Conservation Coordinator honored for her dedication to saving energy, reducing waste

Logan City’s Conservation Coordinator is one of five individuals honored by Utah State University with a Utah Campus Compact Award for Volunteer Service. Emily Malik received the award last week at the home of USU President Stan Albrecht during a luncheon ceremony.

She received the Community Partner Award for her efforts as the conservation coordinator and recycling educator.

Malik is well-qualified for the job she began in 2005 because she has a bachelors degree in Natural Resources and a Masters in Environmental Sociology. She loves the job and says it involves a lot of different things.

“I work with recycling quite a bit and recycling education. So I’m always working with the public,” Malik explains. “I work with this Community Bridge Initiative now. We got the grant for air quality so I am doing some work with air quality and several air quality projects.

“Our energy conservation program deals with commercial lighting incentives and residential incentives. I am also working on some solar initiatives coming up. So it’s a varied job and I really like that about it.”

Malik has been instrumental in getting the USU Community Bridge Initiative off the ground. Through the program, she is partnering with several USU faculty members on projects to improve Logan’s air quality.

Malik says people always have a lot of questions about renewable energy, reducing power use, and clean air. One question that keeps coming up is what light bulbs are the best to buy.

“When we go out to these different displays we have samples of light bulbs that you can buy now,” Malik says. “We have samples of your old incandescent light bulbs, we have samples of CFLs and samples of LEDs. We like to let them see how the light is, see how they look in the fixtures or in the lamps.”

Malik says after displaying all the different types of bulbs together, seeing the strengths and weaknesses of each type, they then try to give recommendations for which bulbs will work best.

“We really encourage people to use LEDs,” she continues. “They don’t have the mercury in them. They last a lot longer than CFLs. They are a little bit more expensive but you really do need to look at it as buying a refrigerator or a washing machine. It’s something that will last you for 10-12 years.”

Malik and members of the city’s Renewable Energy and Conservation Advisory Boad will be at the Cache Valley Radio Home and Garden show this weekend at the Eccles Ice Arena giving good information about this and a lot of other conservation issues.

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