Hats off: Retiring Sustainability director plans to enjoy baseball

Mike Kensler has two major passions: sustainability and minor league baseball caps. 

“Growing up, I played baseball and was coached by my dad, and I really loved it,” he said. “When I could start buying hats, well, I bought a lot of them. I’m not proud of it, but right now, it’s more than 250.” 

Kensler, the outgoing director of Auburn University’s Office of Sustainability, will retire this summer after almost 15 years on the job. Upon retiring, he will pursue his hobby of visiting minor league baseball parks — and buying a hat at every single one. 

Certified ‘smart’ buildings 

The Office of Sustainability was created in 2009. When founding director and faculty member Lindy Biggs decided to retire, Kensler, who was working at the Water Resources Center, was hired as the first full-time director. Under his leadership, the office’s three staff members have become a vital partner for units across campus.  

“We’ve never been one to toot our own horn,” Kensler said. “We’re always the facilitator, the catalyst, the enabler or the cheerleader, offering up ideas and support.” 

While he’s humble about his work, Kensler is extremely proud of the office’s relationship with Facilities Management to develop buildings that are certified by the United States Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system. LEED-certified buildings are not only energy efficient but also cost-effective and promote better health for occupants. 

“LEED-certified buildings show a 26% improvement in cognitive ability, and if we’re not about cognitive ability, what are we about?” said Kensler. “They also demonstrate a 30% reduction in ‘sick building syndrome.’ They’re more environmentally responsible and certainly better for human health and performance; they’re just better buildings.” 

The M. Miller Gorrie Center, home of the McWhorter School of Building Science, was campus’ first LEED-certified building in 2008, and it also was one of the first LEED Gold-certified buildings in the state. Other LEED-certified buildings on campus include the Academic and Classroom Laboratory Complex, the Gogue Performing Arts Center and the Brown-Kopel Engineering Student Achievement Center. 

As campus continues to grow and expand facilities, Auburn is building structures that will last 70 years or more.  

“The university’s investment in design that is LEED-certified will pay off immensely in the health and wellbeing of occupants and energy savings for decades to come,” Kensler said. 

Productive partnerships 

In addition to Facilities, Sustainability has several other partners across campus, including Glenn Loughridge, the director of Campus Dining.   

“We love working with Glenn; he’s always cooking up brilliant new ideas,” Kensler said. “It was his idea to get an in-vessel composter, a big one, and he pulled it off. We collaborated and cheered him on. We played a small part, but it was his vision.”  

Another partner is Risk Management and Safety, a unit that recently approached Sustainability with the idea of developing a Green Labs program. While laboratory spaces are innovative hubs that drive research and learning, they use a great deal of energy and create a significant amount of waste. With the support of Kensler and his staff, Risk Management is collaborating with academic units to make lab operations safer, more efficient and less wasteful.   

Sustainability routinely collaborates in the development of the campus master plan, identifying additional transportation options for bicycles and pedestrians, as well as ways to improve the tree canopy and keep sidewalks cooler in the summer. It also partners with academic units to deliver class lectures, host outside speakers, co-sponsor events and support faculty and staff professional development through the office’s Sponsorship Program.  

Hats off to baseball 

Kensler is a life-long fan of baseball, having played catcher from age 10 through high school. He became a devotee of the minor leagues during the 1994-95 Major League Baseball strike, when he began visiting local teams in earnest.  

“We had started out going to see the Toledo Mud Hens in Ohio in the 1980s and then visited the Norfolk Tides in Virginia, and I just found it to be really fun,” he said. “Then, I made the mistake of starting to buy hats every place I went. It’s a whole ritual because you have to try them on to get one that fits just right, but they’re great fun.”  

With his collection of hats continuing to grow, Kensler wears a different one to work each day. Whether he’s on campus or traveling, the hats often start conversations when they spark a connection or memory for a random stranger. 

Kensler said there are still more hats to buy, and as he approaches retirement, he’s planning how he’ll fill his free time with visits to minor league stadiums.  

“I have not been to them all,” he said. “And there are some that are no longer in existence, because minor league teams tend to come and go, so you must chase them around. There are a number in Texas I haven’t been to, and there’s some in California; I want to get to all of them.” 

For now, he’s perfectly happy being a fan of Auburn baseball and softball, attending as many games each season as he can.  

His recommendation for a perfect day? Take in a ball game. 

“It’s so relaxing; you walk into this park and there’s this beautiful green field, and there’s no clock,” he said. “You can walk around the whole ballpark, people-watch, catch foul balls. It doesn’t get any better than that.”