The FAS-CERP Start-Up Story
As with many innovative environmental projects, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Computer Energy Reduction Program began with a group of students who partnered with the Harvard Green Campus Initiative to explore ways in which Harvard might best address its own contributions towards climate change. Today, CERP is expanding its efforts to include energy conservation beyond computers to laboratory equipment, lighting, and more. Its new name, the Campus Energy Reduction Program, reflects that change.
HGCI Supports FAS to Address Global Climate Change
In early 2001, six students began meeting with the Harvard Green Campus Initiative to develop a proposal for Harvard to reduce its GHG emissions. The HGCI advised the students to develop a succinct, well-informed and strategically targeted presentation to the Dean of the largest faculty within Harvard University. The students met with the HGCI for 3 months before making a powerful presentation to the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (PDF: 178k). At the conclusion of this presentation the HGCI proposed that the Dean fund an investigation of the greenhouse gas, energy and monetary savings that could result from more efficient computer use. It was argued that by undertaking this project, we could begin to build school-wide support for addressing GHG reductions, while also generating significant financial returns. The Dean approved the $30,000 funding request at the end of the meeting. In the summer of 2001, the HGCI recruited two student interns and a project manager to undertake this assessment.
The assessment findings were remarkable. The assessment revealed that the Faculty of Arts and Sciences operates in excess of 13,000 computers using around 10% of the electricity consumed within the Faculty. Less than 40% of FAS computers were being used in the most energy efficient way, costing the Faculty $50-110 in energy costs per year per computer. A very conservative estimate of potential annual savings was calculated at $270,000, resulting in an associated greenhouse gas reduction of over 1.5 million pounds of CO2 per year. This could all be achieved by simply getting 30% more FAS students and staff to switch off computers when not in use and to activate sleep software for their monitors.
Based on these findings the HGCI developed a proposal for full implementation of this behavioral change program and presented this to FAS. The proposal requested $105,000 per year for three years to fund the human resources, web development and associated promotional materials to run a thorough behavioral change campaign. It was proposed that this program would become self-funding within three years through related energy savings. Over a period of protracted negotiations, the HGCI agreed to provide an interest free loan to FAS for the full three years and to take full management responsibility for the program. This was possible because the pay back for this program was less than five years and FAS agreed to pay back the loan over 4 years. In early 2002, the FAS Computer Energy Reduction Program, HGCI's first experience with large-scale behavioral change, was launched - a significant FAS/HGCI step toward addressing the problem of greenhouse gas emissions and global climate change.