Melissa Wenzel | Waste Wise

Melissa Wenzel is the Built Environment Sustainability Administrator and has worked for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for over 2 decades. Her current focus is on creating system-wide change within the building material management system. Working with key stakeholders across the state, Melissa focuses on reuse of buildings and building materials, and works to prevent building materials from going to landfills by encouraging preservation & renovation, reuse, and repair of buildings and building materials. She graduated from the University of Minnesota with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Education and successfully completed a Sustainability in the Workplace Certificate Program from Hamline University. She recently bought a house that was built in 1900 and lives her sustainability values throughout her personal and professional life. In her free time, she advocates for sustainability and climate justice around Saint Paul, loves planting native gardens, and can be seen e-biking around the Twin Cities in every kind of weather. She lives by her work motto: “human being first, government employee second.”