Sustainability in manufacturing has been a big topic ever since the
recent California drought. Many companies are searching for more
sustainable manufacturing processes in order to not only protect their
company and profits but the people who are affected by the effects of
their manufacturing.
My freshman year I had the opportunity to
work with a professor in the Biological and Agricultural Engineering
department on a research project that could make bio fuels easier to
obtain and therefore more accessible and more practical for commercial
use. From that point on the idea of being able to use my knowledge of
science, math, and engineering in order to provide a more sustainable
future for not only my local community but for the greater population
became something I was passionate about.
This passion lead me to
pursue employment opportunities with companies that make sustainability a
priority in their business practice. I interviewed and was given a
position in the supply chain department with the international consumer
good company Unilever. Unilever recently appointed a new CEO whose first
order of business was to set the goal for the company to half their
environmental footprint. My role as a summer intern was to help Unilever
reach this goal. As an intern I was sent to the Henderson, NV ice cream
factory and was asked to help reduce the overall water consumption of
the facility. Henderson is located in the Las Vegas Valley whose water
source, Lake Mead, is currently at its lowest level so my project wasn’t
just helping the factory but the local community as well. Over the
course of my 10 week internship I came up with many ways the company
could cut back on the water usage and ended up saving the factory 1.2
million gallons of water annually.
I loved being able to work at
a consumer goods company and knowing that the products I helped make
were reaching so far across the country and the world. I also fell in
love with being able to make these products more sustainable. After my
internship experience I realized that I want make a career of making
supply chains more sustainable.
The European Agriculture-Food
Chain Sustainability program aligns directly with my career goals and
would give me the upper hand I need in order to be able to bring my love
of sustainability to a global supply chain. I hope that through this
program I will be able to see how other companies not only in the United
States but abroad tackle the challenge of supplying goods in the most
sustainable manner.
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Read more from Elizabeth at http://ghentgoing.weebly.com/
To find out more about the U of A Faculty-Led: European Agriculture-Food Chain Sustainability
program at http://studyabroad.uark.edu/SUSTEurozone/
