Sustainable Leaders Network

What is the Sustainable Leaders Network (SLN)?

The SLN is a group of sustainability-minded students, faculty, and staff from each school or administrative department at Columbia University. From collaborating on user-friendly, campus-wide recycling bin signage to piloting innovative green solutions in their offices and classrooms, members of the SLN aim to drive behavior change from the ground up across Columbia's campuses.

In September 2016, when President Bollinger announced the creation of the University’s first set of Sustainability Principles, he introduced a new forum called the Sustainable Columbia Leaders Network (SLN). The provost also announced the creation of the SLN at the Council of Deans meeting held on September 8, 2016.

The deans of Columbia’s schools have identified three volunteers from each school to participate in this group: one faculty member, one student, and one administrator.

* indicates Green Team Liaison

Butler Hall

Rachel Drogoszewski*, Executive Suite

Jamie Nash*, Strategic Communications

Campus Services

Bianca Tamburello, Columbia Dining

Daniel Lopez, Columbia Health

Emerald Curie, UEM

Janice Erskine, Environmental Stewardship

Kevin Porter, Print, Mail & Transportation

Matilde Gonzalez, Print, Mail & Transportation

Scott Buonomo, UEM

Sophy Ramirez, Executive Suite

Daniel Lopez*, Columbia Health

CUFO Finance / HR IT

Caryn Chen, Capital Finance & Admin Support

Cyle Timmons*

Meagan Arceo, Finance

Michael Roman, CUFO HR

Muin Alzougbi, CUFO IT

Earth Institute

Alix Schroder*

General Studies

Jessica Sarles-Dinsick

Josh Edwin 

Max Ginsberg

Nathaniel Wilcox*

Noah Kutzy

Sean Trulby

GSAS

Allan MacLeod* 

Mike Ford* 

Journalism

Abigail Bedrick, Development 

Andrew Rodriguez Calderon, Student

Justin Ray, Magazine 

Lauren V. Meregildo-Santos, Prizes 

Michael Krisch, Brown Institute for Media Innovation

Scott Osborn*, Facilities

Sean Murphy, Pulitzer Prizes

Susan McGregor, Tow Center

Ofelia Mangen, IT 

Law

Anthony Pallone, Building Services

Ashley Marie Gregor, Student

Brendan Mallee*

Briana Florio, Alumni Relations

Frantz Merine, Information Technology

Hazel May, Registrar

Heath Mayhew, Law Library

Hunter Whaley, Law Library

Julie Anna Albarez, Career Services

Laura MillerFaculty Affairs

Marissa Litwin Zalk, Graduate Legal Studies

Martin Howard, Information Technology

Mary Lee Herrington, Career Services

Michael Gerrard*

Olati Johnson*

Susan Cersovsky, Admissions

Susan Kraham 

Lerner Hall

Chanda E. Bennett, Student Advising

Cheryl L. de Moose, Student Advising

Corey A. Getchell, Double Discovery

Jesse Adamo, Undergraduate Student Life

Josh Lucas, Undergraduate Student Life

Juan Francisco, Lerner Facilities

Lorena Prosco, Lerner Operations

Marva Binns, Student & Family Support

Philip T. Masciantonio, WKCR

Richard Bova, Lerner Facilities

Sivan Grunfeld, Ticket Information Center

Taiwo Adenekan, University Chaplain

Theresa Delgado, Columbia College Operations

Mailman School of Public Health

Abigail Welbourn, Environmental Health Sciences

Amina Williams, Environment Health Sciences

Brian Brennan*

Bryan Burne*

Ebony King, Epidemiology

Elizabeth Tashiro, IT

Georgia André, Biostatistics

Gilbert Smith, Infection & Immunity

Heather Krasna, Career Services

Irma Rosario, Deans Office

Jenissia Jeanty, Sociomedical Sciences

Jill Baxter, Budget and Compliance

Kazuel Baily, Sponsored Projects

Kim Milan, Deans Office

Leila Arbaje-Lembert, ICAP

Marianthi-Anna Kioumourtzoglou*

Marjorie Perez-Richardson, Educational Programs

Natasha Sood

Nina Kulacki, Health Policy and Management

Rosa Perez-Maldonado, Educational Programs

Rosine Moussa, Columbia Aging Center 

Shana Young, Finance

Yasmin Davis, Sociomedical Sciences

Physicians and Surgeons

Anita Patel, Department of Pediatrics

Erin Bailey Mauceri, Dept. of Physiology, Dept. of Pharmacology

Evgenia Berkovich, Division of General Medicine

Giselle Gonzalez, Ophthalmology

Indrajeet  Viswanathan, Facilities Management 

Justin Bernardo, Urology

Li Shi, Taub Institute

Lyn Goldsmith, Department of Surgery

Maria Batori, HICCC

Maria Diaz-Gil, Center for Family and Community Medicine

Michelle Leddy, Orthopedic Surgery

Neil Schluger*

Nicole Marotta, Institute for Genomic Medicine

Roxana Martinez

Sadie Maloof, HICCC

Sara Sternglass, Institute for Human Nutrition

Stephanie Blaney, Orthopedic Surgery

Wayne Tang

Public Safety 

Ace Valentine, Manhattanville Campus

Alfonsina Rosario-Arroyo, Nash Building

Andy Sanchez-Sarit, Morningside Campus

Fulp Goudswaard, Medical Center Campus

Jimmy Lai*, Morningside Campus

Michael O'Donnell, Medical Center Campus

Patrick Danville, Morningside Campus

Yeiry Liriano, Manhattanville Campus

Office of the EVP for Research

Michael Shelter*

School of Nursing

Jason Wright*

Jean-Marie Bruzzese*

Josh Massei, Scholarship & Research

Judy Wolf, Student Affairs 

Lara Philips, Alumni & Development

Mairead Moore, Alumni & Development

Mary Moran, Clinical Faculty

Matthew Richardson, Operations

Nick Burry*

Pam Pena, HR & Faculty Affairs 

SEAS

Alexis Moore, Civil Engineering

Andrei Shylo, Mechanical Engineering

Ariel Sanchez, Chemical Engineering

Clarissa C. Pena, Computer Science

Elizabeth Allende, Earth and Environmental Engineering

Eric Ruberte*, Dean's Office

Fred Jiang, Data Science Institute

Gen Fleming*, Dean's Office

James Vicchiconti, Columbia Nano Initiative

Michael Smith, Civil Engineering

Montse Fernandez Pinkley, Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics

Natalie Chee, Biomedical Engineering

Stan Sakry

Susan Ceballo, Electrical Engineering

Svitlana Samoilina, Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics

Yosimir Acosta, Industrial Engineering and Operations Research

School of Professional Studies

Colette Rodgers

Daniel Trotta

Studebaker Building

April Croft, Finance

Ching Gonzalez, CU HR

Jesse Irmler, CUIT

Jimmy Lucca, Facilities Operations

Kate Sheeran*, Finance

Mark Medd, Finance

Therese Horn, SPA

Tiffany Williams, MDG

Tom O’Donnell, Facilities Operations

Members of the administration, faculty, and students have collaborated to generate this Sustainability Plan, the University’s first, complete with high-level goals. This Plan highlights a set of strategies that departments, including but not limited to Facilities and Operations, will advance over the next three years.

The role of school-based actions in the form of policy and behavior change accelerates the University’s ability to realize its sustainability goals. The primary objective of the SLN is to engage a wide range of stakeholders from across the campus to collaborate in developing and endorsing a set of these actions that can serve to guide Columbia’s schools to foster a culture of sustainability.

Once onboarded, SLN participants use the Workspace Certification tool to drive measurable culture change in their schools and/or departments. The experience gained will help other schools to utilize solutions and document progress.

Environmental Stewardship looks forward to sharing the progress Columbia is able to make over the course of the coming years through this energizing engagement platform.

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If you are a Green Leader, login to Sustainable Columbia Workspaces and complete your self-audit.

In support of the University's Sustainability Principles, Columbia is committed to foster a culture of sustainability. The Workplace Certification webform provides a checklist of all the possible actions schools and departments can take at Columbia to support the University's sustainability goals as outlined in our plan.

Each section of the checklist links back to the corresponding pages of the Sustainability Plan for further reading. This allows participants to learn the reasons behind—and the impact of—each action, as well as how it relates to the overall vision for Sustainable Columbia.

These are required actions that must be completed as you begin the program.

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2020

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the awards event was postponed indefinitely, and the last few months of the program were abruptly cut short as employees were taken out of the workspaces they were looking to have certified. Given these challenges, 47 teams (just shy of 40% of all teams) still managed to complete and submit their surveys for the earlier part of the year and achieve certification.

2019

On April 12, 2019, the Office of Sustainability recognized participants of the Sustainable Leaders Network Workspace Certification Program at the Campus Sustainability Fair in The Forum. Schools and departments were presented with certificates displaying the level of certification reached during this pilot year of the program.

Butler Hall

  •     Executive Suite - Gold
  •     Strategic Communications - Gold

Campus Services

  •     Environmental Stewardship - Platinum
  •     Executive Suite - Gold

Columbia University Facilities and Operations (CUFO)

  •     Capital Finance and Administrative Support - Gold
  •     CUFO Human Resources - Gold
  •     CUFO Information Technology - Gold
  •     Finance - Silver

General Studies    

  •     Finance / Human Resources - Gold

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences - Green Zone

Journalism

  •     Prizes - Green Zone

Law School

  •     Admissions - Silver
  •     Building Services - Silver
  •     Career Services - Gold
  •     CCSI - Bronze
  •     Communications - Gold
  •     Dean's Office - Green Zone
  •     Executive LL.M. - Silver
  •     Graduate Legal Studies - Bronze
  •     Human Resources - Green Zone
  •     Library - Silver
  •     Social Justice Initiatives - Silver
  •     Student Affairs Administration - Silver
  •     Student Services - Silver

Mailman 

  •     Center for Infection and Immunity - Silver
  •     Operations - Gold
  •     Sociomedical Sciences - Green Zone

Physicians and Surgeons

  •     Institute for Genomic Medicine- Gold
  •     Institute of Human Nutrition - Platinum
  •     Office of Development - Silver
  •     Orthopedic Surgery - Green Zone

School of Engineering and Applied Science

  •     APAM - Gold
  •     Chem - Gold
  •     Dean's Office - Gold
  •     EE - Gold

Nursing

  •     Developmental Psychology - Platinum
  •     H.R. and Faculty Affairs - Platinum
  •     Marketing and Strategic Communications - Platinum
  •     Operations - Gold
  •     Scholarship & Research - Platinum
  •     Student Affairs - Platinum
  •     Students - Platinum

School of Professional Studies - Platinum

Studebaker    

  •     Columbia University Human Resources - Platinum
  •     Manhattanville Development Group - Silver
  •     SPA - Gold

The Forum

  •     Office of the President - Gold
  • School of Nursing: Platinum    
  • School of Professional Studies: Platinum  
  • Butler Hall: Gold    
  • Public Safety: Gold    
  • Office of the Executive Vice President for Research, Low Library: Gold    
  • Studebaker Building: Gold    
  • Earth Institute, Hogan Hall: Gold    
  • School of General Studies: Gold    
  • School of Engineering and Applied Sciences: Silver    
  • Campus Services: Silver    
  • Facilities and Operations HR/Finance/IT: Silver    
  • School of Journalism: Silver 
  • Law School: Bronze

Green Team Photos from 2019 Recognition Event

Resources

Participants in the Workspace Certification Program can download these resources to help them promote sustainability in their spaces.

Recent SLN News

April 16, 2020

Workspace Certification Program Sees Progress in Year Three

In Year Three of the Sustainable Leaders Network (SLN) Workspace Certification program – a checklist of actions deployed to make workspaces more eco-friendly while fostering a culture of sustainability – over 190 Green Leaders have worked toward improving their office or department's sustainability.

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