Dr. Aurora Sharrard is the inaugural Assistant Vice Chancellor for Sustainability at the University of Pittsburgh, guiding cross-departmental sustainability staff and University-wide sustainability strategy, activities, and partnerships. The Pitt Sustainability Plan and Pitt Climate Action Plan steer these efforts with 68 sustainability goals at the intersection of equity, environment, and economics, including pursuing carbon neutrality by 2037. The 2018-22 Progress Report on the Pitt Sustainability Plan is a recent, in-depth summary of their work.
Building on past progress and successes, Dr. Sharrard and her colleagues work daily across the spectrum of sustainability, working to further expand Pitt’s culture of sustainability further so that the University remains a sustainability leader in every scale, from campus to international.
Prior to joining the University, Dr. Sharrard worked at Green Building Alliance (GBA) for 11 years, ultimately serving as its Executive Director. She led the nonprofit in advancing innovation in the built environment by empowering people to create environmentally, economically, and socially vibrant places. In her time at GBA, Dr. Sharrard co-founded the Pittsburgh 2030 District, which now boasts 550+ buildings aspiring towards measured high performance of 50% reductions in energy use, water consumption, and transportation emissions by the year 2030. In 2014, the University of Pittsburgh was a Founding Property Partner of the Pittsburgh 2030 District’s Oakland boundary – and embraced 2030 Challenge goals University-wide in the 2018 Pitt Sustainability Plan. Dr. Sharrard also led several GBA programs, including the Pittsburgh Climate Initiative (PCI), Higher Education Climate Consortium, Pittsburgh Green Story, Product Innovation Grants, and DASH: Database for Analyzing Sustainable and High Performance Buildings.
A nationally recognized green building and sustainability expert, Dr. Sharrard has provided strategic and technical support to innumerable regional green building and sustainable community projects, including the University of Pittsburgh’s green buildings, Hazelwood Green, the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens; multiple Living Buildings, and many others.
