I am a Malouf Scholar coming to the end of this season, known as graduate school. I have been working very hard to complete my data analysis in the past months. In addition, I have begun to wrap up my study on the impacts of the razor clam fishery on Oregon coastal communities. I am so close to completing my study and will be defending my master’s this summer! (I know everyone says this, but honestly, where does the time go?)
I have learned so much; for instance, I found that razor clams are an important resource to Northern Oregon, with many examples of multi-generational harvesters. Also, the razor clam fishery helps keep coastal businesses alive during the winter months when there are not many other fisheries open. These are just two examples of the outcomes of my research, and there is so much more that I wish I could share with you!
From the beginning of this project, I wanted to produce elements that razor clam managers could use and harvesters. Through interviews with coastal communities, many research participants commented that they wanted to know more about biotoxin closures (a biotoxin is a poisonous substance produced by a living organism). Many also commented that they wanted to learn more about domoic acid (in the past decade, it has shorted the razor clam harvest season 6 years in a row, from 2015 to 2020). With this in mind, I started drafting an infographic about domoic acid, where it comes from, and why it happens. While that’s not quite finished yet, I am excited to be able to share it with the communities when it is completed.
I also have been working on other small deliverables, such as a small poster showing the life cycle of a razor clam. The life cycle is below, there’s still some fine-tuning left, but I would love any input you might have!
Since my last update, I feel like I’ve been able to grow significantly within my environmental knowledge as well as gaining several practical professional skills. As my fellowship is coming to an end, I’ve not only had the chance to look at all the work I’ve completed, but also get to look where I’m going next.
B Corp
Ever since figuring out what a B Corporation was, I knew that I wanted to work for one. Whether that was a business that was already certified or a company looking to become certified, I knew that the requirements for a B Corp certification aligned with my own values and vision for the future of business.
I was excited when I learned that Tofurky was a B Corp because it was like a cherry on top of a business that I believed was already doing so much for the environment. Tofurky was first certified in 2017 as a B Corp and as a requirement, it is required to recertify every 3 years. While there was a team assembled and ready in both 2020 and early 2021 to complete the recertification, we didn’t end up getting any word until 2022. This meant that as the sustainability person at the company, I got to help with the entirety of the environmental section. I’ve previously looked through B Corp’s Impact Assessment but this time I was able to actively enter all the work that our company and I have been doing.
I think going through this process of recertification was insightful and made me appreciate the certification and its value so much more. Several times during our verification stage, we were required to show proof of certain practices and behaviors at the company. This meant that we needed to not only confirm the practices we have, but also show the formal written policy for each one.
Career Development
One of the most exciting parts of my work recently has been looking at where I want my career path to go. I know I want to stay within sustainability at businesses, possibly even manufacturing companies, but now I see so many more options for where I can specialize. Two of the most enticing paths right now are moving towards being a sustainability analyst or gaining some knowledge on process engineering.
I really like the idea of being a sustainability analyst mostly because I have enjoyed working with data at Tofurky. Since beginning my fellowship, I’ve keeping track of and working with the company’s utility and waste data. Over time, I’ve discovered better ways to not only model and present the data, but ways to overlay that data to make it more useful. One of the biggest changes that we’ve made is looking at the data from an intensity perspective. This allows us to look at how we’re doing while still accounting for growth.
Process engineering is another interesting path because it would give me the tools to make the change that I want to see in companies. Right now, I have some difficulties being able to make changes at Tofurky purely because I don’t have the background and knowledge to analyze a process and identify how we can make it more efficient. Getting further education in this would allow me to walk onto production floors, acknowledge areas for improvement, and subsequently offer solutions that we can test. As of right now I feel as if there is a large barrier to entry with this kind of work and requires further education.
I think the main reason I’m excited about both career paths is because they would give the skill sets, I need to make meaningful change at a company. Currently, I feel like there is value in learning some project and program management skills to deal with work, but there’s something missing when it comes to making change. That missing piece comes in the form of having the right people or information. Without having someone specialized in process engineering, there is a gap in our capability to drive change. While it would be nice to simply have someone else with these skills on the team, I’ve learned I feel most comfortable as a team member when I have some shared knowledge with those I’m working with.
Program Management
One of the biggest changes that has occurred in the new year is within the management of our sustainability program and the work that we are doing. I’ve struggled a lot in this experience with finding an effective way to work that not only establishes clear objectives, but also works for our diverse set of departments. Initially, most of the work we were doing revolved around a monthly meeting with occasional check-ins in between, but there were problems with this. While I and several others believed our monthly meetings were meant to function as working meetings, others in the group viewed it simply as a time for reporting progress. This breakdown in communication and understanding showed me that I needed to restructure the way we work.
The solution was transitioning over to a more formal program structure. This involved not only a steering committee/executive sponsors, but functional teams that each have their own meeting cadence, goals, and work structure. Already, this has felt way more productive and functional than the previous ways we were working. This has also allowed me to gain some valuable project and program management skills that I’ll be able to use in the future.
I have found that most people feel like COVID has affected their sense of time. This has been especially true for me — the last two years have been marked by beginning graduate school, getting married, a global pandemic, and having a child. The last two years have gone by in a blur. As I write this, some of the students that I began school with are completing their master’s degrees while I am returning from a six-month parental leave of absence after the birth of my first child. I am hoping that this blog post resonates with some folks who do not feel like the “traditional” student, that by speaking more openly about my journey I may be taking a step towards helping myself and/or others find a sense of community and understanding.
Despite everything (decades of education, scholarships, internships, global travel, field work) I still find myself constantly questioning my validity as a scholar, as a contributing member of the scientific community, or even as a Sea Grant Scholar. When the time comes to “perform” and I need to complete an application for funding or write a blog post my instinct is to say to myself that “I haven’t done anything,” that I am unworthy. I know many of my peers feel similarly, where does this seemingly never-ending doubt come from and how do we conquer it? I try to remind myself that thoughts aren’t necessarily facts (in my case, thoughts are frequently not facts), sometimes thoughts are just thoughts. Looking back upon my previous blog posts and reflecting upon this last year as a Sea Grant Scholar, the truth begins to come forward and become clearer… So, what is true?
Fall 2019: I began my journey as a master’s student in Fisheries Science at Oregon State University two years ago this fall. In fact, I got married on the second day of classes!
March 2020: A global pandemic has worked its way around the world multiple times over in the past 1.5 years. Which means I was on campus for only six months before everything changed.
I formed a collaboration with ODFW Marine Reserves Program and California Collaborative Fisheries Research Program (CCFRP) to sample during their hook-and-line surveys in the fall of 2021.
December 2020: As mentioned in my previous post, I formally drafted a plan for my research project and successfully defended my research review and formed my committee last winter.
I got pregnant!
I started working on part II of my project. Began conversing with ODFW regarding access to Oregon Recreational Boat Sampling (ORBS) program data as well as data collected as part of ODFW’s Sport Groundfish Onboard Sampling (SGOS) program.
March 2021: I then organized a session for a professional conference, which is a first for me. My lab mate, Claire Rosemond, and I brought together a theme and list of speakers for a symposium at this year’s Oregon Chapter of the American Fisheries Society.
April 2021: ODFW cancelled their hook-and-line surveys originally scheduled for fall of 2021. ☹ Good thing I secured a collaboration with CCFRP to sample in September! 😊
May 2021: It may be a small win, but it felt big to me! I won best graduate student poster at our locally sponsored conference RAFWE.
My winning poster at Research Advances in Fisheries, Wildlife, and Ecology Symposium (RAFWE) 2021 provides a quick overview of both aspects of my project.
I found that most people I knew (fellow graduate students, advisors, faculty, student union, etc.) did not have any familiarity with the parental leave policy at my university, let alone how to guide a graduate student through the process. Identifying the steps and personnel to communicate with felt a little like reinventing the wheel. Eventually I not only completed the process but also chronicled it and created an informational document (doc attached below for anyone who may benefit) that hopefully helps other students in the future. This process took weeks and continued beyond the birth of my child.
June 2021: I left for parental leave and had a baby!
My son and I shortly after he entered this world.
September 2021: Realized that trying to leave for field work 8 weeks after having a child was simply not possible (at least for me). Canceled my field work with CCFRP.
I signed back up with ODFW for their 2022 hook and line surveys.
December 2021: Return from six months on parental leave
Hello Everyone! My name is Kaegan Scully-Engelmeyer and I am thrilled to have joined the Oregon Sea Grant Scholars as the 2021-22 Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia (OAH) Fellow with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). Since starting this fellowship in December I have joined the water quality assessment team at DEQ and have been supporting the coordination and organization of a recently formed OAH scientific-technical workgroup. The workgroup has been convened to assist DEQ in developing procedures for assessing the biological impacts of OAH in Oregon’s territorial waters (which extend three nautical miles from the shoreline). In this post I’ll give a simplified overview of Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia as water quality stressors, and then share some of the details of DEQ’s water quality assessment process. In future posts I’ll get more in depth about each of these areas.
Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia as water quality stressors (simplified):
Ocean Acidification (OA): As carbon dioxide (CO2) is released into the atmosphere, around 30% of it is stored in the ocean. In the simplest terms, Ocean Acidification refers to a series of carbonate chemistry reactions in which increasing levels of CO2 in the ocean lowers the pH of the water. This change in chemistry has been shown to negatively impact certain types of ocean dwelling species, particularly those that form a calcified shell. In recent years OA research has seen a swift rise in the coastal and oceanographic scientific community, as scientists work to understand current and future impacts to ocean health and ocean-reliant economies.
Hypoxia: Hypoxia in this case refers to low dissolved oxygen conditions. In Oregon’s marine waters these conditions occur mainly because of a process called upwelling, wherein low oxygen/nutrient rich water from deep in the ocean is brought into the upper water column. As nutrient rich water is exposed to light, phytoplankton (microscopic plants) bloom and their resulting decomposition uses oxygen, lowering the amount of dissolved oxygen available in the water column. As you can guess, these low oxygen conditions can have a negative impact on aquatic species. These processes are naturally occurring phenomena here off the coast of Oregon, but in recent years climatic shifts controlling the extent and duration of upwelling have led to longer upwelling seasons, expanding the area and duration of these low oxygen events.
If you’re interested, here is link to two short videos that dive a little deeper into these processes and how they relate to Oregon, I highly recommend checking them out.
Water quality assessment:
The Water Quality Assessment Program at DEQ is responsible for assessing and reporting to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on the condition of Oregon’s surface waters every two years. The water quality assessment team relies on water quality data collected internally at DEQ as well as data and information submitted during a public call for data. These data are assessed and compared to existing water quality criteria to determine if a waterbody is not meeting the criteria or impaired. A list of impaired waters is submitted to EPA as a part of the DEQ’s Integrated Report every two years. If you’re interested in a more detailed breakdown, DEQ’s assessment team created a great story map that walks through the assessment and Integrated Report process.
DEQ does not (yet) have a defined procedure to assess the impacts of OAH on biological life in Oregon’s marine waters. As you can imagine, it is a uniquely challenging endeavor to assess biological impacts related to OAH conditions in an environment such as the ocean, one that is constantly changing and influenced by so many large-scale processes and factors. This is why the assistance of this technical workgroup is so critical in developing a robust and scientifically sound assessment procedure. We’ve had one full workgroup meeting so far and are currently working in a subgroup format to develop a draft assessment procedure to workshop with larger group. Thus far working with the assessment team at DEQ and the technical workgroup members from across the region has been an excellent experience, and I am looking forward to continuing to make progress towards OAH assessment procedures.
Since my last post, the scope of my project has shifted to developing tribal coordination and consultation procedures for the entire Oregon Coastal Management Program (OCMP), rather than just for federal consistency reviews. In part, this is because it was proving difficult to separate the activities of the federal consistency review program from those of the larger OCMP. The project team also recognized that the strategy for tribal engagement during federal consistency reviews is somewhat limited by nature. As my recently departed (and sorely missed) mentor, Deanna Caracciolo, likes to say… the federal consistency review is usually the “caboose” of a federal permitting process. By the time the OCMP initiates its review, the federal agency and any OCMP network partners with permitting responsibilities (i.e. state agencies) may have already communicated with potentially impacted Tribes about the proposed action. Therefore, to limit duplication of effort and respect the limited resources of our partners – including the Tribes – the OCMP will aim to “complement” any previous tribal engagement efforts and offer an opportunity for a final double-check for any emerging concerns. This strategy roughly mirrors that of our neighboring coastal management program in California. As this is a fairly common sense and straightforward solution, there is fortunately bandwidth in the scope of this project to branch out to the wider OCMP!
As I move forward in this project, my approach to the development of the tribal coordination and consultation procedures is to:
Use the existing Department of Land Conservation and Development policy for government-to-government relations as the framework: This policy is required per Oregon Revised Statutes 182.162 through 182.168. My project is essentially implementing the policy through the development of procedures specific for the OCMP. It is an important – and complex – distinction that the requirement is to set up a program that promotes positive relations between the state and the Tribes through cooperation and communication. Big “C” consultation (formal consultation) is part of it, but the wider focus on cooperation recognizes that ongoing opportunities for collaboration and coordination between the state and the Tribes are critical to developing the underlying relationships.
Normalize communication: Establishing a fairly standardized cycle of routine communication and coordination helps with the building of relationships and pathways for information flow. These relationships and pathways can then be leaned on as the need for non-routine communication arises or when there are emerging issues. More frequent communication also means more opportunities to get feedback and adjust, as needed. In setting up this communication cycle, it is my goal to leverage existing processes to maximize sustainability and not create more work than is necessary. For example, each agency is required to submit an annual report to the Legislative Commission on Indian Services regarding the previous year’s tribal engagement activities: we are aiming to set up reporting and monitoring forms that can easily be fed into the annual report.
Clarify roles and responsibilities: Part of this project has been seeking to understand what the OCMP is currently doing when it comes to tribal engagement – identifying who is currently coordinating with the tribes and any future opportunities for coordination. We don’t want to fix anything that isn’t broken and want to build on whatever is already working. Ultimately, the goal is to develop a structure of roles and responsibilities internal to the OCMP for monitoring and advocating for tribal engagement opportunities. Again, we want to make this as painless as possible – so we are proposing relatively simple solutions like a standing agenda item at the all staff meeting regarding tribal engagement to keep this at the front of everyone’s minds.
Develop robust but flexible procedures: Uncertainty can be a hurdle to efficient and effective communication, so we are developing procedures and best practices to help staff determine what type of coordination is appropriate for different types of activities. For example, the process of initiating formal consultation through letters to the Tribal Council can feel a little stressful. We want to get in front of this (and the possible stress) by identifying the types of activities that are generally suitable for staff-to-staff coordination. These procedures will also capture communication strategies and roles and responsibilities.
We shared our proposed framework for procedure development with the Tribes during a workshop in late February 2022. We were extremely grateful and excited that representatives of seven of the nine federally recognized Tribal Nations in Oregon were able to attend. This was an opportunity to share more information about the OCMP, its authority, its programs, and federal consistency reviews and get some feedback from the attendees. The workshop was advertised as the first of many opportunities to communicate and coordinate with our tribal partners. Over the next few months, I am looking forward to facilitating further conversations between the OCMP and tribal staff to learn more about the Tribes’ interests in the coastal zone and ensure the procedures we are developing meet their needs.
I am back for another year of aquaculture adventures with Oregon Sea Grant, after taking a short break in December. Thanks to my very supportive and flexible mentors, I was able to take some leave and focus on self-care, a very important aspect of work-life balance. To my fellow fellows, if you’re struggling with burnout, don’t be afraid to ask for what you need to recover. I rested A LOT, enjoyed the holidays at a slower pace, and visited Maui for the first time. The highlight of the trip was seeing a mama Gray whale with her baby on a snorkeling trip (where I also saw a SHARK and so many turtles and fish). After being stuck at home so much for the past couple of years, this trip was a good reminder of why I decided to study and work in marine science.
Right now I am finishing up and launching some new projects for this year. Last November, I completed a draft of an aquaculture white paper that summarizes the Oregon aquaculture needs assessment, and reviews the regulatory framework for aquaculture in Oregon. I sent the full draft to some Sea Grant extension specialists in Oregon and Washington for review and am working with my mentor to address their comments and improve the report. Another project I am working on is a “Guide to Oregon Aquaculture” which will feature the different types of species, methods, and products in Oregon. I have been working on putting the information together, and my next step is to put it online, potentially using an ArcGIS StoryMap. I am looking forward to learning a new skill and making a visually appealing product to showcase this information. A new project that I am working on is creating some permitting guidance. The needs assessment pointed to a lack of information about permits and regulations as a major barrier to both starting and expanding aquaculture operations in Oregon. Right now I am meeting with folks that have created permitting guides in other states, doing research, and setting goals and timelines for completing the project. With all of these projects in progress, and several meetings and professional development opportunities to manage, I am strengthening my skills in task prioritization.
One of the exciting things about aquaculture in the U.S. right now is that new tools and resources are constantly being developed to advance sustainable aquaculture. In the past few months, several new items have been released that provide information about siting, permitting, and business planning for new operations in Oregon, and along the U.S. West coast. I’ve provided links and descriptions of these new products that compliment what I am working on for Oregon Sea Grant.
Estuary Shellfish Mariculture Explorer: This is a spatial tool to help with choosing a site for growing shellfish within estuaries in Oregon. The tool was created by the Department of Land Conservation and Development, Oregon Explorer, and Oregon Department of Agriculture and includes approved growing areas for shellfish and locations of current leased tidelands, among other resources.
Oregon Aquaculture Explorer Platform: This platform provides spatial and financial tools for setting up inland aquaculture operations for Tilapia, Sturgeon, and Hybrid Striped Bass. Users can use the map viewer to look at different spatial factors that are important for setting up an onsite aquaculture operation, such as water resources, land ownership, and climate, and create a site report for a specified location. The platform also has financial planning tools with specific information for each fish species. Funding from Oregon Sea Grant will support expansion of the tool to include marine species in the near future.
NOAA Permitting Resources: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has released several federal and state level permitting resources. Two websites for the U.S. West coast with lists of permitting information and siting resources for Washington, Oregon and California went live in fall 2021. NOAA also produced a Federal Permitting Guide for Marine Aquaculture in February 2022 that includes the major federal agencies, permits, and laws, and has links to a state permit and lease summaries for shellfish, finfish, and seaweed.
It’s exciting to see so much progress and change in just the last year, which keeps me motivated to work on Oregon specific resources. Looking forward, I am really excited to potentially meet my co-workers in person in the next month. OSG is planning an in-person program meeting in Newport in April. I hope I can get out to the coast again and meet the awesome folks that I’ve been fortunate to work with.
Hi all! My name is Joanna and I’m excited to join the community of Oregon Sea Grant Scholars for the 2021-2022 Natural Resource Policy Fellowship. I matched with The Nature Conservancy as my host organization to explore Blue Carbon in Oregon. Blue Carbon refers to any carbon stored within soils or biomass in coastal and marine ecosystems: think salt marshes, eelgrass, and kelp forests, for example. There has been recent focus on protecting and restoring these habitats, in part because they are so good at absorbing and sequestering atmospheric carbon and can be part of the solution to mitigate the effects of climate change. (Although, of course, the greatest reduction effects would be seen from drastically reducing fossil fuel consumption.) Natural Climate Solutions—including Blue Carbon—provide this essential service in addition to myriad co-benefits that support coastal biological and human communities.
Much of Blue Carbon science has been conducted in the tropics and typically framed in terms those tropical ecosystems. Salt marshes and seagrasses are common to both the tropics and the Pacific Northwest, but mangrove forests—understood to be the most effective carbon storage ecosystem—do not occur in the PNW. We do, however, have Sitka spruce swamps which tolerate the salinity of tidally influenced wetlands and store incredible amounts of carbon in soils and woody biomass. Additionally, many of the oceanic sources of Blue Carbon are not well incorporated into our understanding of carbon pathways in Oregon. My project seeks to understand the potential role of Blue Carbon to reach Oregon’s carbon reduction targets and to finance restoration through carbon credits.
The first few months of this fellowship have been a whirlwind of learning about Blue Carbon science, meeting many of the amazing people who work and are interested in this space, and changing the way I think about science and the ways it’s applied in the world. My background in marine science led me to approach problems using a fairly rigid framework—formulating research questions, deriving hypotheses, constructing methodologies—but working in applied science and policy has certainly challenged the way I think about approaching projects. Scientific rigor is, of course, still needed as the foundation for effective climate policy, but I’ve learned to put more emphasis on human elements—relationships between people and the lands and waters on which they depend, and connections between partners and stakeholders to implement change. I’m excited to continue exploring established and frontier Blue Carbon pathways, and connecting with partners and policymakers during the course of my fellowship.
Looking over the wetlands at Bandon Marsh National Wildlife Refuge
My name is Kendall and I am a new Sea Grant scholar, a 2021-2022 Natural Resource Policy Fellow, stationed in Charleston on the south coast. I was matched with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife at the south coast field office to work with management to develop a conservation and fishery management plan for a currently closed recreational fishery.
It has been a hectic and rewarding start to my fellowship so far! I have been researching conservation and fishery management plans and working with my fellowship host to build the framework for the imperiled red abalone (Haliotis rufescens) fishery. I already had a background in fisheries and particularly with the history of the red abalone fishery in Oregon, due to my position at ODFW as a shellfish biological aide prior to graduate school. What I did not have was a familiarity with the difficulties in creating a new type of management plan that considers multiple objectives and viewpoints that might counteract one another.
The most interesting revelation I have had so far during this process is that writing a conservation and fishery management plan is not common for fisheries, and is quite different from a typical fisheries management plan. The most imperative way it differs has to do with the concept that this management plan does not mean that there will be a fishery. Instead, there are two simultaneous objectives that could naturally be seen as opposites. The first objective is to protect and conserve the species in question, and the other objective is to develop a fishery for that same species. Working through this process so far has been a unique exercise in recognizing, appreciating and applying different stakeholder perspectives. Often it seems that agencies, organizations and individuals view these objectives as contrary to one another, and further, that one objective and perspective nullifies the other. My main task is to take each perspective and goal and find ways to merge the two together to benefit the red abalone population in Oregon, as well as honor the cultural, social and economic importance of the resource. I look forward to learning more about each perspective and working towards a common goal to create a sustainable, socially and biologically conscious fishery while continuing to explore the specifics of conserving an elusive and fascinating invertebrate species.
Hi there! My name is Jess Schulte and I am part of the newest batch of 2021 Oregon Sea Grant Scholars. I am working to gather data on the movement and foraging ecology of shark predators – specifically the broadnose sevengill (Notorynchus cepedianus) – in the Northern California Current System (NCCS). My research will provide the first insights into how this predator – and likely others – maintain these productive marine ecosystems through top-down interactions. My project focuses on integrating data from satellite and acoustic receivers and stomach content and stable isotope analyses from broadnose sevengills to better understand the ecosystem dynamics of NCCS systems, and will finally enable shark predators to be incorporated into our understanding of the area and wider NCCS (which has never been done before!). In other words, where do they go, what are they eating, and how does it affect us AND the fish that we eat here in the Pacific Northwest (salmon, halibut, crab, etc.)?
I am a first year PhD student at Oregon State University and before classes started this year, I was able to get out into the field to kick-off my research. We spent three days out on the boat, dropping hooks in the water baited with discarded salmon heads. We didn’t have to wait long to catch sharks…almost every time we dropped a line down, we’d quickly pull it back up with a sevengill on the end! For this field trip, we focused on deploying our acoustic tags. These tags provide fine-scale information on where/how the sharks are moving within a smaller, defined area (such as a bay). This summer, we will be deploying satellite tags that will track the sharks as they leave their summer bay residences in Oregon and head elsewhere. We will also be collecting stomach contents as well as tissue samples to do stable isotope analysis. The former will provide data on recent feedings, and the latter will provide foraging information on a longer scale – dating back weeks to months!
Additionally, my research will collaborate with local tribes through the incorporation of tribal youth into my fieldwork. We will be taking interested tribal youth members into the field to teach them techniques about shark catching and tagging while also helping me to better understand the cultural context around the research itself. I’m also looking forward to continued outreach and engagement, including a display at OSU’s Hatfield Marine Research Center! We’ll be setting up social media platforms soon so keep an eye out for those as well (in the meantime, those interested can check out the Big Fish Lab Instagram page. We’re also doing other great research on the movement of other shark species as well as shark physiology and stress responses!).
I am excited and proud to be one of the newest Oregon Sea Grant Scholars and contribute to OSG’s mission and values by informing methods for ecosystem-based management and promoting community and industry outreach and engagement. While I’m still getting a handle in first year of graduate school, I’m eager to full-steam ahead on my Big Fish Lab research in the spring and summer!
Myself, preparing a broadnose sevengill for an acoustic tag deployment in Coos Bay, OR
Since my last update, I have learned so much from a professional development standpoint as well as how to fail successfully.
Failing
These last few months have also given me what I’m sure I’ll call the “Scale Problem” for the rest of my career. As we have been trying to better manage our material wastes, one key piece of information that we have been missing is data regarding where and why we are producing waste in our production. To address this issue, the sustainability team and I decided that we would get back to the practice of weighing the waste bins on the production floor. The only issue was that the scale was broken and needed parts to be fixed.
I talked with several people, got the ball moving and was excited to get the scale fixed and begin measuring our wastes. A month later, the scale was still broken, and nothing had changed. I had wasted a lot of time chasing something that was simply wasting everyone’s time. At this point I had to reevaluate my goals and find a new path to get where I needed to go. I created a new measurement template that would go off volume rather than weight. This proved to be successful and allowed us to see where we are producing the most waste so that we can focus our efforts based on data.
My biggest lesson from all of this is that I can’t just wait on things to be fixed or anchor on the idea that something can’t be done because something is broken or not working as it should. I learned to be more flexible and to always be ready to find another solution to the same problem.
Another change that has come from the work I’ve been doing is that we may not have all the positions at the company that we need to be able to make the changes we want to see. When going through our production process and trying to make changes, one of the biggest realizations we had is that there was no single person in charge of continuous improvement of our process. This realization showed us an opportunity, as no one at the company has the capacity to pick up that work right now. Because of this, Chris, my mentor, decided to move onto trying to get someone to oversee continuous improvement. Now, we will be looking for a process engineer within the next year or so to help us continuously improve our process. Hopefully, this will help us to reduce our material waste and take some steps towards the 2030 goals we set as a company.
Managing capstone projects
Another fun development that has happened since my last post is that I worked with a capstone group from PSU to help me get a head start on Scope 3 emissions at Tofurky. Scope 3 emissions refers to all emissions that take place outside of a company’s own manufacturing (i.e., supply chain and distribution). For their project, they looked at our largest suppliers and through analysis of our sales and purchases last year, were able to give us a series of recommendations to get more thorough data around Scope 3 emissions. This has set us up for 2022 where we will be able to start asking our suppliers more questions as well as using more software to help organize the data we collect.
SEM
One of the coolest advancements so far in my time at Tofurky is that we are now a part of the Oregon Energy Trust’s Strategic Energy Management (SEM) program. This program has around 9 other businesses from around Oregon all participating to become more mindful about their energy usage.
With our team that we created; we have already set goals for reducing our energy usage with this program that will help us to achieve our 2030 goals. In November, we conducted a leak sweep where we walked around with an air leak detector that could help us locate any pipes that were leaking air. In one building alone we were able to find over 25 air leaks, showing us just one of the many opportunities we will have with this program to improve our energy performance.
Using the leak detector on packaging equipment
The next steps with SEM are the biggest for the program and Tofurky. Within the next couple months, we will be conducting what they call a treasure hunt. This will involve the entire Tofurky SEM team and any other employees who wish to join in walking through the manufacturing facilities and pointing out any opportunities that we may have to reduce energy use. I really like Oregon Energy Trust’s approach to this as they look for a large quantity of ideas at first and then narrow it down to the low cost, high impact projects. Through this, we should be able to reduce our energy use drastically within the next year and into the future as well.
The final part of this program that has been cool to me is that it has allowed for me to network with similar businesses. I recently got to talk with the Sustainability Manager at Bob’s Red Mill, and we talked about participating in each other’s treasure hunts. Not only is it allowing our businesses to build a community of practice, but it also serves as a great way for me to get more knowledge and experience from someone who has walked a similar path to what I want to do. I look forward to all that this program can give.
Spanish class
The final thing that I decided to do during my fellowship is join the Tofurky bilingual program. This program is a 16-week class of 8 English speakers and 8 Spanish speakers at the company. Each week we have time to learn vocabulary and grammar from a Spanish teacher, and then we are paired up to speak with someone native in the other language. This has been a wonderful experience so far because not only have I gotten to practice Spanish, but I have also gotten the chance to meet some people from the production floor that I’ve never met before. Most of our production employees also primarily speak Spanish, so this program really helps to bridge the language gap.
Composting Project
The final thing that I’ve done within the last few months is a composting project. Recently, Tofurky discontinued a few products from our product line and as a result, had a bunch of the dry mix that we used leftover. We didn’t want to just throw all that product out so instead we worked with a local composting facility to take all of it. We emptied pallets of ingredients into giant dumpsters and sent it away to be composted. This was just a small one day project but it was cool to see how much waste could possible be diverted in the future.
