Lindsey Kalkbrenner
Founding Sustainability Director at Santa Clara University
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Lindsey serves as the Senior Director of the Center for Sustainability at Santa Clara University, where she has been a driving force in advancing the university's sustainability initiatives since 2006. Under her leadership, SCU has achieved significant milestones, including Gold Ratings in AASHE's STARS and recognition in the Princeton Review's Green Honor Roll. Notably, she has spearheaded the development and implementation of the "Sustainable SCU: Leading Through Laudato Si'" strategic action plan, aligning the university's sustainability efforts with Pope Francis' call for integral ecology. Under her guidance, SCU has also made significant strides in renewable energy, including the construction of the Bird Solar Project, which supplies over 6% of the university's electricity needs and generates savings that is reinvested annually to fund additional sustainability projects.
Kalkbrenner holds both a Bachelor of Science in Biology and an MBA from Santa Clara University. A Native Hawaiian and a Kumu Hula, she brings a unique blend of cultural insight and leadership to her role, fostering a campus culture that empowers students to become sustainability change agents.
Lindsey has the honor of leading a team of 4 staff, 3 California Climate Action Corp Fellows, 2 faculty associates, and 20 student coordinators, apprentices, and research fellows at SCU's the Center for Sustainability. The Center serves as a catalyst for transformative climate action, connecting academics, operations, and campus life to empower students, faculty, and staff in building a more humane, just, and sustainable world. The CFS team drives campus-wide sustainability efforts, cultivates vibrant garden programs, and supports student-led research that explores the intersectional dimensions of the climate crisis and local solutions throughout the academic year.
Lightning Talks on Finance & Investment
Funding the Future: Transforming Sustainability Plans Into Fundable Roadmaps
This session shares how SCU uses multi-channel strategies and "Giving Menus" to fund transformative climate action.
Lindsey Kalkbrenner
Rural Resilience Showcase: Examples of Low-Cost & High-Impact Projects
This lightning talk will showcase several high-impact learning practices that helped to advance sustainability and resilience efforts at a rural, public institution, with a near-zero budget for sustainability.
Jes Thompson
Sustainable CU Grant: 20 years of Student Innovation in Campus Sustainability
For over 20 years, this grant has funded innovative projects to address sustainability challenges on campus.
Zoe Adams, Jules Immonen
Financed Emissions in Retirement Funds Dwarf Operational Carbon Footprints
This session provides the tools needed to engage with plan sponsors on emissions associated with retirement portfolios.
Georges Dyer
From Data to Impact: Storytelling and Applied Learning in Campus Sustainability Programs
How can sustainability offices transform everyday program data into powerful tools for learning, storytelling, and institutional impact, even with limited capacity? This interactive session highlights how Santa Clara University leverages data collection across programs such as the Forge Garden and Bucky’s Closet Thrift Store to advance sustainability education, strengthen donor engagement, and amplify campus storytelling.
Participants will explore practical strategies for collecting meaningful data within existing programs, even when staff time and resources are constrained. We will share how our team aligns local data collection with the AASHE STARS framework, showing how simple campus metrics contribute directly to credits such as AC 1: Sustainability Course Offerings, EN 2: Co-Curricular Activities, and EN 3: Staff Engagement and Training.
We will share ways to track areas such as food systems, waste diversion, and student participation, illustrating how the data we collect for reporting can serve as the foundation for applied learning opportunities, allowing students to engage with real-world sustainability metrics through their coursework and projects.
The session also focuses on translating raw numbers into compelling narratives for diverse audiences. Attendees will learn how we use data to support stakeholder communication, donor impact reports, and an accessible public data hub.
Designed for practitioners at all levels, including an "office of one," this session provides adaptable frameworks and templates to help you elevate the visibility and impact of your sustainability work.
Lindsey Kalkbrenner
Founding Sustainability Director at Santa Clara University
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