Who We Are

Sustainability Office

Jeremy Friedman is the project coordinator for NYU's Sustainability Task Force, the body of students, faculty and administrators who have been tasked by the university to develop environmentally sustainable projects and policies on campus.   Jeremy recently completed a degree in Environmental Values and Public Policy at NYU's Gallatin School, where his studies emphasized intersections between environmental philosophy, green design, and political strategy. He was also a co-founder of the Green Arch Initiative, a coalition of sustainability advocates that has helped to build support for the greening of NYU.   His favorite charismatic megafauna is the lamentably-extinct Giant Ground Sloth, which doubtless would endorse his commitment to sustainability, were it alive today.

Cecil Scheib founded Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage on 280 acres in rural Missouri with the goal of building a new village as an ecological demonstration project, shortly after receiving a Civil and Environmental Engineering degree from Stanford University. Since then, DR has grown to be 40 people living in 16 off-grid solar and wind powered straw bale houses that collect rainwater for drinking. Village residents grow food organically and run shared co-op cars on biodiesel while pursuing their dream lifestyle in the country.

A Bronx native, Cecil returned to New York City after 14 years at Dancing Rabbit to work as NYU's Director of Energy and Sustainability. Areas of responsibility include reducing NYU's energy use, wind energy procurement, the Recycling Shop, and the Garden Shop.

Dianne Anderson, Sustainable Resources Manager, brings her experience with and enthusiasm for sustainability to NYU from California. She oversees the Recycling and Solid Waste activities amongst other Sustainability Projects and is focused on improving NYU's environmental impact through the 4 R's: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rot.

Prior to NYU, Dianne was the Resource Conservation Specialist for the County of San Mateo, where she produced sustainable building and design workshops, launched a Green Business Program, and led many outreach campaigns on resource reduction and recycling. She worked closely with local government officials to bring together a Sustainability Task Force to produce a Countywide Energy Strategy and to support green building.

Dianne is passionate about living green and will gladly tell you about her Wriggly Wranch Vermicomposting (worm) Bin. Dianne received her B.S. in Environmental Studies from San Jose State University and is a Certified Green Building Professional.

Sarah Boll comes to NYU most recently from Parallel Products, a national recycling company that operates a facility in the Bronx. Having attained a Masters in Environmental Protection and Management after spending six years as an Officer in the US Navy, she is excited to be the new NYU Recycling Coordinator. Living proof that there are New Yorkers not from the city, Sarah grew up on dairy farm south of Buffalo.

George Reis, Supervisor of Sustainable Landscaping in the NYU Garden Shop, studied horticulture and garden design at the New York Botanical Garden. He became motivated to seek out a natural systems approach to plant care after being licensed to apply restricted-use pesticides by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation. A member of MetroHort and the Ecological Landscaping Association, George joined the Northeast Organic Farming Association in order to adapt their methods of organic land care to the urban gardens of NYU.

George came to NYU as a gardener in 1995 and studied Portuguese and Brazilian literature in NYU's College of Arts and Science. His translation of a Portuguese poem appeared in Mantis, a literary journal at Stanford University. He has begun translating selected writings of Roberto Burle Marx, the great Brazilian landscape architect. George and his wife Ethel live in leafy Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

Kate Fritz is a student in the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at NYU. Though her "concentration" changes everyday, most of the time it has something to do with Environmental Policy and Human Rights. She plans to pursue a master's degree in Public Policy and a JD in International Environmental Law. When not busy as an Outreach Assistant for the Sustainability Task Force, Kate can be heard playing traditional Scottish, Irish, Scandinavian, and American folk music on her fiddle.

Evrim Sahin is a graduate student in the Interactive Telecommunications Program at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts, and an Outreach Assistant for the Sustainability Task Force. She is a product designer, who is dedicated to researching and designing socially and environmentally conscious solutions for today's needs. She is originally from Turkey, and has been living in the States since 2001.

Sustainability Task Force

The Sustainability Task Force is an advisory body composed of students, faculty and staff, tasked with developing recommendations for new policies and practices that advance NYU's long-term future as a sustainable university.

The Task Force represents as many key university constituencies as possible, while also drawing upon participants with specific expertise or interest in environmental issues. It includes graduate and undergraduate students, faculty, administrators, and staff; representatives hail from nine NYU colleges, and from many different student clubs, administrative departments, and university governance bodies.