As I enter my final week at Newfields this summer, I find myself reflecting on my time here. Every morning I walk through The Garden as I make my way to the Cottage for work. The Horticulture team at Newfields puts great care into ensuring The Garden is an oasis for all. Knowing how much hard work goes into keeping it pristine has given me a newfound appreciation for The Garden’s beauty.

Of all the beautiful outdoor spaces, the newly remodeled Glick Fountain has been my favorite. Every half-hour, choreographed water shows play to music by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. I spent many of my lunch breaks reading a book by the fountain and would encourage every Newfields visitor to spend some time listening to the water and taking in the surrounding beauty. The walk to the fountain through the Gene and Rosemary Tanner and Katharine B. Sutphin Border Garden grew to be my favorite part of each day. Nature heals, and The Garden is a testament to that!

2025 Waste Audit Project

While less glamorous than The Garden displays, the behind-the-scenes sustainability work is just as important to Newfields’ care for the environment. As a part of the McKinney Climate Fellows program at Indiana University, I was placed at Newfields to help administer a waste audit and assist with ongoing sustainability efforts.

In 2023, a previous fellow conducted this same waste audit and highlighted the need for improved waste receptacles in The Café and educational signage, mainly focusing on correctly disposing of trash and recycling. This year, I focused on next steps, ensuring Newfields was making progress on recycling and then highlighting what could be composted in the future. Composting data could help Newfields on its sustainability journey, potentially overcoming local challenges such as a lack of commercial composting facility in Indianapolis for bio-based plastics.

After receiving a Community Recycling Grant from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM), the new waste receptacles were installed in July 2025. To test their effectiveness, the second waste audit was conducted after the signage was installed this summer. Our goal was to compare rates of contamination (incorrect materials in a waste stream) and diversion (what could be composted) to the 2023 results. An example of contamination in the landfill stream is recyclable material discarded in the trash receptacle.

After conducting the waste audit, the results I found were very promising! The data showed that if proper compost disposal were available on campus, the Museum could divert 64.5% of its waste from the landfill and The Café could divert 85.21%. In The Café, the landfill contamination rate was 3.04% and the recycling rate was 16.1% This is a significant decrease from the 2023 results of 7.22% and 19.92%, respectively. The improved rates due to the educational signage serve as a huge step in working towards compost. My hope is that this information helps inspire Newfields to put effort into new sustainability initiatives that could have a significant impact on the surrounding community.

Lisa Milton and Caroline Pennington (L to R) are all smiles during the Summer 2025 Waste Audit.

The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park

Despite my project being centered around waste management on campus, that did not stop me from spending time out in Fairbanks Park! Most Tuesday mornings Native Gardens Supervisor Paula Robert and a group of volunteers are out in the Wild Birds Unlimited Native Pollinator Meadow removing invasive species. This ended up being my favorite memory of my time at Newfields. The Park plants species native to the state of Indiana and puts lots of effort into removing invasive species that threaten native ones. In short, lots of Amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii), wintercreeper (Euonymus fortunei), Asian bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus), Japanese hop (Humulus japonicus), and porcelain berry (Ampelopsis sp.) were removed this summer.

American senna (Senna hebecarpa)

The Park sources many of its native plants from Spence Restoration Nursery, a Midwest producer of native herbaceous plants. In the time I spent out in the Pollinator Meadow, I got to see it bloom as the weeks passed by. My favorite plant out there is American senna (Senna hebecarpa), a forb with yellow flowers and feather-like leaves. It looks stunningly unique compared to the plants that surround it, and it catches my eye every time I work out in the meadow. I recommend taking a tour of the park to learn about the amazing work our Natural Resource team is doing throughout the year.

A Final Thanks

I want to formally thank Lisa Milton, Director of Natural Resources, and Erin Hornbach, Project Manager, for being amazing supervisors and mentors during my journey this summer! They are both extremely knowledgeable, hardworking, and talented individuals who inspire me as I enter my early career. Being surrounded by like-minded individuals who share a passion for sustainability helped me thrive in my fellowship this summer. Good luck to everyone at Newfields, and I hope to come back and visit as soon as I can!

Learn more about our Greening Efforts in Fairbanks Park.

Read an interview with Caroline from IU’s Environmental Resilience Institute about her Newfields experience and how she blends business savvy with sustainability.