Welcome to the Dragon Community: Katy Chapman

Katy Chapman is the new Sustainability Coordinator for the Facilities Management and Physical Plant team. Her office is in Hagen Hall. She works towards making our campus environment more resourceful and sustainable.  

Q: Why MSUM?
A: The campus community has a very welcoming feeling to it and I really like the full tree canopy you can find throughout campus. I also like the idea of being a Dragon and it’s closer to my family. 

Q: What does a typical day look like for a sustainability coordinator?
A: It varies by season. I would suspect that when the students are more present, I will be doing a lot of student-facing activities. But right now, I’ve been working on preparing for the upcoming semester by creating a Green Space and Green Office Program along with calculating our waste diversion rates for 2025.  

Q: How is being a sustainability coordinator on a college campus unique? 
A: The students are a big part of the difference. There are academic and education components of this role such as hosting interns and teaching the campus community how to live more sustainable lives. However, sustainability coordinators outside of academia would also be implementing projects related to waste diversion, native pollinator plantings, energy efficiency and green energy generation among other things. Thus, being an intern in the Sustainability Office would be great experience for anyone considering incorporating sustainability into their professional lives. 

Q: Do you have any goals for our campus?
A: The dream would be that we are a no impact community, so zero-waste facility, climate neutral, etc… in the end we are good for the planet vs. Being “less bad” than we were before. 

Q: How do you envision our campus in the next five years?  
A: We are carbon neutral or negative for both electricity (the city of Moorhead already provides us with carbon neutral electricity) and heating. This means finding sources of heat that is carbon neutral such as using solar/wind to produce steam vs the natural gas we use now. I don’t know that five years is a realistic time frame to get there, but I would love to see us making progress towards this goal. 

Q: Are there any projects you would like to collaborate on with students?
A: I’m always looking for students that want to get involved and do something. So, if they want to do something see me. I define Sustainability broadly using the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, so if you have interest in one or more of these goals please reach out.  

Q: What are your thoughts about the wildlife on our campus and anything you are hoping to do about it?
A: I’ve seen a deer, turkey, rabbits, and a number of squirrels. I would promote creating pollinator habitats, so we’re attracting native bees, Bird feeders are okay as long as somebody is maintaining them, but a better approach would be to create landscapes that support the wildlife we want to encourage on campus.  

Q: If you had a pet Dragon, what would be their name?
A: My daughter really likes dragons, so she would probably want to name it, and she would probably choose the name Toothless after the movie character.