Achievements

Shut the Sash

sash In the fall and winter of 2005-6, CERP ran its first "Shut the Sash" contests in the CCB Department to help people get in the habit of closing their sashes. Since then, we have been tracking monthly ventilation rates in all the labs with VAV (Variable Air Volume) fume hoods and have seen an overall reduction of 30% below pre-contest levels. This helps us save over $130,000 in utilities costs on an annual bases.

trends

CERtoon

windIn Spring 2004, the first annual Campus Energy Reduction Cartoon Competition (CERtoon) tapped into the creativity of Harvard undergraduates to raise awareness about energy conservation in the entire FAS community. CERtoon 2004 and 2005 were focused on computer energy reduction; and CERtoon 2006 addressed renewable energy. This year, the contest was of particular importance to our school, as its topic was tightly aligned with the recent students’ referendum: “A greener Harvard” that passed last December with 88.3% of the vote. The referendum asked Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to a level 11% below total emissions in 1990 by the year 2020 and led to the creation of the FAS Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Advisory Committee. The fifteen winning cartoons have been transformed into multiple educational exhibitions that are now touring the Faculty of Arts & Sciences and Cambridge community.

Campus Sustainability Pledge

pledgeIn Fall 2002, we launched the Go Cold Turkey Competition in the undergraduate houses and dorms. Students were encouraged to sign a pledge to switch off their appliances when leaving for the holiday and to minimize their energy consumption if they were not leaving. Mather House and Strauss Hall had the highest participation with 45 and 51-percent, respectively. Consumption of electrical energy was 329,000 kWh less than during a baseline week representative of the average. To put this into perspective, the amount of energy not used during that week could power 5.5 million standard incandescent 60 W lightbulbs for one hour or one such bulb for 625 years!

The second annual competition challenged students and employees on Harvard's Cambridge and Longwood campuses to turn to turn off their computers, lights and appliances and to turn down their heat (if possible) during both the Thanksgiving holiday and the rest of the year. Savings from the computer energy reduction alone are estimated at 50,000 lbs of CO2 and $45,000 for the year. The Harvard School of Public Health won the competition with a 24-percent pledge rate.

The third annual Go Cold Turkey Competition resulted in more than 3500 pledges from students, staff and faculty at FAS and in the Longwood Medical Area. Fifteen buildings met the challenge of getting 50% of occupants to take the pledge and therefore won renewable energy certificates for a portion of their electrical use in the following year. The certificates purchased for Go Cold Turkey winners moved Harvard into the #2 position among higher-ed purchasers of green power in 2005.

During the Harvard-wide campaign in November 07, over 8000 people (including 4,200 at FAS) signed the pledge and made a committment to take at least 5 actions to conserve resources at Harvard and beyond.