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Catapulting into Sustainability Consulting

Asia Lustig (MSES '22) translated childhood aspirations of saving the planet into a purposeful career helping clients reduce their environmental impact.

Asia Lustig (MSES '22) was five years old when she drew a picture of a catapult flinging garbage into space and mailed it to the White House. She asked the president why he hadn’t yet implemented a better waste management system like the one shown in her new invention.

That zeal for protecting our planet never faded. Nurturing the environment remains a primary concern for Lustig, who is a sustainability project consultant at multinational engineer and design firm WSP. 

Asia Lustig“I think what I do is really exciting because every day, I get to work on the key projects that are rolling back the environmental and climate impact of my clients,” she said. “That always feels good.” 

For example, Lustig is currently working with a tech industry client on meeting their packaging reduction goals. She has helped the client develop a strategy for reducing packaging through supplier engagement and has supported the creation of a method to calculate progress through data collection and analysis.

Most importantly, her role involves developing good calculation methods that insure accuracy and center sustainability as the primary outcome — such as how to treat reuse in the context of weight-based waste calculations.

Lustig is also working with a hospitality client, helping the company focus on what suppliers to engage with in order to gain the largest decrease in carbon emissions across their supply chain.

Lustig's specific job is one she hoped existed, but was completely unfamiliar with when she joined Northwestern's Master of Science in Energy and Sustainability (MSES) program. MSES is jointly offered by Northwestern Engineering and the Paula M. Trienens Institute for Sustainability and Energy.

“MSES provided the opportunity for me to learn the fundamental concepts and vocabulary of the sustainability industry,” she said. “Before I started, I didn't know that sustainability consulting was a real sector in the way that I understand it now. I just knew I wanted to help companies be more sustainable.”

Her ability to provide that help was shaped by her time in MSES. In fact, Lustig's most inspiring class wound up being taught by a future colleague. Circular Economy, taught by Jenny Carney — vice president of sustainability, energy, and climate change at WSP — focuses on using systems thinking to understand the technological, economic, and policy implications of circular economy transitions. 

“Circular economy is a theory and a concept that you can apply to everything,” Lustig said. “It should be applied to how we look at energy, how we look at waste, and everything in between.”

The MSES program pushed Lustig to think creatively to solve sustainability challenges. It's a mindset she applies to work with clients daily.

One of the most valuable MSES lessons she leans on involves how to communicate sustainability to those without a sustainability background or any obvious interest in environmental issues.

“You have to have the vocabulary to operate at a professional level, but then you also need to be able to explain things in a way that makes sense to a general audience," she said. "MSES gave me the terminology, the ideas, the concepts, and the words to enter those spaces. I wouldn't have been able to get the job that I have without that.”