ARAMARK And SCA Launch Successful Environmental Internship Program

ARAMARK Environmental Internships

ARAMARK, the global professional services company based in Philadelphia, takes the approach that environmental stewardship should manifest itself in practical business practices.  As Rick Martella, VP for Corporate Affairs says:

“It’s important to create programs and solutions that can be brought to scale through replication, and therefore can generate substantive change from within our business model.”

ARAMARK’s Environmental Internship Program, created in partnership with the Student Conservation Association, is an example of that approach.

Earlier this year, ARAMARK launched the Environmental Internship Program, placing 10 interns into a variety of ARAMARK jobs at its client locations across the country. The interns collaborated with ARAMARK employees and applied their know-how and passion to help ARAMARK and its clients meet environmental goals in a variety of areas – from local purchasing and food waste composting, to energy conservation. The interns worked with ARAMARK at client locations such as colleges and universities from Florida to Chicago, remote national parks such as the Olympic Peninsula, in the hustle and bustle of the corporate world in New York City, and at a convention center in Anaheim, California. 

“The learning experience overall has been invaluable,” said intern Paul Loesch. Working at Baylor University in Texas, Loesch organized Baylor’s Energy Awareness Month, which included an energy conservation competition. He also developed an energy awareness handbook that included energy efficiency standards and procedures to communicate across the university.

ARAMARK intern Michael Seaman hosted onsite environmental training at Asilomar Conference Center in California, and said he learned the importance of elevating environmental awareness by educating not only staff but also conference center guests. He learned first-hand the importance of using symbols, objects, colors and designs -- and not just words -- to convey how to participate in recycling and composting programs.

According to Ila Galanti, intern at the University of Chicago, building strong relationships with vendors is key to creating effective sustainable purchasing programs. Galanti promoted sustainable foods, plus vegetarian and vegan meal options at the university.

“We can endeavor to incorporate environmental practices into virtually any job,” says Martella. “Through this program we are testing solutions and also helping to engage employees in how we make the connection between the work they do and our ability to positively impact the environment as part of a larger effort.”

Seven months into the program, three of the interns have been hired into permanent positions at ARAMARK. The three interns and their projects are briefly profiled in this article, and details about their work, and the application process for the 2012 class of ARAMARK Environmental Interns, is available atwww.thesca.org or atwww.aramark.com.

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