Dave Newport was appointed Director, Environmental Center, University of Colorado-Boulder, in December 2005. Dave’s background is in environmental and sustainability research, teaching, publishing, and public service.
Dave comes to Boulder from his previous post as the University of Florida’s first Director of the Office of Sustainability. At UF, he researched and published higher educations’ first sustainability report compiled to global business standards, led global efforts aimed at unifying sustainability reporting in higher education, sheparded a plan to make the nation’s fourth largest university “a global leader in sustainability,” launched a zero-waste program that has since become UF’s 2025 target for all operations, and published carbon-neutrality research and planning designed to make the university climate-neutral. Dave also taught UF’s Honors Program Sustainability course, community leadership courses, and lectured extensively on campus greening and transparency.
Dave was a county commissioner from 1998-2002 and elected Chairman of the Alachua County Commission (Gainesville, Florida) in 2000. As Commissioner, he championed renewable energy and energy conservation efforts and sustainability policies for the county. Dave remains a board member and Strategic Policy Director for Cross Creek Initiative, Inc., a Florida-based non-profit that works with public and private sector clients on green building, energy, and sustainability planning.
At CU, Dave also teaches a Campus Carbon Neutrality Planning Course in the Environmental Studies Department, and Chairs CU's Carbon Neutrality Working Group.
He is active in national sustainability issues as Secretary of the Board of Directors for the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. Prior to joining AASHE's Board, Dave helped create the Sustainability Tracking and Ratings Systems (STARS), a set of campus sustainability metrics similar to the LEED system--and dubbed by the Chronicle for Higher Education as the "gold standard of campus sustainability metrics."
Dave Newport in 1985 founded Florida Environments Magazine, a regional environmental news publication. From 1985 to 1997 Florida Environments' staff and Dave won many awards including Florida Audubon Environmental Journalist of the Year and the 1000 Friends of Florida Al Burt Award for Environmental Journalism.
Previously, Dave was laboratory director and instructor in the Environmental Science Technology department at Sanata Fe College in Gainesville, Florida where he taught advanced environmental analytical techniques. From 1976-1981 Dave was a research technician with the National Council of the Paper Industry and as an EPA contractor where he helped develop analytical methods for isolating and quantifying air and water pollutants.
Dave is completing a Masters of Science degree in Energy Resource Management and Policy from the University of Maryland, University College. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Syracuse University, management and communications, and an Associate of Science degree from Santa Fe College in Environmental Science Technology. Dave is also a Fellow of the American Hospital Association’s Healthy Community Leadership program, a LEED accredited professional for green building by the US Green Building Council, and a Stephen Covey-certified leadership trainer.
Dave has written, published, and presented widely on the topics of sustainability reporting, campus greening, and the practices and principles of sustainability and leadership. Dave has served on dozens of related boards and committees including US Environmental Protection Agency Higher Education Sector Performance Monitoring Task Force (current) and ULSF-UNEP-GRI Sustainability Indicators Working Group.
A beekeeper and fisherman, recumbent bicycler, and combined-driving horse-carriage competitor, Dave also plays the pedal steel guitar. He is married to Nancy Lockhart Newport and together they have five children ages 15-30.