Profile » Marcie Cooperman

She was so nervous when she met him that she was practically shaking. She’d been waiting to meet him for months and the moment had finally arrived.

Marcie Cooperman, a staff assistant in the Committee on Natural Resources, wasn’t anticipating a meeting with Dennis Quaid or a passing glimpse of Brad Pitt, but with Chief Administrative Officer Dan Beard.

Cooperman had prepared six recommendations to help green the Capitol, a culmination of months of research and observation.

“Marcie is really a testament to the fact that it only takes one person to create positive change,” Beard said. “We’ve saved energy and money implementing her ideas.”

But just a year earlier, not even Cooperman imagined that she would be anywhere near the nation’s Capitol. The 23-year-old was set to graduate from the University of Kansas with a degree in genetics when a friend invited her to a screening of Al Gore’s global warming documentary An Inconvenient Truth.

She knew she wanted to pursue a career in science, yet, admittedly, didn’t know anything about global warming.

“I didn’t know what I was going to do,” she said. “I was sort of freaking out before An Inconvenient Truth found me.”

Cooperman found her purpose somewhere in the celebrated film’s 94 minutes. 

“It made me sad for the planet and I can honesty say I had a tear at the end of it,” Cooperman said. “It was a huge eye opener for me, especially based on the convincing science.”

When the Kansas native found an internship at the D.C. non-profit The Climate Institute she knew she had to go for it, “I didn’t know anything about politics, but I felt the need to do something about climate change,” she said.

Then she met her current boss who agreed to an interview after Cooperman pestered him to give her a shot. An internship was up for grabs, but that morning a staff assistant position opened up and Cooperman was offered the job.

She jumped at the chance and soon became the informal “recycling manager” for the committee.

Cooperman began to catalog her ideas and after learning about the Green the Capitol Initiative couldn’t wait to give her recommendations to Beard.

“I was really impressed with Marcie,” Beard said. “She came up to me all excited and ready to tell me about her ideas to improve our greening initiative. I was happy to implement them. She had some good ideas.”

Several of Cooperman’s good suggestions, including eliminating the coversheet that is delivered with the mail, providing reusable shopping bags in the House Office Supply Store and putting compost bins in offices have been implemented.

Eliminating the coversheet alone saves 2,100 sheets of paper every day, a fact that Cooperman is proud of.

 “I’ve kind of become the go-to person for recycling,” she said. “I feel honored and it just shows that one staffer can contribute to this House-wide Green the Capitol initiative.”

She’s also helped make her office more environmentally friendly — by using energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) and buying eco-friendly products from the supply store.

Cooperman said part of making the House more energy efficient is getting House employees excited about reducing their impact on the environment and teaching them how to do it.

For Cooperman, that means encouraging her fellow staffers to turn off the lights and computers when they’re not being used. She even cheers them on, literally, when they put their trash in the right bin or recycle batteries.

“I really want to educate people so they can take some of these lessons home,” she said. “There are tons of little things we can do to make a big difference.”

Profile » Josh Mantell

While other families often discuss sports, the events of the day or just sit in silence at the dinner table, Joshua Mantell’s family dove deep into the global warming debate.

His dad, an environmental lawyer, brought him up with a “distinct understanding of preserving the environment,” Mantell said.

While one of the newest members of the Green the Capitol team pursued history in college, graduating with a bachelor’s degree from University of California—Santa Barbara, he never abandoned the idea of pursuing environmentalism.

Mantell, 23, became interested in the legislative side of climate change after attending a conference that focused on the movements moral implications.

“[Global warming] is a human issue,” he said. “It’s not right or left. It’s bigger than anything we can divide ourselves with.”

He pursued his rediscovered interest in climate change as an intern for Sen. Barbara Boxer, the chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. “I got a better understanding of the political struggles legislators go through to pass bills, especially with something that can be controversial,” Mantell said.

Such a controversial issue can be frustrating too.

“Sometimes short term concerns outweigh the long term needs of the planet. The possible long term consequences of doing nothing overshadow any kind of short term issues that someone can point to,” Mantell added. “We need to focus on how we can make the planet better for the next 50 years instead of the next 50 days.”

He considers his newest position as a “green” consultant working closely with Perry Plumart, the Deputy Director of Green the Capitol, an opportunity to positively impact the environment. He’ll be working on legislative issues and policy concerns impacting the Initiative as well as improving the Green the Capitol website, among other duties.

The Green the Capitol Initiative is an opportunity for the House to lead by example, Mantell said.

“If a large government institution can achieve carbon neutrality than states can reduce their carbon emissions as well,” he said. “Every person that we can get to change a few of their habits—that’s a win.”

He is conscious of the environment in his personal life as well, taking the METRO, recycling and using compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) in his home.

In the long term he, said he’ll go “where the wind takes me.”

“Ultimately I would love to be able to affect policy in the federal government, whether that is in the environmental arena or not,” Mantell said.