The era of technology has not only brought together individuals and families across the globe but opened new opportunities for organizational connection and collaboration. However, the nuances that come as a part of these developing linkages can be tricky and complicated to navigate, slowing efficiency in potential projects.
Graduate students Kimberly Ordonez and Harrison Fried took inspiration from this challenge to create a network of sustainability stakeholders website tool. The tool bridges the modern-day communication gap, bringing together organizations in the central Ohio area that could exchange information and otherwise benefit one another.
"A lot of time has been spent developing relationships with folks from a wide variety of environmental organizations in an attempt to understand the interests and work of all, to better recommend partnerships,” Fried said.
Ordonez and Fried are both graduate students within the School of Environment and Natural Resources (SENR) pursuing a PhD in environmental social science. Both their academic background and experiences outside the classroom in the Columbus community inspired the design of the networking tool.
The creators are currently putting the instrument through its beta testing phase, with a projected launch date for the official version in January of 2023. At that point, groups across Ohio will be able to use it to ensure the elimination of needless project replication, navigate current environmental projects in their community, and piece together the parts of a bigger system.
"My hope is that having a tool like this could not only empower organizations to start spreading their passion for environmental justice through the network, but also by showing who would be efficient collaborators,” Ordonez avidly explained. “That would free up their time and resources to address these issues more in depth.”
The pair demonstrated their project at the September Environmental Professionals Network breakfast event, hosted at the Ohio State 4H Center. Together, they highlighted its function and the possibilities for its use to make a stronger Ohio environmental community. After the breakfast, Fried and Ordonez led a tool training event that garnered almost 100 attendees, both individuals and organizational representatives. The training kicked off with a brief panel before splitting the audience into two sections. One broke up into smaller environmental justice focus groups while the other went into a networking model to practice using the tool. Halfway through, the groups switched.
“While it's currently in its infancy, the tool is now being updated to reflect feedback and ideas from participants at the EPN event,” Fried clarified. “Our goal is to provide data to practitioners that is useful, and to do that, we are molding the tool to fit recommendations we have received.”
The Sustainability Institute at Ohio State provided a major source of funding for the project through the Student Sustainability Grant program. The awarded grant funding enabled project participant recruitment, data quality control, and publication and dissertation work, among other items.
"We need to take advantage of the beautiful period of transformation in society," Ordonez said. "Science is more willing to partake in community engagement, and environmental justice is starting to take center stage. It's an opportunity we cannot afford to let pass by."
Previous student sustainability grant award winners
Story by Aurora Ellis, student communication assistant