Amanda King has been the woman behind all the sustainability projects at Bentley since 2009. She has worked with the Bentley staff to create more sustainable uses of water and electricity all throughout campus. She is a great advocate for Bentley’s Black-Out Challenge, and motivating students to become more environmentally friendly. Her success as the Manager of Sustainability has led to her new position as Director of Sustainability and the Special Advisor to President Gloria Larson. Amanda’s efforts have made Bentley a much greener school, and she has many more projects to make Bentley even greener!
Her Campus Bentley: How did you end up working at Bentley in the Office of Sustainability?
Amanda King: Prior to taking a position at Bentley, I was working as an environmental consultant at a company called Environmental Resources Management (ERM). I was part of a mergers and acquisitions team conducting environmental due diligence assessments and was also working in environmental compliance, providing private businesses with advice on making their operations more environmentally friendly. While I enjoyed being a consultant, I was only able to play a small part in making a company more sustainable and decided to look for a job where I could own projects from start to finish. At first, I wanted to be the sustainability coordinator for a private business like Puma (the sneaker company). I started to do some research and found that in addition to private businesses, universities were hiring internal sustainability coordinators. Working at a university seemed even more appealing to me than working in the private sector because I knew I would have the opportunity to work with students!
I answered a job posting for the Manager of Sustainability position at Bentley in the spring of 2009 and started at Bentley that summer. When I arrived at Bentley, I started the Office of Sustainability. Since then, the Office has grown as I have moved into a new position as Director of Sustainability and Special Advisor to the President, and we’ve hired a new Manager of Sustainability, Natalie Berland.
HCB: What’s the most rewarding part about your job?
AK: It’s so hard to pick just one thing! At Bentley I get to work with fantastic students who are excited about the triple-bottom line and eager to think about how businesses can be more successful when they consider stakeholders in addition to shareholders. It has been incredibly rewarding to watch the culture shift that has taken place on campus; there are so many more students, faculty and staff who are engaged in our sustainability efforts than there were even two years ago. I’d say that the most rewarding part of the job is watching people incorporate sustainability into their own daily lives; watching students seek out internships and full-time jobs with sustainable-minded companies and in renewable energy, and watching my colleagues make changes to the operations in their departments on their own. That’s really the measure of a successful sustainability program.
HCB: How does it feel to be Gloria Larson’s special advisor?
AK: When Gloria asked me to be her special advisor, I was thrilled! Gloria proposed that we elevate my position to Director of Sustainability so that I could serve as a more strategic director for the office while also serving as her special advisor. This new role has opened up numerous opportunities for me to learn about leadership and management and of course getting to work with Gloria every day is a great honor!
HCB: What are some projects you look forward to implementing at Bentley?
AK: Right now I’m just really excited about our wind power purchase!
Our student Eco-Reps have developed a Green Certification Program where they will contact academic/administrative departments and student groups to take them through an audit process where they will evaluate sustainable operations and make recommendations for the departments and groups to become more green. Through this process, our Eco-Reps are serving as sustainability consultants, which is great real world experience. I’m really excited for them!
We have also partnered with Sodexo, and we’re doing some great work to green our dining operations, catering services and food offerings, and I look forward to continuing that work.
Of course, I’d love to see us install solar panels and electric vehicle charging stations on campus as well!