Sustainability Conversations across the Big Ten: University of Maryland

Yeah, so if you guys would like to start by introducing yourselves and kind of your role with Maryland, then go right ahead.

I'm Sally DeLeon, the sustainability manager for the Office of Sustainability here at Maryland.

And I have been here for almost 15 years and, um, have helped set up our metrics program and been through a few versions of our climate action plan, and I'm excited to be here and to talk with you all.

And then my name is Savannah Holt.

I use she/her pronouns.

I'm a sustainability outreach and communications coordinator with the Office of Sustainability at Maryland.

I've been here for about two and a half years.

But my fun fact is that I used to be an intern, um, at UW Madison's Office of Sustainability and was on the inaugural podcast team.

So I'm gonna shout out my conversation with Carolyn Finney that I did in May of 2021, but happy to be here speaking with you both today.

Yeah.

I really appreciate you guys taking the time to talk with us and kind of share the sustainability initiatives you have going over at Maryland.

So to start, uh, if you guys could just kind of take us through some of the background of your Office of Sustainability program, um, like how long you have existed, where are you housed specifically at UMD, and then how many full-time staff you have and interns.

So right now we have seven full-time staff members.

But when our office was first founded, it was founded in 2007 by our current director, Scott Lupin.

Uh, and it was just Scott, and eventually he hired a GA and we...

A graduate assistant, and we've been slowly expanding from there.

So seven is the most full-time staff we've ever had.

We're hosted under the Department of Environmental Safety, Sustainability and Risk, also known as ESSER, which is in the Division of Administration.

So a little bit different than how UW is structured.

You all, I believe, are under Facilities Management and Academics, if I'm still correct.

Yep.

Awesome.

So here we're separated from both Facilities Management, although they're in our division, and from Academics, but we do work closely with them throughout different pro- programs and initiatives.

The seven full-time staff members that we currently have are our director, um, Sally, who's our manager.

Uh, and then we also have a project manager who is responsible for our sustainability fund and most of our communications, like Instagram and our newsletter.

Yeah, so if you guys would like to start by introducing yourselves and kind of your role with Maryland, then go right ahead.

I'm Sally DeLeon, the sustainability manager for the Office of Sustainability here at Maryland.

And I have been here for almost 15 years and, um, have helped set up our metrics program and been through a few versions of our climate action plan, and I'm excited to be here and to talk with you all.

And then my name is Savannah Holt.

I use she/her pronouns.

I'm a sustainability outreach and communications coordinator with the Office of Sustainability at Maryland.

I've been here for about two and a half years.

But my fun fact is that I used to be an intern, um, at UW Madison's Office of Sustainability and was on the inaugural podcast team.

So I'm gonna shout out my conversation with Carolyn Finney that I did in May of 2021, but happy to be here speaking with you both today.

Yeah.

I really appreciate you guys taking the time to talk with us and kind of share the sustainability initiatives you have going over at Maryland.

So to start, uh, if you guys could just kind of take us through some of the background of your Office of Sustainability program, um, like how long you have existed, where are you housed specifically at UMD, and then how many full-time staff you have and interns.

So right now we have seven full-time staff members.

But when our office was first founded, it was founded in 2007 by our current director, Scott Lupin.

Uh, and it was just Scott, and eventually he hired a GA and we...

A graduate assistant, and we've been slowly expanding from there.

So seven is the most full-time staff we've ever had.

We're hosted under the Department of Environmental Safety, Sustainability and Risk, also known as ESSER, which is in the Division of Administration.

So a little bit different than how UW is structured.

You all, I believe, are under Facilities Management and Academics, if I'm still correct.

Yep.

Awesome.

So here we're separated from both Facilities Management, although they're in our division, and from Academics, but we do work closely with them throughout different pro- programs and initiatives.

The seven full-time staff members that we currently have are our director, um, Sally, who's our manager.

Uh, and then we also have a project manager who is responsible for our sustainability fund and most of our communications, like Instagram and our newsletter.