By Antonio, Marco, Daniel, Adam, Liam, Adric, Emily, Sophia, Owen, and Starr, East Norriton Bulldog Bulletin reporters | Karen Braun’s quest is to help preserve the Earth’s resources for future generations. Her position at Quest Diagnostics gives her an opportunity to do just that.
She is the director of Environ- mental Sustainability for Quest Diagnostics. Quest takes human specimens, like blood samples or swabs from the lining of the nose or throat, and performs tests on them so that you, your doctor, and your parents can make good decisions about your health.
Ms. Braun is responsible for tracking the impact the company has on the environment.
“We are part of the community, and want to make sure our buildings have a good environmental foot- print,” Ms. Braun ex- plained to Bulldog
Bulletin reporters. “I look at carbon, energy, water, and waste. I’m trying to understand the waste streams.” She analyzes “all of the things we put into the trash” to see which “buckets” they fit into for recycling. Her work helps Quest reuse and recycle materials. “I make things as efficient as possible,” she said.
Ms. Braun says her job has changed her way of thinking about sustainability, which is our ability to make sure future generations have the natural resources they need. She has become more environmentally friendly since she began working at Quest, she said.
“I think we have to be honest with ourselves,” she says. “We live in a world that is very busy, and there are a lot of things for us to make decisions on.”
Ms. Braun says some of the decisions she makes to be more sustainable are about what she buys—whether she really needs it, or if she can recycle it. In addition, “my family is very focused on our house waste stream, so we donate all kinds of
things like games and toys that my children don’t use anymore.”
There are things that you can do to be sustainable, too. Ms. Braun said students can use reusable water bottles, for example. “You can grow your food in a garden. You can collect rainwater to use for plants.”
And if you one day have a house of your own, she said, you can do things like find sources of renewable energy, such as solar panels and wind turbines, to help the Earth.
“When I started to do this, I started thinking about what the Earth was going to look like for all of you,” she said. “And when I went to work, I wanted to do something that made a difference every day.”
Ms. Braun hopes her work will help make the world a better place for future generations.
