Imani Dorsey Kunzweiler ’18 grew up outside.
Across the street from her childhood home in Howard County, Maryland, was Rockburn Branch Park on one side and Patapsco State Park on the other. The woods and trails were safe, grounding spaces for young Dorsey Kunzweiler.
“My summers were full of trying to be outside as much as I can,” she recalls. “I think that wasn’t the case for a lot of kids, especially Black kids.”
Dorsey Kunzweiler speaks two languages, as a fellow former student-athlete puts it: climate and athletics. Sustainability is her passion, stemming from her Maryland childhood, and her expertise. At Duke, Dorsey Kunzweiler studied environmental science and policy at the Nicholas School of the Environment. Athletics was her career. She played on Duke’s soccer team and went pro after graduation, first with Gotham Football Club and then the Utah Royals. Today, she works to make Duke Athletics greener as its climate and sustainability director.
Though Dorsey Kunzweiler works at the junction of two fields, she says athletics and sustainability don’t feel that different from the inside. Both are built on teamwork toward common causes.
“What I loved about the [Nicholas School] was how collaborative it was. It's special to feel like everybody's working towards the same goal of trying to create a better, safer planet,” Dorsey Kunzweiler says. “In sport it's very similar. We're working towards a goal, like trying to win a championship.”
Dorsey Kunzweiler speaks early in summer break, when campus is quiet except for the athletics facilities. She walks from field to field, then up to Blue Devil Tower and down into Cameron, as student-athletes sprint around the track and volleyball camps meet. Some of the green improvements she mentions predate even the Climate Commitment, while others are recent or developing programs. Her role brings cohesion, purpose and alignment to sustainability at Duke Athletics.
“The real work is done in the relationship-building space,” says Brandon Hersh ’24, who originated the climate and sustainability director role.
Hersh, a student-athlete who was a football walk-on, grew up fishing and around the water in New Jersey. Following the lead of field hockey player Alayna Burns ’24, Hersh was a founding member of the Duke Sustainable Athletics Group. At about the same time, Duke launched its Climate Commitment in fall 2022. Burns, Hersh and their group knew this was their opportunity to formally bring sustainability to Duke Athletics. After graduating in 2024, Hersh took the newly created director job. He always knew he would be moving on from it. Though Hersh is passionate about sustainability, he majored in psychology. The role needed someone with deeper knowledge.
“Imani had reached out through EcoAthletes,” Hersh says, mentioning an athlete-driven climate advocacy nonprofit he and Dorsey Kunzweiler belong to. She had the expertise and background to bring greener Duke Athletics from vision to execution.
Advocacy was always a consistent thread in Dorsey Kunzweiler’s athletic career. She was an EcoAthlete, yes, but also co-runs the Black Women’s Player Collective and has been involved with Athlete Ally, which promotes LGBTQ inclusion in sports. Importantly, these organizations connect athletes who want to use their platforms to do good. Even before Dorsey Kunzweiler returned to Duke to coordinate sustainable athletics, she was already a capable networker.
At Duke, each sport knows its facilities and audience. Dorsey Kunzweiler makes connections in each one, from lower visibility programs to complex, high-pressure ones like Duke football and basketball. She does so with a sustainability perspective courtesy of her Nicholas School education. The stakes are the environment itself, yet Dorsey Kunzweiler seems right at home.
“There are so many people doing incredible work across campus,” she says. “It feels like my job is honestly to just connect people.”
BLUE DEVILS GONE GREEN
“A lot of times everyone feels like the environment's over here and my life is here,” Dorsey Kunzweiler says. “I want people to understand the little changes that they can make.” Here are a few takeaways from our tour of Duke’s athletics facilities with its climate and sustainability director.
MULTI-USE FACILITIES
Duke lacrosse shares its facilities with club sports. This saves from the material and power needs to construct and maintain additional fields.
Perched on the western lip of Wallace Wade Stadium, Blue Devil Tower is another such space. Outside of football season, its rooms can be scheduled for other uses. It is one of several athletics buildings designed with an energy saving mode that cuts down on air conditioning needs when a room is not in use. Blue Devil Tower has seen the most energy savings since 2023, Dorsey Kurzweiler says.
FOOTBALL
A low-waste football game can look like compostable packaging and fewer trash locations in Wallace Wade Stadium. The newest approach is “leave it in the bowl.” Fans are told to leave trash under their seats. After the game, contractors do a full sweep of Wallace Wade and sort waste in real time.
GEAR DRIVES
Athletic shoes and equipment can be a source of waste, which is a major topic in the sustainable athletics community. Duke holds a shoe and gear drive once a semester, with bins in every locker room for student-athletes who want to donate their gear. Year-round donations can be made in the Scott Family Athletics Performance Center.
One project Dorsey Kunzweiler is currently working on would turn used shoes into flooring. She is currently scouting spaces, as she wants the floor to visibly tell the story of sustainability.
CAMERON (AND ITS CRAZIES)
One of the most significant opportunities related to Cameron Indoor Stadium is Duke Basketball’s broader audience. If its massive fanbase can be properly engaged, climate education can spread well beyond the court.
This is true of every sport, Dorsey Kunzweiler notes, and every fandom is different. Meeting the fans of different Duke athletics programs where they are is key to spreading the sustainability message.
BLUE DEVIL NETWORK
Any televised Duke home game of any sport makes it to ESPN through this state-of-the-art control room in Blue Devil Tower. Instead of different networks sending trucks and production equipment to campus, which increases energy consumption, all that’s needed is cameras on the field. Blue Devil Network handles the rest.
CATERING
Catering partner Proof of the Pudding does back-of-house composting, diverting compostable dinner scraps from the garbage. It also donates excess food to urban ministries in Durham rather than waste it.
LOCKER ROOMS
Antimicrobial lights in locker rooms reduce both cleaning time and the amount of cleaning products needed.
LIGHTING
Most facilities now use more efficient LED lighting in some capacity, up to and including stadium lighting.
CARD GYMNASIUM
The workout equipment wipes are compostable.