For CIRES Employee, a Green Thumb and a Lifestyle to Match

Katy Human
NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory

July 28, 2009 — Greening the environment is not just a job for Molly Heller, it’s her life.

What’s more: Heller’s innovative efforts to increase energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the workplace have earned her this year’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Studies (CIRES) Outstanding Performance in Service Award.  

Helping the World Breathe a Little Easier
Heller, a CIRES employee, works for ESRL’s Global Monitoring Division where she coordinates cooperative air sampling networks for more than 80 sites around the world. She ensures each site has what it needs to precisely measure greenhouse gases and other atmospheric constituents.

This year, Heller effectively streamlined the processes for sampling networks and preparing sample containers — a workload once carried by two people.

But, when it comes to the environment, Heller strives to do even more. In addition to her regular duties, Heller created a composting program to help reduce local greenhouse gas emissions from the David Skaggs Research Center in Boulder, Colo., where she works.

Composting is a process by which waste high in nitrogen (e.g., food scraps, grass cuttings, manure) are mixed with waste high in carbon (e.g., paper, straw, leaves, wood chips) and exposed to air. The resulting, nutrient-rich mixture — known as compost — is often used as a medium for gardening and growing plants.

But, in landfills, the waste decaying process occurs without oxygen (i.e., anaerobic) and releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Reducing methane emissions can be 72 times more beneficial than reducing an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide.

Neat Ideas for a Messy Problem  
Determined to reduce her own environmental footprint, Heller — who rides the bus to work — would walk several blocks from her home to bring her own compostables to a public drop-off site. However, she grew tired of carrying her own lunch scraps home from work every night.

“It was getting messy,” Heller says. 

In 2008, Heller began investigating the science and economics of composting. She learned that the DSRC could reduce greenhouse gas emissions and even save money by adding composting to its recycling program.

Heller and a few colleagues from NOAA and the U.S. General Services Administration crafted a plan to bring composting to the DSRC. It wasn’t easy. She had to scramble to find the few hundred dollars it would take to purchase new composting bins and create signs, but she says it was worth it.

“DSRC workers now compost and recycle about 40 percent of our waste,” Heller said. “That’s great, but I would like that number to be closer to 70 percent.” 

Still, Heller is pleased with the response.

“To me, this is about the whole environmental package,” says Heller. “We didn’t have all this ‘stuff’ 100 years ago, and we need to figure out what we’re going to do with it all. One small thing we all can do is to put waste in the right place.”