FAS Green Tip of the Month
Drink Responsibly... Drink Tap!
- Americans spend over $16 billion a year on bottled water... but is bottled water better than tap?
- Tap water is subject to stricter regulations than bottled water (Tap water is regulated by the EPA; bottled wateregulated by the FDA)
- Many brands of bottled water use tap water as their source
- City studies have proven that tap water in Cambridge is plenty safe to drink, and regular testing ensures that the city's water exceeds FDA and EPA standards of purity.
Take action now
- Use water pitchers instead of bottled water at departmental events
- Be aware of marketing strategies. Associations of bottled water with purity or higher quality are an environmentally costly result of marketing by bottled water manufacturers.
- Replace a water cooler with a filtration system
- Water Filter Comparisons - check out the top 10 home water filters, rated by cost and performance.
- Brita On Tap System - faucet-mount system you can attach without tools; available everywhere
What are the environmental impacts of bottled water?
- Greenhouse gas emissions are produced at every stage in bottled water production– production of plastic bottles, bottling of water at a plant, and transportation of bottled water
- The production of plastic bottles alone requires the equivalent of over 100 million barrels of oil per year, producing more than 14 million tons of carbon dioxide.
- The total amount of energy it takes to produce and transport one bottle of water is represented by filling the bottle a quarter full with oil
Did you know?
This winter, the Harvard Kennedy School student government passed a policy to prohibit student fees from being used to buy bottled water for student events, and released a school-wide memo to urge the rest of the HKS community to stop spending of tuition money and fees, and do its part to help the environment by not using bottled water at events.Clik here to see the memo.
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Herbaria's Green Newsletter
Steph Zabel, an FAS Eco-Citizen at Harvard Herbaria, produces and edits the lovely newsletter Vita Viridis. Read about her on our Eco-Citizens page, or email Steph for the latest issue.
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What is FAS doing to reduce its environmental impacts?
Geothermal, solar panels, hundreds of lighting retrofits, water efficient irrigation, and much much more!
Many of these projects are invisible to the naked eye or may not strike us as “green” when we see them, but they are everywhere around us. To bring them into a temporary spotlight, we created a special Green Tour slideshow that highlights some of the best resource conservation practices on our campus.
These and many other projects would have been impossible without the commitment, passion and persistence of many FAS staff, students and researchers, a few of whom are featured in the FAS Eco-Champions slideshow.
We are now part of a large, vibrant community that strives to reduce its footprint both at home and on our campus.
FAS Eco-Champions
