MaryEllen Etienne is deeply committed to resilience, both personally and professionally. She has helped businesses, municipalities and nonprofits implement comprehensive sustainability strategies and dedicated countless volunteer hours to the cause. Through her efforts, MaryEllen is helping to green our economy, clean our environment and create a more equitable society.

Currently, MaryEllen serves as an Associate Director on USGBC's Market Transformation and Development Team, where she advances green building in the U.S. Midwest. Prior to this, she led numerous local, national and global circular economy initiatives which included tenures at SWACO, Reuse Alliance, City College of New York, London Community Recycling Network, Industrial Technology Assistance Corporation and The City of New York. She began her career as an AmeriCorps VISTA environmental educator.

Among her recent accomplishments, MaryEllen was selected as a Graduate Research Fellow by the University of Dayton’s Hanley Sustainability Institute, a highly respected and competitive program, where she contributed to the goal of Catalyzing Institutional Change through practical research focused on circular economy, fleet decarbonization and green building.

As a thought leader in the circular economy movement, MaryEllen created and writes Women in Circularity, a regular column which is published in Resource Recycling Magazine, and is the founder and five-time producer of ReuseConex, the world’s first international conference and expo focused on reuse.

Her work in waste reduction, reuse and recycling has been transformative. With the Reuse Alliance, she launched the nation’s first reuse trade association and developed a capacity-building training program for reuse practitioners. As a board member of the National Recycling Coalition, she helped create nationally recognized certification criteria for sustainable materials management training. As a member of the U.S. Zero Waste Business Council Advisory Board, she was instrumental in developing the first third-party verified Zero Waste certification program, now recognized as GBCI’s TRUE Program.

Her expertise also includes consulting on pioneering zero waste policies. She collaborated with Congressman Ellison’s office to introduce the first zero waste legislation in the U.S. and contributed to citywide zero waste plans for Austin and New York. MaryEllen also advised the State of Minnesota on the nation’s first statewide study of the economic impacts of reuse and assisted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in creating the world’s first bilingual virtual materials exchange in Puerto Rico.

MaryEllen’s volunteer efforts included serving as president of the board for the Association of Ohio Recyclers, an at-large board member for the National Recycling Coalition and a technical advisor for the U.S. Zero Waste Business Council.

MaryEllen graduated with great distinction from the University of Dayton College of Arts and Sciences where she earned a Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies with a concentration on Sustainability and Change Management. MaryEllen earned her Bachelor of Arts from the State University of New York, College at New Paltz with concentrations in Anthropology, Psychology and Sociology. She maintains LEED Green Associate and TRUE Advisor credentials and is a member of the National Recycling Coalition.

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MaryEllen Etienne