BUFFALO, N.Y. — If you've ever rolled down the streets of Buffalo on the right day you get that waft of Honey Nut Cheerios or Lucky Charms — scents that bring you back to a happier time.

"It's a point of pride for people in Buffalo and it's a point of pride for people who work here too. We're proud to be General Mills," said their environmental engineer Mary Padasak. "We passed our compliance inspection, we have radioactive equipment for density meters for puffing cereal, so your cereal is nice and consistent."

Padasak is part of the team making sure that famous smell doesn’t come with pollution to any senses.

"There's a lot of dedication that goes into this," she said.

Outside the factory, the storied plumes of steam can be seen coming from another part of protection.

"We can detect if something is going to break through a filter so that we don't get emissions on the outside of the building, so that, you know, the city can smell like Cheerios, but it's not covered in Cheerios," Padasak said.

Closer to the ground, the focus is on waste and not creating too much of it.

"We have high visibility here on the water. We have the kayakers and we have all of Buffalo kind of looking at us and smelling us and things like that," Padasak added. "So we make sure that we abide by a regulation."

Often more strict internally than government guidelines, environmental engineers help move everything in the right direction. Eyes on the tech that keeps the sky and waters around the facility clean aren't enough. Quality control gets hands-on with inspections for Mary.

"And it's a very busy job and no two days are the same," she said.

But companies like General Mills and engineers like Padasak are in it for the long haul.

"We honor those people who have given so much of their time to General Mills," said Padasak while pointing to a blank brick on the production facility's south side. "This is where my name is gonna go when I retire."

And that starts with a purpose.

"I really feel like I'm making a positive impact on the world around me," she said.

So what does an environmental engineer do? In this case, makes more than a sweet smell and some inspection results.

"We want to make sure that we can stay here we're welcome here. We're good neighbors to the rest of the community," said Padasak. "And then we can continue to work on our sustainability efforts."

Padasak recently received a 40 under 40 award from Buffalo Business First and also serves as a Trustee in the town of Springville. While all environmental engineers may not be that active in their communities, they are all dedicated to making them that much greener.

General Mills, across the board, is working on an initiative that will guarantee no waste from their facilities makes its way to a landfill, but is rather recycled. And that’s something Padasak is eager about accomplishing.