Originally posted on April 11 2017.
The Sustainability Office and Alta Ski Area recently awarded eight Alta Sustainability Leadership Awards to members of the University of Utah campus community for their sustainability leadership, and recognized Onno Wieringa, Alta’s general manager and president, for his lifetime work advancing sustainability.
“Alta Ski area realizes we must encourage our future leaders because we need them,” said Maura Olivos, the sustainability coordinator at the Alta Environmental Center. “It takes more than passion and smarts to be a leader and maintain effort or progress. Leadership requires honesty, dedication, empathy, courage, communication and a shared vision.”
Each of these leaders received an honorarium in addition to recognition at the annual Alta Lecture and Awards event. In total, members of the U community were awarded $10,000. The 2017 award recipients are:
Elizabeth Archuleta, associate chair of Ethnic Studies in the College of Social and Cultural Transformation
Archuleta received the Sustainability Education Integration Award for her course “American Indian/Indigenous Women,” as well as her work fostering sustainability education across campus. In her course, Archuleta uses sustainability as a framework to explore issues impacting American Indian/Indigenous women as seen from various disciplines. In addition to this course, Archuleta has worked to refine a systems-thinking rubric for inclusion in the U’s undergraduate general education learning outcomes, weaving social justice and sustainability together.
Craig received the Sustainability Research Award for her extensive interdisciplinary research regarding the governance of water resources. Craig’s research examines how environmental and natural resources law needs to adapt to accommodate the dynamics of changing ecosystems. These findings, developed through research partnerships with local and national scholars, have been published in a number of prestigious platforms including the “Harvard Environmental Law Review” and “Ecology and Society.”
Hunter Klingensmith, undergraduate student in Environmental and Sustainability Studies, along with her team architecture students Matthew Cranney, Matthew Drake and Nathan Jellen
These students received the Campus as a Living Lab Award for their work on water smart design. Klingensmith, Cranney, Drake and Jellen designed a water conservation garden using bioretention cells and bioswales for the new Carolyn and Kem Gardner building. This garden’s prominent location adjacent to the largest classroom building on campus elevates its impact as a living laboratory for field study opportunities to students and faculty and will further offer a welcoming space for study, reflection on nature and restoration.
Aaron Phillips, assistant professor (lecturer) in Management at the School of Business
Phillips received the Sustainability Integration Award for his course Leadership & Sustainability in Living Systems and his integration of systems thinking into Foundations of Business Thought, a pre-requisite course for business majors. With these two courses and his work on the university’s Sustainability Education Advisory Committee, Phillips is integrating sustainability in useful and novel ways at the School of Business and across campus.
Cheryl Pirozzi, assistant professor of Internal Medicine in the School of Medicine
Pirozzi received the Sustainability Community Partnership Award for her tireless efforts to increase the awareness of the physician community regarding the importance of air quality to patients’ health. One important aspect of Pirozzi’s work is that she engages respiratory patients and physicians in awareness of air quality issues through community involvement, ensuring that the research she produces is translated to the local population. Pirozzi’s work incorporates sustainability and systems thinking in medicine beyond the traditional view of medicine and physician’s roles.
Onno Wieringa, Alta present and general manager
In recognition of his work to advance sustainability, Wieringa was also recognized at the March 27 awards ceremony with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Wieringa has guided Alta Ski Area to become a beacon for sustainability in the broader ski community.
The Alta Sustainability Leadership Awards highlight the shared commitment to sustainability between the U and Alta Ski Area through recognizing and cultivating leaders. Alta’s multi-year partnership with the U on the awards advances sustainability across campus.
“While many businesses are committed to greening their own operations, a true mark of leadership in the field of sustainability is investing in current and future generations both on and off site,” said said Adrienne Cachelin, director of sustainability education on campus. “This is exactly what Alta is doing through these awards.”
This year’s award winners come from a variety of disciplines, demonstrating that sustainability demands collaboration, creative thinking and expertise from across campus and community. Join us in congratulating these awardees on their excellent work and look for a future call for nominations for this award in early 2018.
