Mapping a Greener Future

Students who participated in the seventh annual PSEG Institute for Sustainability Studies’ (PSEG ISS) Green Teams program this summer at Montclair State University learned that they can contribute to creating a greener world in both large and small ways.

Those on the Northern New Jersey Communities Foundation team discovered the project they worked on could have helped mitigate flooding by as much as 18% or 34 million gallons of water by using rain barrels and creating rain gardens.

Meanwhile, some students made green changes in their personal lives, like switching to using reusable water bottles.

Fifty students from 31 universities across the country and in various fields of study completed their 10-week summer internships as part of the PSEG ISS Green Teams this month, one of many successful summer programs happening on the Montclair campus.

The Green Teams program kicked off in June. Ten teams of student interns partnered with host companies or organizations to work on designated sustainability projects. Charged with gathering and analyzing data and completing reports, the teams delivered their findings in final presentations to an audience that included their host organizations, Montclair faculty and staff and family members in early August. During the final presentations, participants also heard from Ann Tracy, chief sustainability officer for Colgate-Palmolive, and Rick Thigpen, senior vice president of corporate citizenship for PSEG, who praised the students’ work and talked about sustainability efforts at their respective companies.

Read the full article on the University Press Room