Green Vacations

While the majority of a student's college years are spent on campus, a fair amount of time is spent traveling to and from campus—arriving in the fall, traveling for long weekends, the holidays, intercession and spring break, and then leaving again for the summer. Educating students on how to travel with a smaller environmental footprint is another great area for your green living program (GLP) to focus on. At Harvard University, the GLP has run the following campaigns, projects and activities to educate students about how to travel light:

Turn Me Off

Objective

To encourage students to turn off all of their lights, computers and other appliances to conserve energy while they are off campus on vacation

Partners

Harvard Office of Physical Resources and Campus Energy Reduction Program, formerly known as the Computer Energy Reduction Program

Activities

For the Thanksgiving vacation period, GLP reps publicize the Go Cold Turkey or "emPOWER" Harvard competitions. Before the December, intercession and spring breaks, reps’ efforts include reminding students to turn off appliances before leaving for break.

Lessons Learned

An area to target is the use of AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) away messages.  We have found that a significant number of students leave “away messages” on their AIM while they are sleeping, while they are away at class, even while they are away on vacation. Some of their messages even include phrases like, “Off to the islands for a week! See you when I’m back!” Trying to counteract the AIM away message culture is a very worthy challenge to address.

Checklists

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Green Vacations

Objective

To educate students about how to reduce their ecological impact while traveling

Activities

Reps provide information to students about factors to consider in greening their vacations, such as eco-tourism and other eco-friendly ways of traveling.

Resources

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Airplane Travel Carbon Emissions Offset

Objective

To educate students about how air travel contributes to their ecological footprint and to inform them about lower impact alternatives

Activities

Reps’ efforts include providing educational information about the importance of reducing one’s ecological footprint and how to offset airplane travel carbon emissions.

Resources from the Harvard Green Campus Initiative GLP

Other Resources for Carbon Offsets

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