PRESS ROOM

ROYAL OAK, Mich., 

The Detroit Zoological Society (DZS) has appointed Rachel Handbury to the position of Manager of Sustainability.  She is responsible for leading the DZS’s Greenprint, a comprehensive strategic plan to refine and improve facilities and daily practices, develop new policies and programs and improve green literacy in the community.

Handbury joins the DZS from Questa Environmental Consulting in Los Angeles where she was a project manager.  Prior to that, she worked as an environmental consultant and project manager at SECOR International in Thousand Oaks, Calif.

“As an avid environmentalist with a wealth of project-management experience, Rachel will be a wonderful asset as we continue to design and implement environmentally sustainable practices and programs,” said DZS Executive Director/CEO Ron Kagan.

Handbury received a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Environmental Science from the University of Western Ontario in London.

Greenprint initiatives include building the first dry biodigester in Michigan – and the first zoo-based system of its kind in the country – which annually will convert more than 400 tons of animal manure into compost and capture the methane byproduct to help power the animal hospital.  The DZS last year discontinued the sale of bottled water at the Detroit Zoo – helping to keep more than 60,000 single-use bottles out of landfills each year – and began powering Zoo operations with 100 percent renewable electricity.