Kaela Martins, a senior environmental science major from Aurora, Colorado, is a sustainable hero. Last year Martins received the Innovative Practices Award from the Center for Sustainability to prove it. The award-winning practice is the composting program she and a group of other students in the Sustainable Living and Learning Community (LLC) started her sophomore year at DU. Martins and her co-founders proposed that the university begin placing compost bins in residential hall bathrooms. To date, the university has placed bins in Johnson-McFarlane Hall, Nelson Hall and Nagel Hall, thanks to Martins and her team. The Clarion caught up with Martins to learn more about her on-campus accomplishments and contributions on the sustainability front.
Q: Have you always been interested in environmental science and sustainability?
A: In high school I wanted to be a psychology major and then I took AP environmental science and my view on the world just changed and I just felt like I would have a better impact on the world and be able to do more as a environmental science major. I guess I just realized how much of an impact I had on the world and how much I wanted to change that.
Q: What are some personal struggles you’ve faced in regards to your project, and what are some struggles DU is facing?
A: When the compost pile started last year we [Martins and other LLC members] came up with a proposal to move it from being volunteer based to facilities taking [it] on. The only thing that facilities would have to do is take it [the compost] out, but it’s on me and the volunteers to take out that waste every day. It’s kind of frustrating because I had a meeting set with them but the meeting didn’t work and then we never could find a meeting time after that. That was June—I never got a yes, I never got a no—so this year I have to make the decision to make the program a pilot again. And then I think DU as a whole has a lot of infrastructure issues, one being bin security. If you look on campus you have a landfill bin but you don’t have a recycling bin…and I know that solar is a big thing we are trying to push, too, but finding the funding and finding the right place for it has kind of been the struggle too, and I think all those things will develop with an increase in [people’s] knowledge and support in sustainability as a whole.
Q: Do you have any advice as to how people can become more sustainably conscious?
A: Start small. Start something that you can do everyday that’s simple, like reducing how much you drive or recycling more. Once you find something that you’re interested in, you know, make that something that you really focus on and make a bigger impact.
Martins is also the head coordinator of the Zero Waste Hockey Program, which she says is expanding to cover lacrosse and gymnastics games to make the program more sports-oriented. Despite some minor setbacks, DU is becoming a more sustainable campus and is accepting more sustainable projects. To volunteer for the Zero Waste Games or learn more about sustainability as a whole, email kaela.martins@du.edu for details.
