Today we’d like to introduce you to Emily Creegan.
Hi Emily, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I am from the San Francisco Bay Area (California). One day I was sitting at my undergraduate university dining hall, and I noticed us dumping our leftover food on our plates into a big trash can. I looked in the trash can and it was full of food and napkins. I was curious and I decided to ask the dining hall manager where all of our waste went. He said it was picked up by a trash company and taken to a landfill that was hundreds of miles away. This moment changed by life; I was 18 years old and I had never really thought waste before.
I started educating myself on waste and I ended up earning my undergraduate degree in environmental science. Organic waste in landfills is primarily decomposed anaerobically, which produces methane (a significant greenhouse gas that is more potent as a short-lived climate pollutant, than carbon dioxide). When applied to the soil, recovered organic waste products increase soil and plant carbon sequestration and foster “carbon farming”. When carbon based recovered organic waste products (e.g. compost and mulch) is applied to the soil, the carbon in the compost and mulch become a part of the living soil system, increasing soil microbial carbon content and plant growth which further sequesters carbon and mitigates climate change (via photosynthesis). Increasing soil carbon-based recovered organic waste products has been shown to increase soil water conservation. As many regions throughout the world are becoming warmer and drier, trees and other plants are becoming drier and are more prone to megafires. Consistently applying compost and mulch on turf and with new and existing landscaping on campuses and in communities (at homes etc.) is a critical climate change resilience strategy.
I wanted to be more educated – organic waste and recycling has so much to do with climate change. I earned my master’s degree in agriculture and soil sciences. I started realizing that most people don’t have a sense of how important organic waste recycling is and I wanted to help educate and empower others to change their behavior and systems (such as waste, energy, and food) we both contribute to and are affected by. I was given the opportunity to develop and teach the first composting course at Cal Poly Pomona. I earned a PhD in biomass utilization where I developed and assessed a compost program with a large-scale farmer. I founded a company on organic waste to resource program and education development. I have developed several courses now on climate change, where students are engaged in real world program and project management skill development. Student projects have included on campus waste and energy audits, where students have assessed the climate change implications, economic parameters (cost benefit analysis) and have proposed mitigation and resilience solutions to administrators (several of their solutions have been implemented!). I have done work in Haiti, Ghana and other countries to help develop and educate on organic waste recycling (in many developing economy countries it is especially important that human toilet waste is managed and utilized to help improve soil quality which helps grow food locally – composting is an amazing tool to compost human toilet waste). Here in San Diego, I am volunteering to continue this work and searching for ways this project-based climate change education can get into school systems.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Absolutely not! I am continuing to struggle with how to help integrate this very need education and programming to build a knowledge base on organic waste recycling and help to guide both educators and students. I have been volunteering with the Association of Compost Producers to create a training the trainer workshop series to help cultivate an instructor knowledge base on organic waste recycling, climate change implications, and recovered organic waste products (such as mulch and compost) utilization on the school campus. This training series included an educator Next Generation Science Standards/STEM tool kit and was recently held at the Water Conservation Garden (Cuyamaca College) in El Cajon (CA). For the first workshop, no one showed up. It was very sad. I learned I need to partner with other organizations who have contacts and relationships built with the schools. Always learning in life!
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I recently co-authored 3 books with my mom (who is a writer and artist) as guides for both educators and students on the environment and climate change and leading real-world action. More information can be found under the “Education Services” tab on my website: https://theearthdoctor.com/
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
I am searching for a full time position along these lines – if anyone has any resources or recommendations on how to integrate this into schools and how to fund it! I am a huge collaborator and always open to working with others!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://theearthdoctor.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61575388285204
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-creegan-phd-53ab67a6
Image Credits
3 bin system – I believe from Costco
