Appointment of Associate Chancellor for Sustainability

Dear colleagues,

I am pleased to announce that Wendell Brase has agreed to serve as associate chancellor for sustainability, a newly created position supporting our commitment to sustainable practices that minimize UCI’s ecological footprint and conserve finite resources for future generations.

In this role, he will build upon our success and reputation as a green campus, leading our efforts to implement the University of California’s comprehensive Sustainable Practices Policy, which establishes goals in eight areas: green building, clean energy, transportation, climate protection, sustainable operations, waste reduction and recycling, environmentally preferable purchasing, and sustainable food service. Wendell will work to foster an ethos of sustainability among students, faculty and staff, developing UCI as a national example of how to live responsibly in the 21st century. At the request of leadership at the UC Office of the President, he also will have a key role in helping all UC campuses reach their sustainability goals.

Wendell has served UCI with distinction for 25 years as vice chancellor for administrative and business services, leading an award-winning sustainability program. He has worked tirelessly to make UCI a national forerunner in sustainability. Under Wendell’s leadership, UCI became the first university to secure the No. 1 spot more than once in Sierra’s annual ranking of the country’s “Coolest School” and has been included for six consecutive years among the magazine’s top 10 greenest campuses in the U.S. UCI also received a 2014 Climate Leadership Award from the federal Environmental Protection Agency for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and addressing climate change. And we twice won California’s highest environmental honor, the Governor’s Environmental & Economic Leadership Award.

Wendell oversaw numerous capital projects that doubled campus building space since 1991, with no cost overruns and a record number of LEED Platinum awards from the U.S. Green Building Council. He led improvements in campus safety to a new benchmark that is half the UC system’s average accident and injury rate, saving UCI $46 million. These accomplishments were recognized by the National Association of College & University Business Officers, which gave Wendell its highest individual honor: the Distinguished Business Officer Award.

His contributions extend beyond Irvine to the University of California system. Wendell chairs the UC Energy Governing Board, which oversees the procurement of renewable energy in contracts that total several hundred million dollars. He co-chairs President Napolitano’s Global Climate Leadership Council, which leads the systemwide effort to achieve carbon neutrality in buildings and fleet vehicles by 2025.

Wendell holds a master’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management. Before joining UCI, he was vice chancellor for finance, planning and administration at UC Santa Cruz from 1978 to 1991. Prior to that, he served as associate director of the Laboratory for Laser Energetics at the University of Rochester and as assistant dean of the Eastman School of Music.

I am very grateful to Wendell for his commitment to UCI and for taking on this new role. We will begin the search for a new vice chancellor for administrative and business services immediately. In the interim, Wendell will continue in that position and transition to his new appointment when the search is complete.

Please join me in congratulating Wendell.