In my opinion, Delta has taken industry-leading steps towards confronting Environmental Sustainability, and they just took one step further: they hired me! Of course I am not referring to myself, but to my position: Delta’s Sustainability Intern. But what exactly is sustainability and what steps are we taking to “Green” Delta?
I am Meghan Reger and I have a wonderful cubicle in the Environmental Health office at Delta’s Atlanta campus. I consider myself an environmentalist, but I don’t lobby Congress or write hate mail to Exxon Mobil. I do believe there is an intricate relationship between the environment and human behavior and that environmental sustainability is a serious challenge facing all companies and at Delta we have taken some significant steps to reduce our environmental footprint, but we know there is much more to be done.
My mission for the next few months will be to provide a fresh set of eyes and ears, to think outside the box in applying sustainability concepts at Delta. I will be posting weekly with tips, information, and current news regarding how you and we can become more Environmentally Sustainable and share our plans to become more sustainable in the future including recycle bins, carpooling stickers, and carbon offsets.
And what do I mean by ‘sustainable’? Check out this video for a quick look into what sustainable development entails.
Let me know what other green topics you’d like to see this summer.
Meghan
Sustainability Intern
Environmental Health
May 30th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
I’m glad you don’t write hatemail to ExxonMobile since we are a large customer of yours. Are you one of the people who think that oil companies are evil, while you drive to work, use plastic products, or cook your food?
I am a total advocate of energy responsibility, yet I am sick of people who criticize oil companies while they use the product. Oil companies make a single-digit percentage profit (unusual for other companies), yet face criticism from people who don’t seem to understand that they drive the demand for the product. Most oil companies invest the majority of dollars into alternative energy, yet a few nuts seem to think that the idea of a company losing money is somehow sustainable.
June 2nd, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Thus the reason I do not write hate mail to oil companies. But, yes I agree, many people do not fully understand the full extent of their everyday actions and consumption.
Thanks for your comment.
June 5th, 2008 at 2:05 am
I have a request for a topic.
Do you know exactly what type of programs are supported by Delta through their carbon offset program? Such as, where does the money go? Where are the trees planted? [I assume there are trees planted; that seems to be the standard carbon offset plan of action.] But what else do they do? Any investments?
Okay, that’s enough guessing.
I’ll leave the rest to you.
Thanks!
June 5th, 2008 at 11:06 am
The Conservation Fund is who our offset program is through and next week this is my topic: Carbon Offsets 101. I will outline what carbon offsets do, choices consumers have, and what The Conservation Fund is doing and how/where Delta is involved.
Thanks for you inquiry.
Would you like to be prompted to purchase carbon offsets in the purchasing path?
June 5th, 2008 at 11:41 am
Oh, yes, definitely. It’d be great to be presented with that buying option.