Coordinator Bisson Champions Environment

Author: Rose Boyer

Connie Bisson, the College's sustainable campus coordinator, is one of the newest member of the Middlebury staff, having arrived and begun her work last summer. Her role at the College, however, can hardly be summarized by any title.

Bisson works on the College's emissions inventory, researching the amount of carbon dioxide and other gases the campus releases into the atmosphere. She gathers data on the College's fuel use and waste. As co-chair of the Environmental Council, she oversees active environmental grants for which students have applied, works with Facilities Planning on projects such as green building design, oversees purchasing in buying environmentally friendly products and collaborates with Middining on projects such as the compost-heated greenhouse. Bisson is also the adviser for the Weybridge House, and is probably at least somewhat involved in nearly every environmental activity on campus. A multifaceted woman, Bisson assumes the responsibility of cleaning up after us all.

One might say that garbage has been Bisson's calling from the beginning. When she was a student at Williams College she launched itsfirst college-wide recycling program.

From there she went on to become a founder of the Association of Vermont Recyclers, the first chief of recycling for the state and the founder of the Re-Store, a company that reuses the wastes of other companies. A leader of Vermont recycling, Bisson also developed a pollution prevention program, hiring retired engineers to help reduce company wastes, and she worked with hospitals, writing a book that shared hospital waste management techniques with hospitals across the country.

Garbage, however, is not all that motivates Bisson. Her love for the environment also fuels her work at the College. She moved to the countryside with her family when she was seven, and it was during those years of her life that she developed a strong connection with the environment.

How did a love for the environment lead her to waste management? "Somebody needed to do it," she said.

Bisson added that she has always been an organizer, and she somehow fell into her line of work naturally and found that it was just the right fit.

Work, however, is just one side of this inspirational woman. At home in Cornwall, Vt., Bisson is a wife and a mother of two young boys.

Her devotion to family is just as strong as her devotion to work. When her sons needed a soccer coach, Bisson geared up for the field. When their school needed a music teacher, she went to school one day a week. Whatever it is that needs to be done, Bisson finds a way to do it.

In her spare time, which Bisson admits to having little, she enjoys walking, gardening, playing games and skiing with her boys. Since having children, and changing some of her priorities, Bisson has hung her homemade Appalachian dulcimer on the wall, and doesn't have the opportunities to canoe, bike and jog like she used to. Instead of singing in groups and at nursing homes as once before, she sings on the way to work.

Despite her never-ending list of things to do, Bisson is happy.

She loves her family, loves her job and remains curious about life, dreaming of one day building a solar-powered fountain, learning birds by their song and further reducing her ecological footprint.