these bottles to save them from the landfill. As of this writing over 150 water bottles have been collected.

So why is the Sustainability Office collecting these reusable bottles? Because they’re REUSABLE! There’s no reason for these bottles to sit sad and alone in a landfill when all they need is a a good washing and a new owner. And that’s exactly what the office does. After taking a ride in an industrial washer, all of the now-clean water bottles are ready for new homes.

Some of the bottles are on display so that people passing by the office can see. Anyone interested in taking a bottle simply has to sign up to be an Eco Hawk and receive their newsletter.

George made good on his promise that I would get to write more, and I was asked to go some write-ups for various office initiatives. I wrote all about the water bottle initiative in the Eco Hawks newsletter to let people know about the program. After three or so drafts it was deemed ready to print, and features all the information mentioned previously in greater detail. This is an awesome program and I think it would be great if Cornell could incorporate it too – I know we have some bottles in lost and found that could be adopted.

It feels great to be writing more (putting that English Major into practice!) and letting people know about environmental programs, but it’s also a little odd at times. Instead of using MLA style like I’m used to from classes at Cornell, the Sustainability Office uses AP style for all of its official write-ups. There are a few choice distinctions between the two styles, so I still have a bit to learn there. As I understand it MLA is a more universal academic style while AP is used almost exclusively for journalism. I find that I’m learning just as much as I’m working.

I find that I’m constantly surprised here at the office. When I first came I expected to be writing the entire time, but instead I’ve done a wide range of activities. I’ve worked outside, made spreadsheets, created displays, talked about biking at orientation, and so much more. And that’s how I think it is everywhere else too – you go in expecting to do one thing when in reality you do so much more than that. That’s a lesson that everyone should learn sooner rather than later – life is unpredictable and you just have to be ready for that. I go into the office every day and I have no idea what I’ll be doing. It keeps things exciting.

And with that I am halfway through my Fellowship. I can’t wait to see what the latter half has in store for me.

Want to learn more about the U of I Office of Sustainability and what they do? Click here!