Ashley Bosecker, who graduated from UTC in December with a bachelor’s in environmental science, is assistant science manager at the Creative Discovery Museum.
As assistant science manager at the Creative Discovery Museum, Ashley Bosecker is naturally interested in the natural world and getting kids to feel the same way.
As someone who lives in the Scenic City, she’s naturally interested in maintaining the beauty of Chattanooga.
Both of those reasons are why she enrolled in the green|leaders program, whose goal is to help businesses and individuals become integral pieces in the ongoing drive to increase environmental awareness in the Chattanooga area.
“I am always looking for ways to advance my understanding of sustainability. I am very passionate about this issue and wanted to learn more so I was able to apply it in my everyday life,” said Bosecker, who graduated from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in December with a bachelor’s in environmental science.
Green leaders is a collaboration between green|spaces, the local group focused on the sustainability of living, working and building in Chattanooga and UTC. Since it started in mid-January, about 20 people from such companies as EPB, TVA, the Creative Discovery Museum, Chattanooga State Community College and the Hutton real estate and property development company have graduated and received a certificate of accreditation.
“This certificate creates environmental stewards who will champion changes within their businesses, industries and communities,” said Kelley Cureton, director of green|leaders. “A broad, holistic approach, the green|leader certificate will examine how businesses can be resilient, increase efficiencies, prepare for risk and communicate the value propositions of sustainability to customers, employees and investors.”
The goal is to help businesses and individuals become integral pieces in the drive to increase environmental awareness in the Chattanooga area. Among other subjects, the course tackles subjects such as understanding energy, water and waste from global, regional and local standpoints, environmentally friendly ways of landscaping and cost-effective ways for buying supplies from companies that practice sustainability.
Bosecker, who has earned the certificate of accreditation, said the green|leaders courses gave her “a more well-rounded understanding about sustainability that overall influences me to be a better environmental steward.”
Green|spaces sets up the online course’s webpage, creates the content and keeps track of who has signed up and whether they complete the course, which has eight separate lessons. Once all the sections are completed, green|spaces sends a message to the UTC Center for Professional Education, which then issues the certificate of accreditation.
“We monitor the educational part of record, maintaining the integrity of the program, not that we’re providing subject expertise to validate it,” said John Freeze, director of the center. “We maintain the integrity of who completes it, who did what.”
While understanding and embracing issues of sustainability is always important, it’s even more critical with COVID-19 bringing uncertainty to both small-business owners and larger companies, Cureton said.
“We find the curriculum material now more relevant than ever as businesses who have positioned their operations around the triple bottom line—economic, social and environmental—have been better prepared for this uncertain economic climate,” she continued. “Risk mitigation is a key strategy in sustainable business operations and knowing how to navigate the ebbs and flows of uncertainty is invaluable for professionals to have in their toolkit.”
For UTC, there’s an added benefit to being part of the green|leaders program, Freeze said.
“Where I see this of particular interest or importance for UTC is it’s touching on leadership development in the workforce, and that’s a lot of what we do in this office,” he said.
“You want to be a university that is community-engaged, that wants to be more than just four walls and 18- to 22-year-old undergrads. This, to me, is a perfect example of how universities can partner with community-based groups to fill some need or opportunity. Who doesn’t benefit from efforts—small or large—that make our city a better place to live work and play?”
He also noted that the course offerings focus on what works in Chattanooga, not broad strokes about global solutions.
“The interesting part of this is that the program itself has been designed to have a very local focus,” Freeze said. “So what does sustainability look like in Chattanooga? That probably looks a lot different than sustainability in, say, Phoenix, Ariz., or Boston, Mass.”
Bosecker said the program gave her new ideas that will help the Creative Discovery Museum, she said.
“I learned about new techniques and programs that will assist the museum in tracking utilities and the environmental footprint,” Bosecker said. “These programs will help to create baselines that the museum can use to track progress and successes in various goals.”
