GGI Alum Trinity Chang Brings Sustainability to the Business World

Trinity Chang is a first year student at UCLA studying Business Economics and Environmental Science. A former Go Green Initiative intern,

Trinity now works with Clean Consulting and TRUE, providing businesses with resources to reduce their waste.

 

Clean Consulting is a UCLA organization that focuses on sustainability management for businesses.

The mission of Clean Clean consulting is to “to support businesses to take the necessary steps to become more sustainable”. It provides consulting services based in sustainability and environmentalism to help companies’ facilities become TRUE-certified. This means that they meet a rigorous standard for zero waste and sustainability. Some of the TRUE certification requirements include:

Establishing a zero waste policy

• Achieving an average of 90% waste diversion from landfills
• Meeting all state and federal solid waste and recycling laws and regulations
• Documenting a base year of waste diversion
• Submitting a case study of zero waste initiatives

Trinity is part of the team consulting with Second Harvest, one of the largest food banks on the west coast.

Located in Orange County, CA, Second Harvest is a sub-organization of Feeding America, and provides twenty million meals annually to those in need. Clean Consulting has developed a three year plan to help Second Harvest meet each credit within the TRUE zero waste facility certification. Trinity is working on the “reuse” credit, which involves establishing a program to reuse office supplies and materials, such as scrap paper. Second Harvest also plans to redirect funds from single use disposables to invest in a set of reusable utensils and dish ware for each employee. Clean Consulting’s long-term goal is to divert all of Second Harvest’s waste from landfills.

Trinity points to her time with GGI as a stepping stone towards her environmental work in college.

Trinity told us that her past work with GGI helped immensely in preparing her for her work with Clean Consulting. She called GGI “a great jumpstart into the world of environmentalism” that helped her understand environmental issues at a deeper level. This knowledge allowed her to “line up shoulder to shoulder with [her fellow] consultants,” who are extremely well-versed in sustainability concepts, especially as they pertain to consulting. She told us that while what she is doing now may not be directly related to her work with GGI, she uses a lot of the skills she learned while working with GGI, such as how to successfully work in a team and use industry tools. She remembers working on deliverables in a fun and engaging way, as well as connecting with other individuals that shared her passion for environmental causes. GGI provided Trinity with the ability and readiness to take on environmental issues at the college level: “It was really a great preparation for jumping into this world.”