Perspectives on the Shutdown: Delta Green Up
Perhaps like us, you’ve been wondering about how the coronavirus shutdown is affecting the natural world, water resources, infrastructure, and the work of environmental advocates. We reached out to some experts in the Finding the Flint Working Group to see what they are noticing during these weeks of cancelled meetings, work-from-home experimentation, and quiet time outdoors.
Miers, in the red shirt, summits the trash collected at our fall volunteer river clean up at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
Finding the Flint is fortunate to work with many volunteers and visionaries from Delta Air Lines. Jesse Miers is the president of Green Up, an employee-led business resource group founded in 2018 that establishes sustainability ambassadors throughout the company. On Delta's Fleet Strategy team Jesse Miers works to optimize aircraft performance and champion ways to reduce fuel consumption.
How are you? What are your days like at Delta right now?
My life exists in about a 10 foot radius right now, except for the occasional dog walk or jog around the park. I’m in the group of Delta employees who are able to work from home. It’s an uncertain time, but the Delta spirit has never been stronger and we’ll manage through this together.
What have you noticed about how the coronavirus shutdown is affecting Green Up activities and employee engagement right now?
For the 4,000+ members of Green Up at Delta, we’ve shifted gears to sharing tips for building sustainable habits at home rather than hosting in-person activities this Spring.
This is a very odd April for Green Up. Normally we would have multiple events each week celebrating Earth Month building up toward big Delta employee activations on Earth Day. Under normal circumstances we would have already fielded a large group of employees to participate in the Flint River Cleanup event inside the Atlanta airport perimeter fence. For many people each year this is the first time they get to learn about the Flint River, and for almost everybody who participates it’s their first time seeing or getting in the Flint River itself. I’m hopeful we’ll get to lead an even bigger group out there when the event is rescheduled.
For building more sustainable actions at home, now that everyone is cooking from home more, I think one of the most important changes people can make is to start composting! This makes a big difference by reducing methane emissions from landfills and returning more nutrients to the soil. Even if you don’t have a yard, innovative companies like CompostNow make this easy by providing you a bucket and will pick up your organic scraps directly from your house or apartment. For Green Up, we’re big believers that small actions can build up to unlock positive change.
Do you think people will make these changes at home into long-term habits?
The changes to our business are temporary, but the good habits we build and our greater sense of connectedness will endure.
Any silver linings that we should try to preserve?
If nothing else, this crisis makes it absolutely undeniable how deeply connected we all are, to each other and our planet. It’s a reminder of how much we need each other and how we all depend on the shared resources of our world. When we emerge from this, my hope is that we come out the other side as a more connected and more sustainable world.
How can we help?
Virtual tours of the Flint River or any video content we can share with our members is the best way to engage people and continue spreading the word about this special water source that flows underneath our airport.
Recommended Reading:
Fueling a Sustainable Airline: Why Delta's promise to connect the world begins with caring for it