Fifty-seven Washington University alumni and current students came together for a Sustainability Social in Washington, DC on July 14. The social was sponsored by the university’s Office of Sustainability with assistance from the Alumni Association. Jeremy Sigmon, AB ’04, and Anisa Baldwin Metzger, BS ’06, hosted the event at the U.S. Green Building Council Headquarters and gave a tour of their stunning and low-impact LEED Platinum office space. The Office of Sustainability’s Phil Valko spoke about the many efforts underway to transform WashU into a national sustainability leader, including the myriad of curricular and co-curricular sustainability opportunities for students, green building projects, and WashU’s commitment to reduce the institution’s carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.
Following the tour and the talk, attendees had time to connect with old friends and make new connections over food and drinks. During the networking reception, we were pleased to be joined by Mary Ann Lazarus, MArch ’78, former WashU Trustee, and founder of the sustainable design initiative at HOK, a global design firm whose pioneering green leadership has helped propel sustainability from a fringe activity to a significant mainstream movement shaping the future of architecture.
The DC Alumni Sustainability Social was the first event of its type for the Office of Sustainability and greatly exceeded our hopes and expectations. If you would like to see a similar event in your city, please reach out to Cheryl Waites: cawaites@wustl.edu.
A big THANK YOU to our host committee members for making the event such a success:
Deborah Bilek, AB ’03
Director of Community Outreach, Urban Land Institute
Anisa Baldwin Metzger, BS ’06 in Architecture
School District Sustainability Manager, USGBC
Andrew Mitchell, AB ’01
Project Manager, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, U.S. Department of Energy
David Rodgers, BS ’78
Senior Climate Change Specialist, Global Environment Facility
Adam Rubinfield, AB ’02
Sustainability Coordinator, World Bank
Madeline Salzman, AB ’13
ORISE Fellow, Residential Energy Efficiency, U.S. Department of Energy
Joshua Schonfeld, AB ’84
Managing Associate General Counsel, Multifamily Targeted Affordable Housing, Freddie Mac
Jeremy Sigmon, AB ’04
Director, Technical Policy, USGBC