City Chooses Sustainability Director

by David Reed

January 22,2010

City Manager Bill Watkins named Barbara Buffaloe as Columbia's first sustainability manager, underscoring the city's energy and environmental conservation efforts.

Buffaloe, the chair of the city's Environment and Energy Commission, will start work in mid-February managing a three-year U.S. Department of Energy block grant designed to reduce personal energy use — commonly called "demand-side management." The grant will pay for most of her $55,000 salary.

The city has been promoting demand-side energy management to help meet its goal of producing 5 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2012 and 15 percent by 2022. The City Council created the new position in the 2010 budget.

Buffaloe is an instructor and a housing and environmental design associate with University of Missouri Extension. She's involved in Sustain Mizzou and the Emerging Green Builders group.

Buffaloe will be the city's first LEED-certified employee and is involved in a number of other conservation-oriented groups. She has a bachelor's degree in environmental design and a master's degree in environmental behavior, both from MU.