Sustainability is a team effort at Colby College. Beauregard, who came to the leadership role in 2017, helps define goals, refine long-range plans, and develop performance metrics for the 2,000-student campus in Waterville, Maine. She oversees 20 student employees and shares offices with the directors of capital projects, operations and maintenance, and business and administrative services. “Sustainability and resource conservation are core values,” she says, “so leadership is diffuse and collaborative.”

What does a typical day look like?

I would have a meeting or two about current capital projects in various stages of planning; work on an energy-efficiency project to reduce consumption in existing buildings; and connect with sustainability leaders at schools around the country. I also meet with students. For example, I recently met with a student who was working with an economics professor to evaluate policy strategies to encourage forest landowners to manage their woodlands for carbon sequestration. He wanted to learn how Colby evaluates and purchases carbon offsets.

What is one of your goals for the coming years?

Colby achieved carbon neutrality in 2013, the fourth college in the country to reach this milestone. A primary goal is to maintain carbon neutrality through significant growth—a 350,000-square-foot athletics center is under construction and a new center for creative and performing arts is expected to open in 2023.

Can you share a success story?

Expanding our compost program, which was previously only in the dining halls and managed by dining staff. As a result, much of the campus community did not engage with composting in any meaningful way. We have expanded the program to venues that have catered events, which allows much of the campus community to participate. The effort highlights Colby’s model of distributed responsibility, as it relied on cooperation among our grounds department, the campus events office, the facilities services staff who do all the event setup, the sustainability office, and dining services

—Interview by Theresa D’Orsi