Green Campus Awardees for 2009

Our first annual awards to a faculty person, staff, student and department. Each awardee will receive a plaque. In addition, Rick Creighton, an artist from CVPA, is designing a bench that will be placed on campus, that will include the awardees' names, and will continue the greening and beautifying of our landscape.

Dr. Jerry Blitefield

Dr. Jerry Blitefield for shepherding the sustainability minor from its conception in 2005 through its acceptance last year and for his collaborative spirit that has brought over 30 faculty from 26 disciplines to partner in various ways in sustainability curricula.

Chair of Sustainability Studies, Jerry has also been the lead in several Topics in Sustainability Courses where 5 faculty partner to teach various aspects of such issues as food, consumption, water, waste, coastal systems, and representations of sustainability.

Jerry came to UMD in 2000, also serves as the Chair of Masters in Professional Writing Program.

Rich Legault

Rich Legault for his generous contributions toward sustainability programming for the UMD community, including running the sustainability film series for 2 years, developing materials on green computing and printing for faculty and staff, and chairing the academics and culture committee for the sustainability assessment.

Rich has been at UMD for almost 16 years. A Senior Technical and Training Specialist for CITS, Rich's commitment to sustainability goes well beyond his day job. He has also hosted sustainability films in his home and has offered to co-host a reading group on campus this summer.

See Rich's "Faces of Sustainability" profile here.

Lauren Watka

Lauren Watka, a senior Biology/French major, for her passionate commitment to sustainability and her classmates. Lauren organized the first campus clean-up and is in the inaugural class of Green Navigators. A volunteer with MasPIRG, she has directed the global warming campaign. She also worked on the green roof pilot project. Her interests include alternative energy sources, green construction and recycling.

See Lauren's "Faces of Sustainability" profile here.

The Facilities Department

The Facilities Department for its continual and broad-based commitment to greening the campus, including:

Spearheading the energy savings campaign through campus education and through the HVAC department manually manipulating the heating system all winter.

Manny Del Lima for heading up the ESCO project and working tirelessly to get the Met tower on campus.

The Maintainers and Grounds Crew for their efforts in recycling.

The Maintainers for embracing new green cleaning projects.

Dave Ferguson for his continual creativity and leadership in Sustainability, including his chairing of the Health and Safety assessment committee.