Environmental consciousness, sustainability, and related subjects are crucial topics that touch on countless aspects of life – and, as UConn students recently learned, they can be fruitful and rewarding career paths as well.
“Green Careers: Engage and Explore,” held on campus on Feb. 25, allowed students to meet potential employers, network with peers with similar interests, and hear from an alumni panel about careers based on sustainability.
“Sustainability is here to stay, globally,” said Betsy Mortensen, communication, outreach, and education coordinator for the Office of Sustainability. “Looking at a future in a green career is a smart thing to do.”
The event had a mix of off-campus employers and on-campus organizations. Student-run groups such as Ecohusky, Spring Valley Student Farm, Climate and Mind Network, the Beekeeping Club, and more set up tables and shared information about their clubs.
Employers including Eversource, Bartlett Tree Experts, CT Green Bank, Sustainable CT, and Greenskies had representatives in attendance.
“This panel is different in a sense that it’s a little bit untraditional,” said student intern Andy Zhang ’26 (CAHNR & CLAS). “We have different niches here. There is a thrift stand and social responsibility and businesspeople. We have a lot of different perspectives.”
“Sustainability and energy are becoming such a big topic of discussion,” said Gabrielle Comella, assistant director of corporate partner relations for the Center for Career Readiness and Life Skills. “You can have a green career in so many different industries that students don’t realize.”
“Part of UConn’s strategic plan is preparing students for careers outside of UConn, and this clearly aligns by showing the diversity of sustainability career pathways,” said Mortensen. “Another tenet of the strategic plan is to power Connecticut in terms of a strong workforce, and pretty much all of the employers here have Connecticut roots.”
‘Every job is a climate job’
The first speaking panel featured industry leaders. Representatives from Uber, Eversource, Bartlett Tree Experts, and Connecticut Roundtable on Climate and Jobs answered students’ questions about how their companies take sustainability initiatives and how the industry is changing.
“From our perspective, every job is a climate job,” said Alison Pilcher, the policy director at the CT Roundtable. “Every industry should be thinking about how climate change is going to impact their industry.”
April Regan, an attorney for Eversource, explained that the company is launching a clean energy innovation program with UConn. Students will have a chance to submit business ideas for “clean innovation.” Stakeholders from UConn and Eversource will review the proposed projects, and “The top five teams will get a little bit of money to explore their idea, and one winning team will get funding for a year,” said Regan. “We’re always trying to innovate, we’re always trying to push the envelope, to push energy policy and environmental policy over these projects.”
Five alumni took the stage for the second speaking panel, offering advice on how to navigate a career in sustainability after graduation.
“There are so many different avenues you can take,” said Margaret Sanders ’22 (CAHNR), sustainability platform manager for Position Green. “Whether that be through further education or in the professional field, I think it’s really important to be open to trying new things.”
Panelists discussed how to stay motivated in the field when federal administration is not overtly supportive of sustainability efforts. “Government is an interesting place. It’s a big battleship, it’s hard to turn,” said Brendan Schain, legal director for the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection’s Environmental Quality Branch and a graduate of the UConn School of Law. “The pace of change is the change. New people with new perspectives are doing interesting things and bringing an interesting new perspective, and it takes time to institutionalize that.”
The alumni discussed how their time at UConn helped guide them into their careers as well. Megan Coleman ’17 (ENG), an engineer for JKMuir talked about how any involvement on campus was a good experience. “I was part of a lot of the different clubs here. Being engaged in those and exposing myself to different people, different perspectives, was something that what really important to me.”
“I got the opportunity to do a study abroad program for the UConn Earth Sciences Department,” said Emily Bigl ’23 (CLAS), an environmental planner for the Southeastern CT Council of Governments. Bigl studied geoscience and geohazards in Taiwan thanks to the UConn program. “It’s a great experience. If you can find a program relating to sustainability in the environment, that’s awesome. But if you find one outside of your realm of study, that’s awesome too. Broaden your horizons.”
Sanders worked at the National Resources Conservation Academy while at UConn. She mentored Connecticut students and helped them execute environmental programs in their own communities. “It was fun to both see how we could take action in Connecticut and also mentor younger students on the point of intergenerational relationships,” Sanders said.
Office of Sustainability helps UConn chart a green course
The Office of Sustainability partnered with the Center for Career Readiness and Life Skills for the event. Student interns at the Office of Sustainability contributed heavily to the preparation of the event.
Zhang attributed a strong student network to building the mix of clubs, employers, and alumni coming to the event. Will Gabelman, senior manager for global strategies and operations at Uber, spoke on the first panel. Zhang was able to recruit him for the event because Gabelman was his mentor in a fellowship program.
“We are the tenth most sustainable university in the world, and the second most sustainable university in the United States,” said Zhang, citing rankings from GreenMetric UI.
UConn earned that title thanks to efforts from the Office of Sustainability and its interns, Zhang said, and added that there are 40 to 50 student interns this semester.
The office puts together an Earth Day event annually, and is trying to pilot an environmental justice program, according to Kanika Chaturvedi ’26 (CLAS), an intern in the office.
The give-and-go program is another initiative where the Office of Sustainability collects donations from students who are moving out. Things like clothing, furniture, and appliances are reused rather than discarded. Last year, the program diverted 8,000 pounds of waste from landfills, and “this year they are looking to double that,” said Chaturvedi. The group also collaborates with the town of Mansfield to organize litter cleanup events.
A project Zhang has been working on is an E-collaboration sustainability network. “It’s kind of like a virtual platform that I think it helps break down a lot of the academic barriers that you see,” said Zhang. It has grown to 240 members and contains things like weekly internship postings and relevant studies posted by professors.
“We’re able to see sustainability manifest in a lot of different facets,” said Zhang. “Even at the business school or the engineering school, regardless of what your major is, it’s becoming commonplace to have environmental opportunities.”
