Meredith Dowling, Former Assistant Coordinator

Meredith got the Sustainability Office started in September of 2006 and served as the interim coordinator until Nathan arrived in February 2007, at which pointed the two joined forces with Nathan as the coordinator and Meredith as the assistant coordinator. Meredith graduated from Oberlin College in May 2006 and worked throughout her time as a student to ensure that the Sustainability Office would one day exist to help implement Oberlin’s Environmental Policy. Working for this office is truly a realization of her dreams.

Before her time with the OES, Meredith worked in a variety of other capacities while she was a student, including two and a half years with the Recycling Assistants and three years as the coordinator of the composting program for the Oberlin Student Cooperative Association (OSCA). Meredith was a founding member of a number of student organizations, including the Environmental Policy Implementation Group (EPIG), the Recycled Products Co-op (RPC), and the Oberlin Compost Initiative; she also served as a student representative to the Environmental Policy Advisory Committee.

During her first semester in the Sustainability Office, Meredith focused her time on establishing comprehensive baseline data about the college-wide sustainability initiatives already under way in various sectors of the college, including facilities, administration, and academic departments/programs. Her efforts of the first semester culminated in an all-inclusive report for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Higher Education for Sustainable Development program. Other highlights of her work of the fall semester include: planning an eco-friendly office products show for all administrative staff, assisting with the planning of Oberlin’s first Climate Neutral Day celebration, instituting and facilitating monthly ‘Green Tea’ networking meetings to bring together student activists to team up for common sustainability-related initiatives, acting as a member of the presidential-appointed Eco-Purchasing Committee and assisting in drafting an Eco-Purchasing Policy for the college, and planning and acting as ex officio member to the first meetings of the faculty Committee on Environmental Sustainability (CES).

Meredith’s spring semester began with welcoming Nathan Engstrom, the new Coordinator for the OES. Major highlights of her work for the spring include organizing Earth Week (including planning a panel with local environmental entrepreneurs), helping plan and coordinate Oberlin’s first Green Commencement and Reunion Weekend, hiring the first student employees of the OES, assessing and developing plans for a comprehensive campus composting program, and helping lay the foundation for the completion of a campus climate inventory as part of the American College and University President’s Climate Commitment (ACUPCC).