Katie Maynard, Sustainability Coordinator at UCSB and the UC, CSU, CCC Sustainability Conference Organizer, recently sent me the following text used at last week’s Conference Award Ceremony (Final Award Category):
There is one last category of award that we would like to hand out tonight. It is for “Sustainability Champion.” The recipient of this award was instrumental in initiating the first Annual UC/CSU Sustainability conference in 2002. She also was the major organizing force behind the third conference in 2004.
Mo Lovegreen is currently the Executive Officer in the Department of Geography and serves on the campus Subcommittee on Sustainability, which is charged with crafting the Campus Sustainability Plan. Mo is the founder of UCSB’s Virtual Office of Sustainability and created the Central Campus Sustainability Committee and the Sustainability Working Team. These groups crafted indicators for the campus and implemented sustainability changes in Facilities Management, Purchasing, and Education and Outreach.
From its inception until its tenth anniversary, Mo served as the Assistant Dean for Planning and Administration at the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science & Management. Mo supervised the design, construction, and “greening” of Donald Bren Hall – the first laboratory building in the United States to achieve the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED™ Platinum Award.
For all of her efforts on behalf of sustainability at UC Santa Barbara and her leadership and support for UC systemwide sustainability efforts, we give tonight’s “Sustainability Champion” award to Mo Lovegreen.
Katie goes on to add the following tribute to Mo:
“Mo received this award because she thinks holistically about the diverse topics which sustainability covers and understands how to build strategies that work to bring in assorted constituents from departments throughout campus, she is an incredible mentor, and she constantly volunteers her time. She was recently asked to offer her advice to the University of Virginia on Green Building, sits on the Society of College and University Planning (SCUP)’s taskforce on Institutionalizing Sustainability which is developing a new curriculum for teaching on the issue, and has spoken at three conferences this year alone.
She is inspiring to me as a new employee and as someone who has the joy of working with her. The sustainability champion award is the highest level award that someone can receive at the conference and Mo deserves it more than anybody else!”
Well spoken, Katie! Mo is, indeed, a champion–for sustainability as well as the Department.
