Partner Highlight: Anne Jakle
Anne Jakle is a powerhouse. As the new director of Sustainability for the University of New Mexico, her role is to align the university’s goals and action plans with sustainability objectives. She projects quiet confidence, and a quick smile softens her intensity. I wanted to learn about the university’s new Tree Campus designation, but later, I realized I had also heard a story about connection and community. I’ll explain more fully in a moment, but first, let me start from the beginning.
I spoke with Anne on a sunny Thursday that was unseasonably warm for the February date. When I arrived at her office, she worried aloud it was too soon for the bright yellow clumps of mini daffodils to be poking through the soil outside the entrance.
As one of the largest energy users in the region, UNM is expanding its sustainable capacity in various directions. This year, it received a Silver STARS (Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System) certification, a transparent, self-reporting framework that enables universities to monitor their progress. This framework, combined with surveys and data, will determine the sustainability priorities of the campus community and outline an action plan to address them. The university is also investing in the lifetime of its buildings by requiring that every new build has at least a LEED Silver certification. However, Anne informed me that the campus trees are one of the university’s best resources and are considered as valuable as the buildings, observing that a century-old Ponderosa pine cannot be replaced.
Anne told me that in the places where positions and interests intersect, it’s possible to find ways to unite people. At UNM, one starting point is the trees. The campus arboretum was just designated a Higher Education Tree Campus by the Arbor Day Foundation and features over 5,000 trees. Students are currently creating arboretum tours that feature climate-ready trees, trees with medicinal or cultural uses, and unusual trees for New Mexico. The trees receive water from the university’s wells and some reclaimed water from the chiller blowdown towers, thereby reducing stress on New Mexico’s water supply.
The trees help reduce energy use by shading buildings while improving air quality, enhancing stormwater management, and mitigating the effects of extreme heat. Other research associates exposure to trees with long-term benefits, such as reduced rates of depression, anxiety, cognitive decline, and chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease and cancer.
I concluded by asking Jakle about the challenges the university faces in adapting to changing climate conditions, and I didn’t expect to feel inspired. But her eyes lit up as she explained that, of course, the challenge is living in a resource-limited state; yet, there is something truly hopeful about the resilience of the New Mexico community. It is unique and unlike anywhere else she has lived. She mentioned that in New Mexico, we’re accustomed to making do with baling wire and duct tape. But once we figure this out, it will be transmittable anywhere. When you have all the resources in the world to do your work, what you create isn’t relatable everywhere. However, New Mexicans are uniquely positioned to provide scalable solutions that can be exported elsewhere.
On my way out, I stopped to look at the daffodils by the front door. As one of the first flowers in the spring, they symbolize rebirth and new beginnings. So perhaps they are blooming at the right time after all.