South Dakota Mines and Black Hills State University
have jointly hired a new sustainability coordinator who will help develop and
lead student education and research efforts and drive campus sustainability
initiatives that reduce the impact on the environment while saving money.
Maggie Torness is a Black Hills State alumna who is
finishing her master’s degree at the University of Vermont. She previously
worked as a student assistant for the sustainability coordinator at Black Hills
State and is now taking on this role for both Mines and Black Hills State. She
will split her time weekly between the two campuses.
“I’m trying to be a central place for all the
sustainability efforts at both schools. People across these institutions are
already doing great work on campus and in the community, and I am working to be
that point person who can help amplify the work being done,” says Torness.
At Mines, Torness will be based in the Department of
Civil and Environmental Engineering, and she will work closely with faculty and
students. Torness can also help funnel grant funding from outside organizations
in support of sustainability programs and research.
Torness is excited to engage in assisting
cutting-edge research across many fields at Mines. “The research being done at
Mines has the potential to contribute to solving some of our world's most
pressing issues, which are issues of stainability,” she says. “How will we continue to supply energy in an
ecologically sound and socially just manner? How will we create more resilient
food systems so that everyone in the community has access to healthy,
affordable food? How will we ensure that all generations after us will have
access to sufficient quantities of clean water? These are difficult questions
without easy answers, but the work being done on these campuses has the ability
to contribute to solving these problems, benefitting the community, globe, and
future generations in the process.”
Torness notes a state legislative initiative that
began in 2020 to examine cost saving measures at both Black Hills State and
South Dakota Mines helped form this position between the two institutions.
“Because the cultures between Black Hills State and
South Dakota Mines are so different, both schools have really different
strengths, so collaboration can be very beneficial to each school and the
region as a whole,” says Torness.
"For several years, I've been advocating the
importance of bringing onboard a campus sustainability coordinator for our
campus,” says Jim Stone, Ph.D., head of the Department of Civil and
Environmental Engineering at Mines. “With Maggie now onboard, this will help us
centralize and streamline all of our sustainability activities and efforts -
from research, classrooms, facilities and student activities - under one
domain. We're all looking forward to
working with Maggie as we better prepare our students for the sustainability
challenges of tomorrows workforce."
The cost savings associated
with sustainability efforts have led industry to increasingly seek interns and
graduates who have training in sustainability and environmental stewardship.
“The
workforce of tomorrow is going to be geared towards solving these issues in
sustainability, and so it's vital for these institutions to prepare their
students in these areas,” Torness says. “Adopting sustainability practices can
result in monetary savings for both industry and institutions, while meeting
the growing ethical demands of students and society."
Torness notes there are many different ways to view
the benefits of sustainability. She points to the relationships between the ecological
realm, the social realm and the economic realm. “Creating bridges to tie these
systems together can help create efficiencies that benefit people, our
communities, our environment and our economy,” she says.