Executive Vice President and COO Rachael Nava has issued the following statement to the UCOP community:

I am pleased to announce the appointment of David Phillips to the newly created position of associate vice president for energy and sustainability.

This position was created to expand the university’s leadership role in a broad range of sustainable practices and to help it achieve the goal of zero-net greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 under UC President Janet Napolitano’s Carbon Neutrality Initiative.

We have made great strides toward achieving our carbon neutrality goal but there is important work ahead. With his experience and visionary leadership, David will ensure that the university continues to harness the entire university community to find innovative solutions to this formidable challenge.

David comes to UCOP from UC Davis, where he was director of utilities. In that role, he led the campus’s initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, developed one of the country’s largest on-site solar power plants, oversaw an on-site waste treatment system to reduce campus landfill disposal by 25 percent and headed up the regulatory approval process for a wastewater recycling project. David played a critical role in the opening in 2014 of a Renewable Energy Anaerobic Digester (READ) biodigester which, using technology developed by UC Davis faculty, efficiently converts campus and local organic waste into clean energy to power the campus.

At UCOP, David will work collaboratively across UC campuses and medical centers. He will lead UC’s carbon neutrality strategy and broader energy procurement and sustainability efforts in consultation with the university’s Global Climate Leadership Council, Energy Governing Board and UC’s Sustainability Community.

I want to thank Associate Vice President Debora Obley for her steady interim leadership during this search.

Please join me in welcoming David to UCOP, and to this important role for the university.

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