Elaine Durr
Senior Director of Sustainability
Department: Sustainability
Email: edurr@elon.edu
Phone number: (336) 278-5229
Brief Biography
Elaine has been at Elon since May of 2008, when she was hired as the university's first full-time sustainability professional. She leads the university's sustainability efforts, which have operational and educational components.
Prior to arriving at Elon, Ms. Durr was a sustainability consultant for a small engineering and consulting firm in Decatur, GA where she managed the certification process for several LEED projects. She is a LEED Accredited Professional with building design and construction specialty (LEED AP BD+C) and has also served as assistant project manager and assistant LEED certification manager for a construction company in Charlotte, NC.
Ms. Durr received her bachelor’s degree in environmental science and biology from Monmouth College in Monmouth, IL, and has a master’s degree in earth and environmental resources management from the University of South Carolina (USC) School of the Environment. She served as a graduate assistant for the Sustainable Universities Initiative (SUI) while attending USC. Ms. Durr is a Sustainability Excellence Professional (SEP, formerly ISSP-CSP), has completed the Harvard Executive Education for Sustainability Leadership Program and has a professional certificate in Campus Sustainability Leadership from the Institute for Global Sustainability at the University of Vermont.
Ms. Durr received the AASHE Fellows Award in 2026. She currently serves on the AASHE Advisory Council and previously served for 6 years on the AASHE STARS Steering Committee, serving as Chair in 2020. She is a prior member of the ISSP Credential Maintenance Committee.