In the Dorm

Because students spend the majority of their time on campus in their dorm rooms, the residence halls are a key place for a green living program (GLP) to focus on when educating students about how to change their habits. The Harvard GLP has run activities, campaigns and projects in the following subject areas in the undergraduate residence halls:

Energy Conservation

Partners

Faculty of Arts and Sciences Office of Physical Resources and Harvard Green Campus Initiative (HGCI) Campus Energy Reduction Program.

Lessons Learned

We found Green Cup, our inter-dormitory, campus-wide competition to be the best way to promote general energy conservation.

Targeting specific topics, such as computers, lighting and heating, is more effective at getting students to adopt desired behaviors than merely discussing the larger issue of energy conservation. However, emphasizing that energy conservation is everyone's responsibility reminds students that they should not be shy to turn off lights in empty classrooms (even though it may not count for the competition) or speak to a facilities manager about an overheated hallway (even though it is in a public space).

Energy conservation can open the door to green power by allowing financial savings to be applied to the premium on green power, while at the same time cutting costs by reducing the number of megawatt hours that must be covered by this premium.

Main messages

  • Turn off your stereo, TV and other appliances when they are not in use.
  • Buy Energy Star to make sure your appliances aren't wasting energy when in sleep mode.
  • Don't leave cell phones, laptop or battery chargers plugged in when not in use. The transformers on these devices continue to consume energy even when nothing is being charged. You can feel the wasted energy in the heat they give off.

Checklists

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Computer Energy Reduction

Partners

The programs below were carried out in conjunction with the HGCI Campus Energy Reduction Program.

Main Messages

  • Save energy with no effort by using monitor power management.
  • Turn off computers and monitors when not in use for an hour or more.
  • Don't let the computer energy myths come between you and the environment.

Activity 1: Samosa Study Break

The Harvard GLP helped distribute energy-saving software to undergraduates in the Samosa Study Break Competition. Dormitory residents were asked to download Energy Star's power management software after filling out a brief survey. The dormitory with the largest percentage of students who participated won the Samosa Study Break event. This campaign distributed energy-saving software to more than 1200 terminals, or about 20 percent of the undergraduate population. Leverett House won the study break with 49-percent participation. Calculations show that this campaign alone saved FAS approximately $12,000.

Activity 2: Go Cold Turkey

The Go Cold Turkey Energy Conservation Competition began in 2002 in the Harvard College dormitories, where students pledged to turn off their computers, lights, appliances and heat before leaving campus for the Thanksgiving Holiday. The two winning dormitories won with 45- and 51-percent participation. Students saved about 329,000 kilowatt hours of electrical energy, which is equivalent to the amount needed to power 5.5 million standard incandescent 60 watt light bulbs for one hour, or one such light bulb for more than 625 years! By following through on their pledges, the undergraduates prevented more than 100,000 lbs of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere, or an amount equivalent to the emissions of nine cars. It would take 13.5 acres of forest to absorb that much CO2!

The following year, the Go Cold Turkey competition focused on Harvard employees, but GLP reps assisted by signing up staff and professors they knew. In 2004, the focus was on both employees and students. Dormitories and administrative buildings that had a 50-percent or greater pledge rate received renewable energy certificates for 50-percent of their electrical load. Thanks to reps' efforts, more than a quarter of undergraduate students pledged, and five of the eight winning buildings were dormitories.

Activity 3: CERtoon

The goal of the 2004 Computer Energy Reduction Cartoon Competition (CERtoon) was to increase awareness of wasteful computer energy use and to inspire people to come up with creative suggestions and solutions to the problem. By advertising the CERtoon contest, reps helped elicit 70 cartoon entries from the undergraduate community in its first year.  Check out the gallery! Reps also helped choose the CERtoon winners by coordinating voting booths in the dormitories and in the freshman dining hall.

Resources

Checklists

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Heating

Objective

To educate students about the importance of heating efficiency and proper use of heating systems on campus

Partners

The Faculty of Arts & Sciences Office of Physical Resources

Activities

Reps get the word out about heating efficiency in fun and creative ways, such as tabling in beachwear when it is cold outside. It is important to run these activities around the same time the heat is turned on at your school. Timing considerations include weighing the benefits of having students educated right before the heat is turned on—so they are well-informed about how to adjust the heat when the time comes—versus the benefits of educating them when outdoor temperatures really begin to drop.

Lessons Learned

Older buildings may be more difficult to heat comfortably when the weather is relatively mild than when it is very cold. It may make more sense to run your heating campaign after you are well into coat weather.

Fact of Week

To produce the amount of steam used by each Harvard student for heating in one year, you would need to burn more than a ton of coal, or enough to fill more than 1500 dining hall cups to the brim! Yum.

Resources

Checklist

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Lighting

Objective

To educate students about energy conservation and efficiency through the proper use of lighting

Partners

Harvard Office of Physical Resources and Harvard Green Campus Initiative

Main Messages

  • Turn off lights when not in use. This includes bathrooms and common rooms.
  • You can turn off lights in many common areas in your dorm when no one is there. It is not true that leaving fluorescent lights on saves energy!
  • Use compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). They screw into almost any standard lamp, give off pleasant light, last ten times longer, and use a fraction of the energy. You can buy them at Ace Hardware, Economy Hardware, or online.  (Note: CFLs contain small amounts of mercury, so when they do burn out, take them to your building manager or recycling/waste department for proper disposal.)

Activities

In the first year of the HGCI GLP (2002), students helped conduct lighting audits in their dorms. Reps worked with building superintendents to do a walk-through survey.

Each year, GLP reps distribute educational messages about lighting efficiency and reminders to shut off lights when not in use.

Resources

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Laundry

Objective

To educate students about the importance of laundry efficiency, proper use of new energy- and water-efficient laundry machines, and air drying.

Partners

Harvard Office of Physical Resources and house (dormitory) office assistants, the latter of which helped by forwarding email to dorm residents

Activities

 The 2002-2003 laundry efforts included encouraging students to air dry, get rid of lint, and recycle in the laundry rooms. The 2003-2004 efforts included similar efforts, plus the following:

  • education about water savings with new energy- and water-efficient machines
  • campaign on eco-friendly detergent
  • campaign on proper amount of detergent use (a shot glass' worth)
  • continued campaign on air drying

Successes

In the summer and fall of 2003, the Office of Physical Resources worked with MacGray to have all top-loading residential washing machines replaced with side-loading washers and dryers, which are more energy- and water-efficient. The Office of Physical Resources estimates a $50,000 per year savings due to the new machines.

Resources

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Water Conservation

Objective

To educate students about water efficiency, water conservation and water health issues.

Partners

The Faculty of Arts & Sciences Office of Physical Resources and Engineering Sciences 6 Course, the latter of which helped with field trip coordination

Activities

Reps have:

  • provided general water conservation tips;
  • provided educational materials about the safety of Cambridge tap water versus bottled water;
  • run a “Waterworld” study break;
  • attended an optional field trip to the Cambridge Water Department;
  • attended an optional field trip to the Deer Island wastewater treatment center.

Resources

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Sustainable Dining

Partners

Harvard University Dining Services and the Environmental Action Committee

Organic and Locally Grown Awareness

If your school has any outdoor events catered by your dining services, you could offer to assist them with labeling the origins of the food. This is a great way to spotlight local or organic foods and explain to a large audience why they are important. Note that some projects do not have to be full GLP-wide projects to be effective. For example, during the first year of the HGCI GLP, a captain partnered with Harvard University Dining Services (HUDS) to include signs at Earth Day about organics.

If your dining services offers theme meals, discuss the possibility of a "green" meal theme. Even if a whole meal does not result, you could raise awareness through a special display table or event-specific entree or salad bar.

Survey: Student Feedback on Sustainable Dining

In 2004, reps conducted a spring survey to assess student awareness of the environmental efforts of HUDS. This paper survey assessed how familiar the undergraduate population was with HUDS' environmental efforts and what they would like to see happen in regards to future environmental efforts. The student feedback helped discover what efforts needed to be publicized more to the student body.

Additional Resources

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Food Waste Reduction

Objective

To educate students about the importance of food waste reduction

Partners

Harvard University Dining Services (HUDS)

Activities

Reps have:

  • collaborated with HUDS to get the message out there about their annual Food Waste Audit;
  • participated in the annual Food Waste Audit;
  • publicized results of the Audit;
  • conducted informal survey of students to figure out why students throw away food.

Resources

Checklist

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Dishware Return

Objective

To educate students about the importance of returning their china dishware to the dining hall.  Close to $200,000 is lost by HUDS by having to replace stolen, lost, trashed or broken dishware.

Partners

Harvard University Dining Services

Activities

Efforts have included the following:

  • educating students about the importance of returning dishware
  • trialing dishware return pilot programs in specific dorms
  • assessing why students do not bring dishware back to the dining hall
  • creating a “Thursday night” Dishware Return Ritual in specific dorms
  • publicizing dishware return during the Green Move-Out

Lessons Learned

Dishware efforts should occur throughout the entire year, especially before vacations and during the Green Move-Out.

Resources

Checklist

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Earth Day: Model Dorm Room

Objective

To educate students about the choices they can make to live in a more sustainable way in their dorm rooms

Partners

Activities

Every spring during pre-frosh weekend, the Undergraduate Council (campus student government) coordinates a campus-wide celebration called SpringFest. The Environmental Action Committee coordinates the Earth Day segment of SpringFest. At each Earth Day at Harvard, GLP has built and presented a model dorm room to educate students about the choices they can make to have a more efficient and sustainable dorm room.

Resources

Checklist

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