Green Team Spotlight: Allie Bindert

Written by Senior Office Assistant, Brenden Nickels.

As KA’s environmental stewards, the Green Team promotes ways on how we can live a more sustainable life. But who are these KA’ers that are sharing ways to be more friendly to the environment? Throughout 2022, we’ll be spotlighting our passionate Green Team members.

We start out this series with Allie Bindert, KA’s BIM/VDC Specialist.

What made you join the Green team?

I enjoy learning from others about their sustainable practices. I also look forward to implementing more sustainable practices when I see areas of opportunity.

What do you do to practice sustainability in your life, like at home and/or work?

I have a compost system at home that I’ve used for about 2 years. I am still learning the best practices to compost and am trying to become more efficient with the process, but in general my household sends less waste to a landfill every week, so that’s a win in my book.

What is one environment trend that you are paying attention to, and why does it matter?

My husband and I are tracking best practices for invasive buckthorn removal, and one trend we’ve latched onto is the use of goats for natural buckthorn removal. Buckthorn is a highly invasive species in our region that quickly overgrows a landscape and chokes out native plant species. We live on 5 wooded acres that was/is heavily covered in buckthorn. Many of our large trees already died due to buckthorn strangulation. We purchased 5 dwarf goats and a portable electric fence that we’ve relocated around our woods for the past 2 years. We’ve seen a significant dent in buckthorn growth, and we’re actually seeing native undergrowth come back. We’ve read that goats need to munch on the buckthorn for 3-5 seasons before the buckthorn gives up. It’s a tedious process, but the goats have brought a bunch of laughter to our lives and we’re happy to see the process may actually work.

What is a goal that you have over the next 6 months relating to environmental sustainability?

I hope to improve my household recycling and compost capabilities. For example, I recently learned the recycling service we use does not actually recycle glass, however the more expensive recycling provider in our area does recycle glass. I need to research if switching services is the right option or if it makes more sense to find a glass recycling collectors that I can bright the glass to. We also compost in our house, however we mainly compost food scraps. We could greatly improve on composting everyday items like tissues or paper towels.

Do you have any advice for others hoping to live a more sustainable life?

I remind myself I may not do the best everyday at living sustainably, but you do make a difference every time you try. When I try to live a more sustainable lifestyle, I quickly see other areas in my life that I can easily improver on in my green efforts. I may not practice every sustainable effort every day, but understanding the variety of options helps me live at least a little bit more sustainably every day.