Elizabeth Main
Building partnerships is critical in the field of sustainability, says Elizabeth Main, MPA, director of the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s (UMB) Office of Sustainability.
“Being a small team, you do rely on those cross-campus partnerships to achieve the outcomes you’re looking for,” Main said. “A lot of the work of the sustainability office is coalition-building and finding common ground between our work and the work of other entities on campus to think about how we can execute the University’s mission using a sustainability lens.”
That partnership-building was evident during a videoconference Dec. 4 when Main learned that she was the University’s December Employee of the Month. The videoconference, led by UMB President Bruce E. Jarrell, MD, FACS, was attended by dozens of people from across the University, including representatives from UMB’s schools, Environmental Services (EVS), and Police and Public Safety, to name a few, who offered their congratulations to Main.
“This is so deserved,” said Dawn M. Rhodes, DBA, chief business and finance officer and senior vice president. “You know so much about the University. Thank you for being the awesome person that you are, making all of the wonderful contributions that you do.”
Anna Borgerding, MA, assistant vice president of facilities and operations and Main’s supervisor, was one of five people who nominated Main for the honor.
“We have many challenges at UMB, but you find a way, and you find the people,” Borgerding said during the videoconference.
Main leads an office of three that maintains a portfolio of projects working to advance environmental sustainability at UMB. Among the high-visibility projects that she has led is the Self-Service Waste initiative. Main oversaw the rollout in which individual desk-side trash cans were removed, and students, faculty, and staff are now responsible for bringing their waste to centrally located waste stations. Custodial technicians from EVS collect trash and recycling from the common receptacles.
“Elizabeth led the training of EVS employees in that project, empowering them as we converted each UMB building to save over 775,000 individual trash can liners annually,” Borgerding said. “She worked to train all 200 EVS staff building by building, answered questions, empowered them when approached about trash concerns, followed through on concerns, and addressed individual issues.”
Main said she and her team focused on messaging that would resonate with the stakeholders.
“We tied all the elements of the project to the University’s core values to try to get people to connect the dots of how something like taking away a personal trash can and utilizing a central station can have an impact on the larger picture,” she said.
She also has collaborated with the city of Baltimore on a campus composting program, received and executed grants for planting 65 more trees on campus, launched a green labs program as well as a UMB weather station used for research, and is working toward UMB’s first institutional accreditation for sustainability.
Borgerding said Main has created a sustainability culture on campus that grows each day.
“Elizabeth and her team are the reason UMB purchases 100 percent of our electricity from renewable sources, they are the reason UMB is currently designing solar carports for campus, and they are the reason UMB’s sustainability efforts within the schools and academic offerings are growing,” Borgerding said. “She’s an innovative changemaker at UMB.”
Denise Meyer, EVS director, agreed, praising Main’s sustainability vision in her nomination.
“Under Elizabeth’s guidance, the Office of Sustainability has launched several successful initiatives that have significantly reduced our carbon footprint and enhanced our community’s awareness of environmental issues,” Meyer said. “Her strategic vision has not only propelled our sustainability efforts forward but has also fostered a culture of environmental responsibility among staff and students alike.”
Sustainability in Social Work Building
Main said she might be most proud of her work on the new School of Social Work building, which prioritizes sustainability with features like a high-performance building envelope, solar panels, a green roof, bike lockers and showers for commuters, and geo-exchange wells underneath the building that are part of a robust energy and emissions system that will make it the first operational net-zero emissions building in downtown Baltimore. Ground was broken in November, and the building is expected to be complete in 2027.
Main attended many of the design meetings and was integral in ensuring that sustainability was being considered in decisions, focusing not just on energy and carbon but also on waste infrastructure, landscaping, and access to green spaces.
“Sustainability was thought of from the beginning and was integrated throughout the design process. It’s a lot easier to design out carbon when you’re starting from scratch with a new building than it is to decarbonize an existing building,” Main said. “I’m just so glad that we were able to get such a high-performing end result from the design process for that building.”
One of Main’s other responsibilities is to present UMB’s sustainability progress to the University’s deans and vice presidents. In fact, she thought she was meeting with Jarrell on Dec. 4 to update him before that meeting. But Main had attended previous Employee of the Month meetings as a Staff Senate representative and became suspicious a few minutes before the videoconference.
Jarrell played along with the ruse about the presentation before telling Main, “I think it’s wonderful that you’re being recognized this way. I have many glowing reports about your performance, and I can speak firsthand to agree with all of that.”
Angela Ober, senior sustainability specialist, praised Main’s leadership skills during the videoconference.
“I can’t believe that our office is only three years old, because it feels like we have done so much on campus to progress sustainability and move these initiatives forward,” said Ober, who also nominated Main. “That’s a testament to something that we like to joke about in our office, about how we infiltrate other departments, and that’s because with Elizabeth’s leadership, we are always willing to help others.”
The Face of Well-Being and Sustainability
Jill Hamilton, MSW, organizational change management analyst, Change Management and Advisory Services, who also was one of the nominators, called Main “the face of the UMB core value of Well-Being and Sustainability.”
“She embodies sustainability in such a way that we all do, too, because of her example and her leadership,” she said.
Main, who will receive a certificate, a letter of commendation, and an extra $250 in her next paycheck, said winning the award was “reflective of the large impact that our small office has and reflective of coalition-building and partnership-building.”
Main said, “I would be nothing without my team” and thanked Ober, senior sustainability specialist Meredith DiIoia, MSc, and waste and data fellow Ben Eglash, MS, for their support. She thanked Borgerding and the others who nominated her as well as the two dozen members of UMB’s Sustainability Committee for volunteering their time. She also praised the leadership of Rhodes.
“We’re very lucky to report up through Administration and Finance and have a leader who is devoted not only in word, but also in deed,” Main said.
Main added what she likes most about her job is that every day is different.
“Some days I’m mostly on my computer, maybe creating presentation slides for the deans and vice presidents, and the next day I might be doing a waste audit in the School of Dentistry, digging through a trash can,” she said.
“In the sustainability office, we are jacks of all trades, masters of none. We know a little bit about a lot of things, and that transfers over into our everyday activities. Every day is a challenge, but it’s also an opportunity.”
— Jen Badie
