Grad’s passion for sustainability leads to full-time employment

March 21, 2018

Recent Georgian Environmental Technology graduate Shaun Wakefield has earned a reputation as “Mr. Earth.” He’s quickly become an expert in waste management reduction strategies and solutions, bringing passion and a love of the environment to his work.

Wakefield first caught the eye of his employer – Busch Systems in Barrie – while completing a co-op and research project for the company through the Centre for Applied Research and Innovation. He helped Busch develop an innovative software tool to compile and analyze data on the impacts of organizations’ environmental programs.

The result was the launch of a new service for Busch Systems and Wakefield’s career.

“I used my environmental and waste management knowledge to help the company validate the information underpinning the software tool,” he says. “When I graduated, they offered me the newly created position of Refuse Management Specialist.”

Now Wakefield is Busch’s resident sustainability expert. His strength lies in his ability to identify waste management inefficiencies and determine how to co-ordinate and implement measures that are more effective.

While a student at Georgian, Wakefield also researched the feasibility of an organic collection program for Georgian College. He designed, performed and reported a waste audit of the culinary department to determine the volume of its organic waste generation to have the foundational knowledge for the feasibility analysis.