Welcome to Green Grants: The People Behind the Projects. Below is an interview with Emily Hirsch (NYU Wagner School of Public Service, MPA Public and Nonprofit Management and Policy), who was awarded a Green Grant to install a dishwasher in the Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life for her project, Bronfman Goes Green.
Green Grants (GG): Where did you get the idea for your Green Grants project and why did you see a need for this project?
Emily Hirsch (EH): When I started working at the Bronfman Center, I was responsible for office management and I noticed how many paper goods we went through in a week. I’ve always been passionate about the environment, so I started thinking about ways we could reduce our paper good usage. Since this is the Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life, a dishwasher became more complex due to keeping it kosher.
Kashrut (Jewish dietary law) in its strictest form does not allow meat and milk to be combined in any way. This makes a dishwasher complicated because we can’t use the same cutlery for both meat and dairy and would also need separate dishwashers and sinks. Our solution was to pick either a meat or dairy dishwasher for the [Green Grant]. We serve more dairy meals than meat meals and a dairy dishwasher would have the most impact on our community to reduce the amount of paper waste we went through.
GG: What sustainability issue do you hope your Green Grants project makes people more aware of?
EH: I hope that people will think twice before using disposable goods. It’s much easier to throw away a paper plate than to wash a dish, but the impact is significant. We don’t have composting capabilities at the Bronfman Center, so even the compostable paper goods we purchase end up in landfills. The idea with the dishwasher was to make it easy enough for students and staff to see their impact and eventually change their habits at Bronfman and beyond.
GG: How does your project improve the lives of students at NYU?
EH: I think it’s important for the community to see that their behaviors do make an impact. It’s so easy to feel jaded about the impact of an individual, especially in New York, but the behavior of one person can make a huge impact in changing behaviors of the people in their circle. It has to start somewhere.
GG: How does this Green Grants project align with your future goals?
EH: I’ve been passionate about the environment for as long as I can remember. I would love to work on more sustainability initiatives in the future and get more involved with this work. This has been one of my favorite projects at work. I hope to apply for more [Green Grants] in the future.
GG: What advice would you give to future grantees?
EH: I would recommend talking to the [NYU Office of Sustainability] before submitting an EOI [expression of interest form] so you can talk about your project together. It also helps if you talk to stakeholders in any other department related to your proposed project before submitting a proposal. The Green Grants program is really collaborative, which made it a wonderful experience for a first-time grantee.
GG: If you had unlimited resources, what would your ideal Green Grants project look like?
EH: I’m interested in the intersection of food, water and waste, so I would love to do more research and come up with an urban farm that provides enough food to feed the entire NYU community, [fosters] education [and] outreach, and saves water and reduces waste in the process.
GG: How would you like to see NYU students become more involved in sustainable activities on campus?
EH: I would love to see more students interested in taking action against climate change and learning more about it. The EcoReps program is really valuable and an exciting way for all students to learn more about sustainability initiatives. And there is always room for innovation in this space.
GG: What would you recommend students interested in sustainability, leadership and entrepreneurship check out?
EH: There’s a new video series with attn: and Zooey Deschanel called Your Food’s Roots which dives into different aspects of the food industry. The videos are pretty short and I think do a great job of explaining the issues in a way that is easy to understand. I would also definitely recommend Michael Pollan’s books–he does a great job of making you think and really diving into the complexity of the food system.
Interested in applying for a Green Grant? Find more information here.