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Anna Wallace, the Student Engagement Manager at Duke Arts, plays a pivotal role in organizing art events that draw hundreds of participants from across Duke University. A Durham native, Anna has deep roots in the local community. Her upbringing in a family that prioritized environmentally friendly choices instilled in her a strong commitment to sustainability. This commitment extends to both her personal life and her professional role at Duke Arts.
Since joining Duke Arts, Anna identified several opportunities to lessen the carbon footprint of campus events sponsored by her unit; "I wanted to think of more sustainable solutions for event waste," shares Anna, as she realized the amount of unnecessary waste that could be avoided. During her first year of employment with Duke Arts, Anna has shifted the culture of her team to include more thoughtful sustainability practices. One tool that she and her team utilize is Duke's Green Certification program.
The Green Certification Program was developed to support Duke's faculty, staff and students in making their interactions with the campus more sustainable. The program includes six pathways for certification: events, workplace, laboratory, classroom, residence hall, and home office.
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The essence of each of these Green Certifications is a checklist that allows community members to implement various strategies across thematic focus areas, such as procurement, waste, social components and more. Through her work with Duke Arts, Anna has focused her efforts on creating greener campus events.
The Green Event Checklist questions span from using natural light and reusable decorations to working with caterers who provide plant-forward dining options and substitute disposable dishware and utensils with compostable ones. The process of completing a Green Event Certification questionnaire allows one to select the strategies that make sense based on the parameters of an event. It is not meant to instruct a rigid, 'one size fits all' approach, as sustainability looks a little bit different for everyone. Duke community members are also encouraged to name additional sustainable innovations they might be making that go beyond what is included in the checklist.
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Anna and her team successfully completed Green Certification for numerous events throughout the 2023-2024 academic year including the Duke Arts Grad Mixer, Duke Arts Studio Presentation, Duke Arts Awards Ceremony and Duke Arts Student Soirée. Anna says that the most significant shift to make event planning more sustainable was related to catering. Anna and her Duke Arts team took steps to minimize event waste by hiring Compost Now and using compostable or reusable glassware, plates, and flatware. Additionally, they worked with caterers to focus on sourcing local ingredients and providing more plant-based options with fewer meat options to reduce an event's carbon footprint. Anna comments: "The previous norm was to serve two meat choices and one vegetarian choice for meals; my goal is to have it the opposite way: two vegetarian choices to one meat choice."
Anna and her team have been true leaders and innovators for sustainability on campus throughout the last year.
Sophia Masciarelli, Sustainability Engagement Coordinator, Office of Climate and Sustainability
Sophia Masciarelli, Engagement Coordinator of the Office of Climate and Sustainability, supports teams across campus in navigating the Green Certification program. Sophia shares: "Duke Arts used our Green Certification programs as a starting point and then completely ran with it, finding new ways to infuse a lens of intention across all the programs and events that they facilitate. This is exactly the goal of our Green Certification programs: for teams to have a menu of strategies to learn and make a difference, and then move on to generating their own ideas and shifting the culture of their unit to make sustainability the default. It has been such a joy to work with Duke Arts and I look forward to seeing how they continue to innovate and blossom!"
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Anna thinks many Duke community members might be surprised by how many items on the Green Certification checklist they are already doing and how easy it is to make additional sustainable changes. Such examples are often related to avoiding the use of plastic water bottles, reducing printed materials, and (when applicable) encouraging lodging near the event for guests traveling from another town (and encouraging public transportation or carpooling when possible). She also explains that a great way to make an event greener is to encourage guests to take leftover food home instead of letting it go to waste.
Anna's biggest advice to make Duke events more sustainable is to take it one thing at a time: "I wasn't able to Green Certify the first event I attempted, but I was able to make some changes, and by the time the next event rolled around, I had more in place to make it happen. I encourage everyone to ask questions. Why are things done that way? If you have a solution, do your best to implement it."
In addition to prioritizing Green Event Certification, Duke Arts Presents is incorporating climate-related artwork into its public events. "All of us at Duke should take our role in the Duke Climate Commitment seriously," Anna highlights.
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Anna oversees Duke Arts Create, and last year, she organized a workshop to create lobby art for Ocean Filibuster, a performance in which a personified ocean lobbies for its existence due to the threat of climate change. Students crafted jellyfish using rope and monofilament salvaged from the ocean near the Duke Marine Lab. Duke Arts Presents will continue to incorporate climate-related artwork into future public events.
Anna Wallace's dedication to sustainability at Duke Arts exemplifies how individual commitment can lead to substantial collective impact. Through her leadership in obtaining Green Certification for numerous Duke events, she has helped reduce waste and promote more sustainable practices. By also integrating climate-related artwork into public events, Anna highlights the intersection of art and sustainability. Her journey demonstrates that while perfection may not be immediate, incremental changes and persistent effort can drive meaningful progress toward a sustainable future.
The article is part of the SCALe Spotlight series hosted by the Office of Climate and Sustainability. The Sustainability and Climate Applied Learning (SCALe) Spotlight stories celebrate Duke students, staff, faculty and community partners who demonstrate a commitment to sustainability and climate education through applied teaching, learning and action.
Nominate someone today to shine the SCALe Spotlight on them!
Cover photo by Eric Waters.
Dima Zlenko interviewed Anna and wrote the article.