The Global Institute of Sustainability headquarters building on Arizona State University’s Tempe campus was renamed in honor of Julie Ann Wrigley. ASU President Michael Crow, along with Rob Walton, chairman of the board of Walmart and co-chair of the Board of Trustees for Sustainability at ASU, a crowd of community and business leaders, and the ASU community, honored the Institute’s founding benefactor as the university celebrated the newly named Wrigley Hall.
“Julie has been exceedingly generous with her time, ideas, and financial resources in support of the Global Institute for Sustainability,” said Walton. “She is always more than willing to consult with administrators and staff and lend her wisdom to the organization, its projects, and its educational offerings.”
The Global Institute of Sustainability was established in 2004 through the visionary leadership of Crow and the generous philanthropic support of Wrigley. The Institute serves as an administrative hub for the sustainability research, education, and business practices that take place every day across all four of ASU’s campuses and beyond.
Since 2008, the Global Institute of Sustainability has been headquartered in the building, now named for Wrigley. Formerly home to the College of Nursing and Health Innovation, the Global Institute of Sustainability building was renovated in 2007-08 to integrate sustainability features that reduce consumption and waste and enhance the quality of life for students, faculty, and staff.
The building has been an ideal headquarters and a model of sustainability for the university. By renaming it as Wrigley Hall, ASU honors a great philanthropist while also expanding the university community’s attention to the many sustainability initiatives that take place outside of the building’s walls.
“Despite her outstanding good works and generous gifts, Julie never calls attention to her herself—and she did not ask us to put her name on the building,” noted Walton. “I can’t say enough about what Julie brings to this endeavor. It will mean the world to our descendants and future generations.”
Wrigley serves as president and chief executive officer of Wrigley Investments, president of the Julie A. Wrigley Foundation, co-founder of the Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies at USC, and chairman of the board, emeritus, of The Peregrine Fund. She graduated from Stanford, with a degree in anthropology, and from the University of Denver College of Law, where she earned a juris doctorate, summa cum laude.