Darien Clary[/caption] Darien Clary has been named Austin ISD’s new sustainability manager, the school district announced Sept. 29. In her new role, Clary will develop and implement the district's sustainability initiatives into teaching and learning methods, infrastructure and operations, and community and culture, according to AISD. Before joining the district, she was sustainability coordinator at Austin Community College. Recently, AISD has been recognized for its sustainability achievements by the National Wildlife Federation, which named Small Green Tech Academy at Clint Small Middle School in Southwest Austin as one of the top 10 Eco-Schools in the nation. Additionally, the district’s new Performing Arts Center received an Austin Energy Green Building five-star rating, and Guerrero Thompson Elementary School earned LEED silver certification. Some updates, including a long-range sustainability plan for the district, are underway, Clary said in a recent interview. What will you aim to accomplish at AISD? "AISD already has a lot of really great sustainability initiatives underway, so I’m really hoping to figure out the models that are working and hopefully implement them at other campuses, too. One of my big roles is working with the Environmental Stewardship Advisory Council. ... We’re working in different areas within the district to figure out how to get the district on board with sustainability for the long range, and the goal is to get this plan adopted by the board. And so that will kind of be our road map for going forward. We’ll figure out what’s happening now, the baseline, and then develop strategies for the first 5 years, years 6-10, 11-15, and so on. I’m trying to get out to as [many] schools as I can." Why is it important for AISD to focus on sustainability? "Sustainability, I think a lot of people hear it and they think it’s just about the environment, and it’s not. That’s a huge part of it, but if things are sustainable, they make economic and social sense as well. If you think about it, for example, when we address transportation issues, which are really huge in Austin and the region,we help increase air quality. We [might] lessen the burden of car ownership, which can be gas money, money for insurance, vehicle maintenance, increased childcare costs maybe that can result from a longer commute home, [and] maybe increased health care costs from a sedentary lifestyle. And so the district is well poised not only to help address these important issues in our city, but because of our role as an educator we have such a cool opportunity to establish habits and more of a culture of sustainability in our youth." What is the biggest challenge facing AISD in terms of sustainability? "One is figuring out a way to take these very ambitious goals and put them into practice; that’s something I’m going to be focusing a lot of my time on. Also a challenge, and I think it’s a really good opportunity too is to align our sustainability goals [at] AISD along with the sustainability goals of our city. The city of Austin has some really great zero-waste goals; they’re working on that Mobility 2020 challenge geared at transportation. So I want to make sure that whatever we’re developing in AISD helps the city to achieve their sustainability goals as well. Because we’re all working with the same population; we’re all working in the same space, so it really makes sense to work together to try to move the needle together."