Maria Vargas

Maria T. Vargas is a Senior Program Advisor and the Director of DOE’s Better Buildings Initiative. Through Better Buildings, DOE works with leaders in the public and private sectors to make U.S. buildings at least 20 percent more efficient in the next decade. Hundreds of chief executive officers, university presidents, and state and local leaders are partnering with DOE, upgrading buildings across their portfolios, and sharing innovative solutions and strategies as models for others to follow. Prior to her work at DOE, Ms. Vargas was the Brand Manager for the ENERGY STAR program for almost 20 years while at the US Environmental Protection Agency. She has been involved in policy work on the issues of ozone depletion, global climate change, and related environmental and energy issues since 1985. Ms. Vargas received a Bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College (Swarthmore, PA) in Political Science and Economics and a Master’s degree from the University of Oregon (Eugene, Oregon) and was inducted in the Energy Efficiency Hall of Fame in 2014. As of 2019, she is a DOE Lead Ambassador for the U.S. C3E.