In 18 months on the job as Green Initiatives Coordinator for the City of Hallandale Beach, Florida, Susan Fassler, B.S. 2012, M.P.S. ’14, has worked sustainability into the city’s strategic plan, sparked the development of a Sustainability Action Plan for the community and increased the city’s engagement with public school children who are soaking up what she teaches about green living.
She also won the 2016 City Employee Halloween costume contest by dressing as a “Plastic Bag Monster” and seizing the opportunity to teach her co-workers about the environmental hazards of the ubiquitous grocery sacks.
It’s all in a day’s work.
Fassler started her job in Hallandale Beach, between Fort Lauderdale and Miami, in 2015, a few months after she graduated from ESF with her second master’s degree. As an undergraduate at ESF, she majored in environmental studies, focusing on biological applications with a minor in environmental writing and rhetoric. Then she went on to a unique dual master’s program in conjunction with Syracuse University. In 2½ years, she earned a master’s in public administration from SU and a master’s of professional studies from ESF in environmental science, focusing on environmental policy and democratic processes.
She said her education positioned her well to be a one-person sustainability office.
“Getting a broad education then honing in during my last year of graduate school has been very helpful to my job,” she said. “It gave me the background I needed to be able to see the whole picture, while still having the ability to implement the individual projects that need to be done.”
Before she joined the staff of the Hallandale Beach Department of Public Works (DPW), Fassler said, the city’s environmental efforts were largely focused on water conservation. Now the city is delving into energy conservation, waste reduction, long-range planning and education/outreach programs.
She said, “I had the freedom to create the Green Initiatives program largely from the ground up. They see me as the ‘green guru.’”
Some of her ideas were rooted at ESF. After more than six years on a campus where “lug-a-mug” is a familiar term, she discovered that her new co-workers were routinely using disposable plates when they gathered to celebrate birthdays or retirements. So she talked her boss into buying reusable plates at a thrift store and volunteered to wash them for anybody who used one at a department event. “I used to be sort of the quirky one on that front,” she said. “But now everybody’s getting used to it and if you don’t bring a plate to an event in the DPW office, you might be the one who stands out.”
Fassler won the 2016 City Employee Halloween costume contest by dressing as a “Plastic Bag Monster”
She took the waste reduction efforts beyond her own department, auditing the city fire department’s recycling stream and then running a three-day training program about how to increase it. After a waste-reduction-and-recycling policy is in place, she will conduct a second audit to gauge the effectiveness of the training.
Fassler also helped launch the city’s Green Initiatives website and a quarterly newsletter about sustainability projects, and worked with a team to host workshops for city residents who are interested in greening their lives. One workshop featured giveaways of native plants and rain barrels as enticements. “The city offers lots of resources for people who are interested in learning more,” she said. “But our residents don’t know where to look for information. We are trying to get the word out about that.”
Fassler, who grew up in a small town an hour north of Syracuse, said the tropical weather is only one change from Central New York to South Florida. At ESF, she was accustomed to a community where everyone was focused on a common goal and shared common knowledge. She found that’s not the case everywhere.
“Everyone at ESF is an environmentalist,” she said. “But out in the world, you find out not everyone knows the same things and shares the same passions. But they are really eager to learn! You can introduce people to new ways of thought and it’s always rewarding to see them form their own ideas about sustainability and how it fits into their life.”
Children are especially eager to absorb sustainability lessons, she said. Hallandale Beach’s Parks and Recreation Department runs a successful project that engages high school students in cleaning up public beaches. At the program’s inception in 2015, Fassler and the director of parks decided to integrate lessons about the hazards presented by waste in marine environments. Surveying the students after the project was over showed they remembered what they were taught. “Kids are interested and they retain the information and run with it,” she said.
Fassler said one key lesson she learned at work is to ask for help: “If recent graduates open up their minds and aren’t afraid to ask for help, they’ll find people are willing to give it. And that’s how you achieve buy-in. People are more willing to support something if they feel like they’ve been part of the process.”
Two years after leaving ESF, Fassler retains a strong connection to her alma mater. “I follow the news all the time. I know exactly what’s happening,” she said.
Her interest extends to the success of the women’s Mighty Oaks soccer team. Fassler was a member of the team from 2009 to 2013. In the fall of 2016, the team played in the finals of the national U.S. Collegiate Athletics Association tournament.
“I watched it online,” she said. “I’m never far away.”
