Malten appointed University’s first assistant vice chancellor for sustainability

Matthew Malten has been appointed assistant vice chancellor for campus sustainability, effective July 9.

Matthew Malten
Matthew Malten

His appointment marks the first time that the University has given a person the responsibility for campus sustainability.

“Matt has strong and appropriate experience with a large utility and with another great academic institution,” Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton said. “He is dedicated and committed to assisting us in formulating and implementing the best policies and programs in the area of sustainability. Washington University is committed to being a model institution, and Matt will be an effective contributor to our achieving a leadership position in addressing problems related to the environment.”

Search committee members were: Jan Amend, Ph.D., associate professor of earth and planetary sciences and director of environmental studies; Bruce Backus, assistant vice chancellor for environmental health and safety; Pratim Biswas, Ph.D., the Stifel and Quinnette Jens Professor of Environmental Engineering Science and chair of energy, environmental and chemical engineering;

Debbie Blandford, human resources recruitment specialist in Human Resources; John E. Klein, executive vice chancellor for administration; Peter MacKeith, associate professor of architecture and associate director of the Sam Fox Arts Center; and Richard Smith, Ph.D., the Ralph E. Morrow Distinguished University Professor and chair of anthropology in Arts & Sciences.

Since 2005, Malten served as sustainability coordinator at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In that capacity, he was involved with initiatives to form a comprehensive sustainability program for the university and specifically collaborated with faculty, staff and students to implement energy efficiency, renewable energy, green building and local food initiatives on campus.

As assistant vice chancellor for campus sustainability at Washington University, Malten will provide the vision, organizational strategy and focus for advancing operational sustainability efforts. He will help provide senior officials, administrators, faculty, staff and students with the knowledge, skills and focus to integrate sustainability values and practices into strategic planning processes, management of resources and operations, and planning and design of facilities and surrounding areas.

His position is expected to facilitate the link between the operations staff and campus groups interested in sustainability issues, and promote initiatives that will enable the University to achieve campus sustainability goals. Malten will support and enhance current programs related to energy and resource conservation, environmental stewardship, waste reduction and recycling, and sustainability at the University.

Malten earned a bachelor’s degree in natural resources and environmental sciences from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1996. In 1998, he earned a master’s degree in environmental economics and policy from Duke University.

In 1997, while still in graduate school at Duke, Malten was an environmental consultant for Duke Energy and also served as an environmental scientist with IBM Corp.’s Engineering Center for Environmentally Conscious Products in Research Triangle Park, N.C., assisting in programs that help reuse, recycle or safely dispose of company products.

From 1998-2004, Malten was a senior environmental specialist with Wisconsin Energy Corp. in Milwaukee, where he managed that Fortune 500 energy company’s communications for environmental issues and projects, including the utility industry’s first GRI-based sustainability report.

In 2004, in Milwaukee, Malten served the U.S. Green Building Council as its first Mark Ginsberg Sustainability Fellow, where he worked to help integrate LEED-based metrics into sustainability reporting.

Malten, a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) accredited professional, also was an inaugural Fellow of the Property and Environment Research Center’s Kinship Conservation Institute, in Bozeman, Mont., where he studied market-based solutions to environmental problems.