This past summer, I had the opportunity to work as a Zero Waste Specialist through the Hanley Sustainability Institute’s Undergraduate Sustainability Fellowship Program. As an HSI Sustainability Student Leader, I’ve loved the work that I’ve been able to accomplish as a member of the Circularity Team during the school year, and I knew this fellowship would allow me to continue that impact over the summer.
As a finance and business analytics double-major, I often get asked why I’m so involved in sustainability initiatives. Since I was a kid, I’ve been passionate about environmental justice, and I’ve always known that I don’t want my work to come at the expense of the only planet that we have.
Instead, the two have always been connected, and I strive to find ways to make business and sustainability work hand-in-hand. This summer fellowship allowed me to do exactly that by exploring meaningful ways to connect my business background with the sustainability work I love doing on campus.
One of the main projects that I got to work on was calculating the return on investment of the University of Dayton’s reusable to-go container program. I told my supervisor that I wanted to take on a project that tied directly to my finance background and she helped me enroll in a course with the Post-Landfill Action Network, a nonprofit that helps students build zero-waste solutions.
In that ROI calculation course, I learned how to design financial models that evaluate the costs and benefits of sustainability initiatives. I was then able to bring that knowledge back to UD, where I developed a spreadsheet model for Dining Services to use in testing different cost and ROI scenarios.
The reusable container program at UD has had an interesting journey. It began as a small, voluntary club model in 2021, then expanded to become the default system at dining halls by 2023. During this expansion, the program struggled with low container return rates, resulting in financial losses and operational challenges.
By spring 2025, it had returned to the club model, this time partnered with Fill it Forward to encourage accountability and improve return rates. Under this smaller system, return rates have increased to nearly 100%, but participation has remained low, with only about 100 participants. Now, the challenge moving forward is figuring out how to scale the program while maintaining high return rates.
My project focused on analyzing this exact challenge and creating solutions. I researched what it would take, in terms of costs, logistics and infrastructure, for UD to expand the program successfully. It was surprising to learn how much thought and planning must go into building a new system like this, in addition to maintaining it effectively.
Beyond just buying more containers, there are countless other factors that need to be considered. It was also important to look into dishwashing capacity, transportation equipment, labor needs, collection bin locations, the number of containers needed each day, marketing strategies and strategies to track returns. I helped create a spreadsheet model to organize all of these different components so that Dining Services could use it to test out various scenarios, such as how quickly the program could pay for itself or what might happen if return rates drop. Making all of this data available will hopefully help them make more informed decisions about the program’s future.
At the end of the fellowship, I presented my findings to Dining Services and walked them through the model so they could use it moving forward. The goal was to give UD a clear roadmap for expanding its reusables program in a way that works both environmentally and financially.
In addition to contributing to sustainability on campus, this fellowship gave me the opportunity to to directly apply my academic majors to my passion of sustainability. Not only did I further my financial and analytics skills, but I also grew in my leadership skills and project management. More importantly, I got to see how financial analysis, something often seen as separate from environmental work, can actually be a tool for helping sustainability initiatives succeed.
This fellowship helped me see more clearly the kind of career that I want to pursue, one where I can use my technical skills to build solutions that make sustainability a practical reality. Looking ahead, I’m excited to explore more opportunities where business and sustainability work together to create meaningful impact.