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November 29, 2005
HGCI Director's Note
“We are delighted to receive the Green Power Award (from the EPA). It reflects a commitment we made as a university to encourage sustainable growth and to be responsible stewards of the environment. My thanks go out to all those at Harvard who have helped make our efforts a success.”
- President Lawrence H. Summers (Harvard Gazette)
Director's Note
During the last 5 years, the Harvard Green Campus Initiative has been built, from the ground up and in partnership with thousands of individuals across the University, into a $1.1 million dollar business that currently generates over $3 million of annual savings and over 40 million pounds of annual greenhouse gas emissions. Each year these savings are significantly increased as existing projects are expanded, more people are engaged and capacities improved.
The business model of the Harvard Green Campus Initiative (HGCI) is entrepreneurial in its approach, continuously building and selling new services to schools and departments that want to both save money and reduce their environmental impacts. Today nearly every school and many of the largest administrative departments at Harvard have established service agreements with the HGCI, resulting in the delivery of a wide range of green campus projects, programs and services that you will read about in this newsletter. This model is highly effective in the decentralized setting of Harvard University.
What follows is a list of many of the activities underway across Harvard schools and departments in partnership with the HGCI:
Harvard Business School
Green building certification for new construction and renovations
Graduate Green Living program for 400 graduate residential students
Establishing sustainability mission and projects for HBS-wide effort
The Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Addressing energy conservation in laboratories and campus computer-users
Undergraduate Resource Efficiency Program to address residential impacts of 6000 undergraduates
New green building assessment & certification trial for 3 existing buildings
Harvard Medical School
Addressing energy conservation in laboratories and campus computer-users
School of Public Health
Addressing energy conservation in laboratories
Purchasing renewable energy certificates to offset 50% of its electricity consumption
Harvard Real Estate Services
Green building certification for new construction and renovations
Building energy assessments to identify and implement building upgrades
Staff training to build capacities for high performance building operations
Graduate Green Living program for 3000 graduate residential students
Harvard Law School
Graduate Green Living program for 750 graduate residential students
Trialing green building assessments and certification for existing buildings
University Operations Services
Harvard first certified LEED Gold building
Trialing new high performance building training program for staff
Campus-wide Green Cleaning Service and Biodiesel in all buses
Waste Management and Recycling Service achieving 42%+ recycling rate
Commuter Choice Program providing subsidizedpublic transport and improved bicycle facilities
Harvard University Dining Services
Green building renovations for kitchens
Vegetable oil reuse to fuel recycling truck
Expanding its menu of local produce.
The Harvard Divinity School
Purchasing renewable energy certificates to offset 100% of its electricity consumption.
Partnered FMO to pilot Green Cleaning Program.
Building assessment of Andover Hall.
Kennedy School of Government
Purchasing renewable energy certificates to offset 100% of its electricity consumption
A variety of energy saving loan-funded projects.
Radcliffe College
Geothermal pumps at Schleschinger Library
All efforts are escalating as the Harvard community gets behind the Campus-wide Sustainability Principles approved by President Summers in 2004 (see back page). As you will see in reading this newsletter, Harvard University is past its tipping point and is now deep into taking action to meet its commitment to campus sustainability. And in almost every case Harvard is making serious progress on its environmental aspirations while also staying true to its hard-nosed approach to fiscal management.
Everything the HGCI does either saves Harvard money or provides a cost-neutral environmental benefit.
With the continued efforts of the HGCI and all of its partners, Harvard University will succeed in meeting the enormous challenge of becoming a global model of campus environmental sustainability, dramatically enhancing its local, national and international reputation. And all of this will be achieved with a business-oriented, entrepreneurial spirit that will prove to the world that environmental sustainability is not just the right thing or the smartest thing to do, it’s also the financially viable, business-minded thing to do. We hope you enjoy this newsletter.
Leith Sharp, HGCI Director
leith_sharp@harvard.edu
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Green Campus Loan Fund Breaks the $5 Million Mark
The Green Campus Loan Fund provides interest-free capital for high performance campus design, operations, maintenance and occupant behavior projects. Basic project eligibility guidelines state that projects must reduce the Universitys environmental impacts and have a payback period of 5 years or less. The model is simple: GCLF provides the up-front capital interest-free. Applicant departments agree to repay the fund via savings achieved by project-related reductions in utility consumption, waste removal or operating costs. This formula allows departments to upgrade the efficiency, comfort, and functionality of their facilities without incurring any capital costs.
To date, the fund has loaned over $5 million in 68 projects across campus with an average simple payback of 2.9 years and a return on investment of 35%. Environmental savings include over 51 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions reductions, 8.6 million gallons of water, and 200,000 pounds of solid waste.
During the last 3 months alone, over $1 million of projects have been approved by the Green Campus Loan Fund Advisory Group. There is still over $1 million available for new projects. The staff of the HGCI have been directly involved in working on over 60% of all projects funded by the Loan Fund. Many schools and departments need assistance to overcome time limitations of current building managers. In response the HGCI provides a range of supplemental services such as building assessments, project research and identification, project costing, rebate assessments, project management and oversight.
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Kennedy School’s Taubman Building Just Got Brighter
The Kennedy School’s Taubman Building recently completed extensive interior lighting retrofits. The project replaced 175 fluorescent lighting fixtures and 73 exit signs and installed 118 automatic lighting controls in the building. The Kennedy School expects to save $50,000 and almost 400,000 lbs of greenhouse gas emissions annually in reduced energy and maintenance from this project. Students, faculty and staff will benefit from the much improved lighting quality.
The Taubman Building, 15 Eliot Street, was built in 1990 using lighting that was very efficient at the time. Since then, there have been significant improvements to lighting efficiency and quality, especially with fluorescent lighting. Lighting Resource Management (LRM), a local Energy Service Company (ESCO) provided the Kennedy School with the lighting proposal and calculated the expected energy and maintenance savings. LRM has worked on many Harvard projects in the past and their proposals have resulted in numerous Green Campus Loan Funds.
The most common retrofit was to replace old two-foot by two-foot fixtures with inefficient T8 lamps and ballasts with new Ledalite PureFX fixtures and super T8 lamps and ballasts. The new lamps and ballasts cut the electric demand from 51 kilowatts to 27 kilowatts and will result in over $20,000 in electricity savings per year. The new “volumetric” fixtures improve brightness throughout the space and offer excellent glare control.
In addition to the electric savings, there are significant maintenance savings. The old lamps were rated for 20,000 hours and the ballasts for 65,000 hours, or about 15 years of use. As lamps and ballasts burn out, the maintenance crew has to spend a lot of time replacing them. In any large building it is more cost effective to do a group re-lamp or re-ballast instead of replacing them one at a time as they fail. Avoided maintenance and disposal cost for the mercury-containing lamps saves an estimated $23,019 annually.
In addition to the new lamps and fixtures, occupancy sensors and LED exit signs were installed throughout the building. The 93 ceiling mounted and 25 wall mounted sensors turn the lights off when they aren’t needed. This will save over $5,000 annually. The LED Exit signs don’t require re-lamping by maintenance personnel and they reduce electricity usage nearly $2,000 per year.
NSTAR, the local electric company, helped to reduce the over-all cost by providing $47,695 in rebates. Every utility customer pays into an energy conservation fund that is reserved for rebates to help make new energy-efficient technology more appealing. After rebate, the cost of this project was just over $220,000. The $50,000 a year savings results in a 4.5 year payback or a 22% return on the investment. This project qualified for a Green Campus Loan Fund and was the 53rd zero-percent loan approved. To learn more about our Green Campus Loan Funded projects go to http://www.greencampus.harvard.edu/gclf/casestudies.php
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EmPower Harvard: The Pledge for Sustainability.
What we know about Harvard University is that it is an enormous, complex, decentralized and highly productive institution in which over 40,000 people are continuously engaged in numerous daily activities. We also know that Harvard University is proud of its achievements, it is competitive and it works hard.
What we know about global climate change is that it will require all of us to make changes in our daily lives, if we are to achieve the necessary reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in any reasonable time frame.
Thinking about the nature of Harvard and the nature of what is needed to address Global Climate Change, the HGCI has evolved a large scale social marketing approach aimed at directly engaging thousands of busy individuals throughout Harvard in taking direct and easy action to set a course of individual behavioral change that will lead to significant university-wide greenhouse gas reductions.
Making it Easy for Busy People
In 2002 we established the Go Cold Turkey Campaign which achieved an incredible 3,500 online pledges from the Harvard community. Each pledge represented an individual commitment to save energy by doing all the small, daily things we can do. In 2005 we have initiated a new pledge campaign called EmPower Harvard, an intensive two-week effort to raise awareness about the University’s official Sustainability Principles and encourage people to incorporate the Principles into daily life by taking an online pledge. See related article for a summary of Harvard’s Campus-wide Sustainability Principles, as approved by President Summers in Oct 2004.
EmPower Harvard was run through the FAS and Longwood Campus Energy Reduction Programs and was directly marketed to over 15,000 members of the Harvard community. Harvard staff, students and faculty were asked to take 5 minutes to go online and make their personal pledge to help Harvard implement the Campus Sustainability Principles. The pledge specifically commits the participant to take daily, personal action such as switching off computers, lights and other plug load drawing appliances, reducing heating and cooling demands by dressing appropriately for the season, managing thermostats efficiently and using windows effectively etc.
Fostering Healthy Competition
As in Go Cold Turkey, EmPower Harvard operates as a competition between buildings. Those buildings in which more than half the occupants took the pledge will receive renewable energy certificates (RECs) from wind farm in Minnesota to offset a portion of their buildings’ annual electricity usage. Purchasing renewable energy is another important way to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions.
In 2004, fifteen buildings won renewable energy by achieving a pledge rate of over 50%, resulting in the purchase of over 1,500,000 kilowatt hours of renewable energy purchased for the university. The EPA and Department of Energy were so impressed with Harvard’s renewable energy purchasing efforts that we were awarded a 2005 Green Power Partnership Award. In 2005 we hope to expand the pledge rate yet again.
The Results Are In!
We have the results for the 2005 Empower Harvard pledge competition! For competition results, a copy of the pledge, and more information about the competition in general, please visit www.greencampus.harvard.edu/pledge.
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Green Building Design Advances at Harvard
The HGCI is currently working on 7 green building design and renovation projects across the University, all of which are registered with the US Green Building Council to achieve the coveted green building certification standard known as LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). This brings the HGCI’s total LEED portfolio to a total of 10 buildings (see the table below).
A primary strategy of the HGCI is to leverage each and every campus LEED project to advance Harvard’s capacities to innovate and continuously improve the design of its buildings. Harvard is now able to achieve LEED Gold and Silver certified projects with no increase in the capital cost of the project. The HGCI recently succeeded in gaining funding support for the development of a web based resource to house the lessons learned by each project.
Emerging Campus Commitment
The success of the HGCI’s work on green building construction and renovation depends upon the willingness of project managers, owners and client representatives to make the necessary commitment to sustainability up front in the project. Harvard Real Estate Services, University Operations Services, Harvard Business School, Harvard School of Public Health, Radcliffe Institute and Harvard University Dining Services have all taken significant strides in their commitment to green building design at Harvard. A number of other Schools are also stepping forward to engage in future green building projects, such as Harvard Law School and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
The Business of Green Building Design
Over the last 4 years the HGCI has evolved a range of services to assist design teams in addressing high performance building design aspects at all stages in the design process. We now assist teams with everything from selecting their architects, establishing sustainability goals, identifying and reviewing technologies and design options, selecting materials, managing waste, modeling for energy performance, life cycle costing, rebate and loan fund assessments, team management and accountability, contractor specifications, LEED documentation and more. To make this all possible the HGCI employs three staff that are purely dedicated to the work of the HGCI’s High Performance Building Service. With the portfolio of projects continuing to expand, the HGCI will soon be recruiting two new staff members in January 2005 to join this team.
888 Memorial Drive
Department: Harvard Real Estate Services
Building Type: Graduate Student Housing
LEED Status: Registered LEED Silver
Major Features: Energy Performance Currently in design; Water 0.5 GPM sinks, 2.0 GPM shower heads, dual flush toilets; Renewable Energy 100% of electrical load offset by renewable energy
One Western Avenue
Department: Harvard Real Estate Services
Building Type: Graduate Student Housing
LEED Status: Certified LEED Silver
Major Features: Energy performance - 50% more efficient than code; Landscape/Site - 1.5 Acres of open space restored; Renewable Energy - 100% of electrical load offset by renewable energy
Hamilton Hall
Department: Harvard Business School
Building Type: Graduate Student Housing
LEED Status: Registered LEED Silver
Major Features: Energy Performance 22% more efficient than code Materials Wheat husk composite wood and recovered rice straw core doors; Water 30% Water use reduction (0.5 GPM sinks, 2.0 GPM shower heads, dual flush toilets); Renewable Energy 100% of electrical load offset by renewable energy
Banks, Cowperthwaite & Grant
Department: Harvard Real Estate Services
Building Type: Graduate Student Housing
LEED Status: Registered LEED Silver
Major Features: Energy Performance Currently in design; Water Rainwater catchment for irrigation. 0.5 GPM sinks, 2.0 GPM shower heads, dual flush toilets; Renewable Energy 100% of electrical load offset by renewable energy
60 Oxford Street
Department: University Information Services
Building Type: Information Technology
LEED Status: Registered LEED Certification
Major Features: Energy Performance 26% more efficient than code; Water Stormwater retention tank system; Mechanical Under floor ventilation; Renewable Energy 100% of electrical load offset by renewable energy
90 Mt Auburn
Department: Harvard University Library Service
Building Type:Special Collections Library
LEED Status: Registered LEED Silver
Major Features: Energy Performance - 30% more efficient than code; Mechanical - Geothermal heating and cooling; Renewable Energy - 100% of electrical lode offset by renewable energy
Wyss Hall
Department: Harvard Business School
Building Type: Graduate Student Housing
LEED Status: Registered LEED Certification
Major Features: Energy Performance Currently in design; Mechanical Occupancy sensors for HVAC; Renewable Energy 100% of electrical load offset by renewable energy
Blackstone
Department: University Operations Services
Building Type: Office Space
LEED Status: Registered LEED Gold
Major Features: Energy Performance 30-35% more efficient than code; Water Bioswale system for stormwater management; Mechanical Geothermal system and valence units for heating and cooling; Renewable Energy 100% of electrical load offset by renewable energy
Landmark Center
Department: Harvard School of Public Health
Building Type: Office Space
LEED Status: Certified LEED CI
Major Features:Energy Performance Lighting: 20% more efficient than code, HVAC: 18% more efficient than code; Mechanical Under floor ventilation; Controls Dali Lighting Control system; Renewable Energy 50% of electrical load offset by renewable energy
Dunster-Mather Dining Hall
Department: Harvard Dining Services
Building Type: Kitchen and Servery
LEED Status: Registered LEED CI
Major Features: Energy Performance 35% more efficient than lighting code; Water Dual flush toilets; Recycling Kitchen equipment donations. 241,300 lbs of compost per yr; ormance portfolio to include 10 projectsod controlsd a strong repository of Green Building practices.; Mechanical Range hood variable speed drive controls; Renewable Energy 100% electrical load offset by renewables
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HGCI Developing High Performance Building Resource Website
Harvard Green Campus Initiative is developing a website to save all Harvard project teams and building managers significant time, money and effort in associated with achieving high performance design, construction and renovation by providing access to timely and targeted examples, strategies, resources and financial information previously developed and proven by other Harvard project teams or equally relevant parties.
High performance building design requires that design teams continuously adopt a range of new technologies, design approaches, materials and practices that stretches the ability of the project managers, clients, architects, engineers and construction contractors alike, to learn and adapt within unyielding time and budgetary constraints. Energy and water efficiency, renewable resources, site issues, indoor air quality, biodiversity, storm water management, transportation, materials selection and other aspects must all be addressed.
Funding Partners
With seed funding from the Harvard Business School, the Harvard Green Campus Initiative developed a prototype of the new website with case studies and resources for design teams. Called the Harvard High Performance Building (HHPB) Resource, the website captures the innovative aspects of each building’s design process and construction.
Several departments have stepped forward to further develop the Resource. Harvard Business School, Harvard Law School, University Operations Services, Harvard Real Estate Services and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences have all agreed to contribute funding to support the further population of this website and training staff in utilizing the resource throughout FY06. Harvard Green Campus Initiative expects to launch the website to the Harvard community in May 2006. The HGCI will then train Harvard project managers and building managers on the resource and support them in using it in new and on-going projects. Negotiations are currently underway to secure a continuous source of funding so that the resource can be continuously updated, expanded, integrated and effectively utilized by all building construction and renovation projects across the campus in the coming years.
Building a Learning Organization
Harvard University has an inspiring legacy of lessons learned from 11 building projects that have registered with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), a sustainable building accountability system developed by the US Green Building Council. The pioneering projects on the website are 60 Oxford Street, One Western Avenue Graduate Student Housing in Allston, the School of Public Health at Landmark Center, Dunster Mather Serveries, Hamilton Hall at the Harvard Business School, the University Operations Services major renovation at Blackstone, Memorial Drive Housing and the housing at Banks, Cowperthwaite and Grant Streets. Soon to be added to the site is the Schlesinger Library.
Harvard’s decentralized structure, coupled with vast demands on staff time make the institutionalization of memory a challenge. Information as to what worked and, more importantly, did not work, is easily lost with staff changes or simply not shared with other departments. The HHPB Resource is the solution.
For example, one LEED credit is awarded for purchasing 50% of a building’s electrical load from a Renewable energy source. In 2002, project managers had to research the renewable energy market and find a good price for renewable energy. However, this spring, the Green Campus Initiative put out a tender for renewable energy to the market, and negotiated a very good price for renewable energy. Now, project managers can download the one-page form to purchase the energy their building will need. The result is a significant savings in Harvard staff time.
Filing the paperwork for LEED projects can be an unwieldy and onerous task for the inexperienced. The HHPB Resource provides forms, templates for calculations and model submittals in order to facilitate the administrative process of filing for LEED registration.
The Process of High Performance Building Design
The website also focuses on the design process to help project teams follow through on sustainable design goals on each stage of design and construction, from Pre-Design through Occupancy. For example, the Resource now has model Sustainability language that was used in the Blackstone Renovation Requests for Proposals that can now be used on any Harvard project. The indoor air quality management plan at 90 Mount Auburn Street can also serve as a model for other Harvard buildings. The construction and demolition waste plan at Blackstone can be used as a model for other projects. The website also strives to document the financial considerations for each design element, providing teams with information on what to expect for cost implications.
The first phase of the website captures ten new construction, major renovation, and commercial interior building projects. Future development of the website may include support for the maintenance and operations of existing buildings.
The HGCI believes that the HHPB resource will make an enormous difference to design teams working on projects all over Harvard, radically improving their abilities to design better and better buildings as they continue to innovate, learn and evolve on the long road to true sustainable design.
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Faculty of Arts and Sciences: Campus Energy Reduction Program Tackles Laboratories
Having already saved hundreds of thousands of dollars and millions of pounds of greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere through its three-year focus on reducing computer-related energy use, the F.A.S. Campus Energy Reduction Program is now expanding into laboratories.
Laboratories are the most energy-intensive type of building on campus. Occupying about 25% the square footage of F.A.S., laboratories are responsible for over 50% of the school’s energy use.
The HGCI is now in the fortunate position of having an active energy reduction program in Harvard’s three laboratory-using schools; Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health. For the first time we are able to join efforts across the campus to tackle the complexity of laboratories.
Two staff in the HGCI are currently establishing relationships with all of the key playing in the laboratories across Harvard University, canvassing for suggestions and support. So far, the response has been extremely positive and ideas are plentiful.
Fume Hoods
One relatively easy way to reduce lab energy consumption is to make sure that fume hood sashes are closed when the hoods aren’t being used, reducing the unnecessary loss of air that must be heated or cooled and delivered back into the lab space. To encourage fume hood users to remember to shut their sashes, CERP began running a “Shut the Sash” contest in a trial building, the Naito chemistry building, in mid-September. In this trial, Lab groups are competing against each other to see who can decrease their fume hood exhaust by the greatest amount over the course of a month. The winning group will celebrate with a wine and cheese party. The campaign will continue over the next months, and when the building occupants have collectively prevented 500,000 lbs of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere they’ll be rewarded with media attention and another party. The financial savings from this single trial are likely to cover most of the costs of the FAS Campus Energy Reduction Program in FY06.
Take the Stairs!
It seems obvious: An unoccupied elevator requires less energy to rise than a full one. Elevators only account for about 7% of an average building’s energy costs, but every bit matters! In an effort to save energy through decreased elevator usage, building manager Herb Fuller and CERP advocate Celeste Beck helped to design and implement a “Take the Stairs!” campaign at William James Hall. Bright signs on each of the hall’s 16 floors remind users that taking the stairs will be faster, healthier, and more energy efficient. Fuller and Beck have not only observed people taking the stairs more often, they have also overheard them talking to each other about energy conservation. Raising awareness is one of CERP’s primary goals, so we count this as quite a success.
CERtoon Exhibits
Winners of the 2005 CERtoon (Carbon Energy Reduction Cartoon) contest are being displayed all over campus. The annual competition asks undergraduates to create cartoons on an energy-related theme. HGCI uses the winning entries to educate the Harvard community about energy conservation in a humorous, unconventional way. You can see the exhibit this fall at the Cabot Science Library, Maxwell Dworkin, the Geology Museum, William James Hall, the Bauer Café, and elsewhere – or check them out anytime at www.greencampus.harvard.edu/CERtoon. For an exhibit schedule or to request a CERtoon display at your building, contact CERP coordinator Maura Leahy at (617) 384-9604. Undergrads, start thinking now about your entry for CERtoon 2006! The theme is Saving Energy in the Workplace, and we can’t wait to see what you come up with.
No More Go Cold Turkey, but Plan to EmPower Harvard!
Many of you will remember Go Cold Turkey, the pledge campaign asking members of the Harvard community to commit to turning off all appliances over the long Thanksgiving weekend and beyond. We sincerely regret having to lay off our devoted guy-in-a-turkey-costume, but for several reasons decided that a different sort of pledge campaign was in order. See page 3 for a detailed description of the new campaign, and get ready to EmPower Harvard: Pledge for Sustainability!
Purchasing Practice
We have been working with Harvard’s procurement managers and equipment manufacturers to find more opportunities for purchasing energy-efficient lab materials and equipment such as refrigerators, autoclaves, task lighting etc.
Get Involved!
If you are a member of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and are interested in working with the FAS Campus Energy Reduction Program, please contact Maura at Maura_Leahy@harvard.edu.
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Campus Energy Reduction at Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health
On average, laboratory buildings use 5-10 times more energy per square foot than a similarly sized office space! This is of particular importance at the Harvard Longwood Campus, where the Harvard Medical School and School of Public Health are located because more than 80% of the Longwood campus buildings are laboratory space.
Recognizing this, the Longwood Campus Energy Reduction Program is currently focusing efforts on energy conservation in lab facilities.
Focus on Fume Hoods
Fume hoods, the safety cabinets found in labs to help protect users from exposure to harmful chemicals, are one of the most energy intensive pieces of equipment in the lab. Some fume hoods (about 1/3 of the hoods in Harvard labs) use significantly less energy when the glass door on the front of the hood, known as the sash, is closed.
The first energy conservation campaign in labs has targeted fume hood users at the Harvard Medical Schools’ Warren Alpert Building with a “Shut the Sash” campaign. Fume hood magnet “prompts” were placed on the hoods to remind users to “shut the sash” at the point of impact, and a contest was held between the labs in the building with the incentive of a wine and cheese party for the lab with the highest rate of participation.
After the campaign, more than 80% of the fume hood sashes in the pilot building were kept closed when not in use, saving an estimated $25,000 in energy costs per year. As the initiative is rolled out to all the applicable labs at HMS, the school can expect to save up to $90,000 in energy costs and reduce GHG emissions by 430 tons per year! This one program will cover the full cost of the Longwood Campus Energy Reduction Program in FY06.
Danny Beaudoin, Director of Facilities for Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), has taken a different approach to reducing energy use from fume hood. When renovating an existing lab space, Danny has been replacing older fume hoods with a new design called the Air Sentry bi-stable vortex fume hoods with VFV controls (variable face velocity). Based on recent research, the Air Sentry hoods provide a higher level of containment for the user, and reduce energy use in the lab by up by up to 60%. HSPH has been installing the Air Sentry hoods in their labs over the past year, and have saved well over $60,000 in energy costs. For more information about this project see http://www.greencampus.harvard.edu/
lgci/case_studies.php
OTHER UPDATES FROM LONGWOOD
The Longwood Earth Day Event titled “Harvard Principles of Sustainability: Human Health and the Environment” was held on April 22, 2005, and was attended by over 100 attendees ranging from students, faculty, staff, and others, non-Harvard attendees.
The Longwood Green Campus Advisory Committee, made up of faculty, students, and staff from the Medical School, School of Public Health, and School of Dental Medicine, held their annual meeting in June 2005. The Committee, started in 2003, meets on an annual basis to share best practices between schools, open up the lines of communication among staff, faculty, and students, and to advise the Longwood Coordinator on current efforts.
A Green Cleaning Pilot Project has been initiated in the Countway Library this fall, with plans to expand the program to other Harvard Medical School (HMS) buildings if the program is successful. Keep an eye out for green cleaning in your building at HMS!
LOOKING FORWARD
EmPower Harvard: Pledge for Sustainability!
Take the pledge this fall, and sign for sustainability in your own life and at Harvard! The new pledge campaign, building upon the Go Cold Turkey campaign of the past two years, is based on the Harvard University Statement of Sustainability Principles, signed by University President Lawrence Summers last fall. Check out the article on page 3 for more information on the new pledge campaign!
Labs21 Conference
Jaclyn Emig and Maura Leahy, the Green Campus Coordinator for the Longwood Campus and FAS respectively, attended a “green labs” conference in Portland Oregon in October, to learn about high performance labs through case studies, new technologies, workshops, and networking. For more information on the Labs21 Program visit http://www.labs21stcentury.gov
Green Tip of the Month
The Longwood Campus “Green Tip of the Month” was started in January of 2005, and is now in full swing! Each month a “green tip” email and poster are sent to all students, faculty, and staff on the Longwood Campus to encourage and remind our audience of all the simple things they can do to reduce our environmental impacts. Look for the “green tip” each month!
Get Involved!
If you are a member of the Longwood campus and are interested in working with the Longwood Campus Energy Reduction Program, please contact Jaclyn at Jaclyn_emig@harvard.edu.
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Resource Efficiency Program: Undergraduate Life Gets Greener
The Undergraduate Resource Efficiency Program (REP) is beginning its fourth year of vibrant life in Harvard’s undergraduate residential dorms. Launched in 2003, this program continues to establish itself as one of the HGCI’s most successful partnership models as it continues to produce a litany of successes and positive future prospects. The heart and soul of REP continues to be the paid involvement of 19 undergraduate students who are guided, supported and empowered by a professional coordinator who also oversees an essential partnership with the REP steering group and all associated sponsors.
Achievements to date include a 10-15% reduction in electricity consumed by over 6000 undergraduate residents, a 50% increase in recycling rates and a 56% reduction in move-out trash. Perhaps the most significant achievement is the fact that the HGCI has been able to establish new partnerships with Harvard Law School, Harvard Business School and Harvard Real Estate Services to implement three new graduate green living programs, modeled from the successful REP partnership model. (see pg 7)
Tasha Bartch, REP Co-Captain
Tasha Bartch was recruited to join the Undergraduate Resource Efficiency Program in 2003. In 2004 Tasha became one of two student co-captains, taking on the enormous responsibility of working with the coordinator, Allison Rogers, to determine and implement REP’s calendar of activities. This is Tasha’s overview of her time with REP:
Going into our second year leading REP together, Lindsay, Alli, and I are very excited to be in positions where our experience allows us to focus on shaping our vision for the program. We have an exceptional group of Reps this year, and are ecstatic that, besides the three of us, we have five returning students: Bryan Ho ’06 (Yard Captain), Rachel Banay ’07 (Currier), Hayley Fink ’08 (Cabot), Jeremy Tchou ’08 (Kirkland), and Meredith Lanoue ’08 (Lowell). We believe that their experience as Reps, combined with our experience leading the program, gives us the prime opportunity to improve and expand REP.
Last year we made major strides in raising our profile on campus, mainly via coverage in the Crimson, the Gazette, and even the Boston Globe. With several of our members involved in the Crimson, WHRB radio, and the House Councils, we hope to further solidify our presence in the Harvard Community.
We want to continue to make sustainable living, including recycling and energy conservation, convenient and a “no-brainer” for students. With last year’s experience to guide us, we hope to come up with fresh ideas to re-vamp RecycleMania, the Valentine’s Day Cosmetics Drive, the Green Move Out, and the Green Cup competition.
Finally, with Bryan Ho ’06, in his third year as a Rep, leading the Yard Reps and the Eco-Rep program, we are optimistic that we will find new ways to coordinate and maximize the effectiveness of our Yard efforts.
My experience with REP, both as a Rep and as the co-captain, has been the most meaningful at Harvard. The dedication, support, and enthusiasm of the reps and the Steering Group members continue to inspire me; this is what brings me back to the program year after year. As I grow in my leadership role and my environmental experience, I look forward to working with our great team to further strengthen our own program as well as the REP-modeled programs sprouting elsewhere.
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Harvard Habitat for Humanity Stuff Sale Sets New Record
This past September, the Annual Harvard Habitat for Humanity “Stuff Sale” shattered previous records for its sales, according to Rob Gogan, Director of Harvard Recycling and Waste Management. The previous record for sales was $48,000. The Stuff Sale brought in a record-breaking $53,000 during the August and September 2005 sales.
Every fall, the Harvard Habitat for Humanity student group sells items that were collected from the previous spring’s move-out. Sale items include living room furniture, futons, dorm-size refrigerators, textbooks, shelves, mirrors, and other items found in dorm rooms. For the past 3 years, the FAS Resource Efficiency Program has publicized the “Green Move-Out”, working with Harvard Recycling to educate undergraduate students about the importance of bringing their reusable items to the Habitat/Recycling collection sites. REP’s goals are that the items will be either reused, resold by Harvard Habitat, or donated to local community organizations, rather than trashed.
“The Stuff Sale is such a hit because shelf organizers, laundry baskets, and mirrors are always in demand; what can be more convenient than picking up these nearly-new necessities in your backyard, for dirt cheap? The Habitat annual sale is the closest thing Harvard has to a yard sale”, says Tatianna Bartch ’06, REP Co-Captain 2004-2006.
All proceeds of the Stuff Sale benefit Harvard Habitat for Humanity, “which plans to make a generous donation to aid those displaced by Hurricane Katrina”, says Gogan. “It was particularly gratifying this year to help outfit visiting students from Tulane and other New Orleans area institutions, some of whom arrived for their stay at Harvard with nothing other than backpacks.”
The Stuff Sale was written up in the magazine section of the Boston Globe in September, helping bring publicity and many more shoppers to this amazing annual Harvard event.
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Residential Green Living Program Expands to Graduate Students
As one of the many strategies for implementing the Campus-Wide Sustainability Principles recently approved by President Summers, an increasing number of Schools and Departments around the University are partnering with the Harvard Green Campus Initiative to establish residential Green Living Programs.
Residential Green Living Programs focus upon the resident population, working directly with over 10,000 students to educate and engage them in shifting their priorities and behaviors to reduce the unnecessary consumption of resources (energy, water), to minimize the general of waste (through recycling, reuse and procurement) and to generally take greater responsibility for their own role in driving university-related environmental impacts.
This fall, the Harvard Green Campus Initiative has embarked on Harvard’s first residential Green Living Program for graduate students. With the financial support of Harvard Real Estate Services, the Harvard Law School and the Housing and Operations Offices of the Harvard Business School, the “Graduate Green Living Program” is being brought to residents of Peabody Terrace, Soldiers Field Park and One Western Ave. apartment complexes, and the dormitory residents at the Harvard Law School and the Harvard Business School, directly engaging over 3,500 graduate students and their families from the Business School, Kennedy School, Law School and other graduate schools.
Modeled in part on the successful undergraduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences Resource Efficiency Program (REP), eighteen residents, called Green Living Representatives, have been hired to educate and engage fellow residents in sustainability initiatives, including energy conservation, water conservation, mindful use of heating and cooling, recycling of paper, cardboard, cans and bottles, and reuse of items. The program also employs one coordinator whose time is supported by the three programs.
On the evening of Thursday, October 6, the Green Living Representatives and the Steering Group members came together at the Common Room at One Western Avenue for the program’s first orientation. It was a wonderful opportunity for everyone to meet one another, learn more about the program, and learn the impact that the participants and program supporters will have on the environment when the program goals are reached and exceeded.
The Graduate Green Living Program has the goals of reducing electricity and water use by 10-15%, and increase recycling by 30-40% by August of 2007. The leadership of Steering Groups for each of the funding partners will help to ensure the program reaches these goals.
We have hired a wonderful, diverse group of Green Living Representatives to be peer educators. The 2005-2006 Green Living Representatives are:
For the Law School dorms: Ernest Abotsi (Ames, Dane and Holmes), Jessica Bailey (North Hall), James Krenn (Story and Shaw), Wesley Mullen (Wyeth and Hastings).
For the Business School dorms: Tobias Hartmann (Morris), Newton Maia (Gallatin), Anne-Gaëlle Pouille (Chase), Agnes Sauvage (McCulloch).
For Peabody Terrace: Emily Greenspan, Diana Huidobro, Mukesh Jain, Dana Mahan.
For One Western Avenue and Soldiers Field Park: Lionel Bony, Sandra Cvitan, Natalia Goh, Jin “PJ” Kim, Meredith McKinnon, Ying Qian.
In order to assess the success of the program, we will be determining the baselines for waste, water, steam and electricity. As a group, and with the help of Rob Gogan, Director of Recycling and Waste Management, the Green Living Representatives conducted a Waste Audit, where they sorted through and then weighed the components of the trash, to get an idea of how much is in the trash that could be recovered and recycled in the future.
Most of the work of the Green Living Reps won’t be as a group, however. Every two weeks the Green Living Representatives will embark on a new conservation campaign for their residence. Using social marketing tactics, and through a variety of outreach methods, including e-mailing, postering, tabling, going door-to-door and study breaks, the Green Living Representatives will connect with fellow residents about how they can join with fellow residents to modify their habits and make a positive difference for the environment.
We are thrilled to be embarking on the Graduate Green Living Program at the Harvard Law School dorms, Harvard Business School dorms, and One Western Ave., Soldiers Field Park, and Peabody Terrace apartment complexes, and look forward to seeing the impact that this program has on the behaviors of residents, and in turn the environment.
If you have any questions, please contact the coordinator, Meryl Brott, at 617-496-8384 or meryl_brott@harvard.edu. In the coming months, visit www.greencampus.harvard.edu/programs for more information on how the program is progressing.
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HGCI Teams Up with Transportation Services on Construction
Enjoy the smell of diesel exhaust? Neither do we! That’s one reason why HGCI is collaborating with Harvard’s Transportation Services to reduce the emissions of diesel construction vehicles operating on campus. Construction vehicles aren’t licensed to operate on the roads, and so are not held to the same standards as highway vehicles. They are currently allowed to burn dirtier fuel and operate without the same emissions controls. Dr. Melinda Treadwell, a researcher at Keene State College, estimated that 42% of diesel emissions come from these “non-road” vehicles, and that construction workers have 16 times the normal exposure to particulate matter (one of the main diesel pollutants.)
HGCI is working with an initiative formed by the EPA called Greater Boston Breathes Better. Through this initiative the EPA is encouraging various institutions such as Harvard to implement emissions controls years before they become mandatory. Our voluntary participation will clean Harvard’s air, protect our workers, and put the University in a great position when new rules are enacted.
Harvard is already using 20% biodiesel in campus buses and trucks. Biodiesel, made from vegetable oil, contains no sulfur and produces fewer particulates and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) then petroleum diesel. Also important - the carbon in biodiesel comes from plants that recently absorbed it from the atmosphere, as opposed to petroleum that releases fossil carbon into the atmosphere. Using biodiesel in construction vehicles would be a great improvement. Other measures being considered are low-sulfur diesel and various filters that trap pollutants. So next year, look for cleaner construction vehicles at a new building site near you!
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Recycling Truck to Run on Fry Grease
Harvard Recycling and Waste Management, Harvard University Dining Services (HUDS) and Harvard University Transportation Services have teamed up for an exciting new project. The plan is to convert Recycling Truck V-107 to run on Straight Vegetable Oil (SVO). The SVO fuel will be waste canola oil supplied from HUDS kitchens. The project is expected to save about $1,800 per year.
When Rudolf Diesel demonstrated his engine in Paris in 1898, he ran the engine on peanut oil. He felt the most promising feature of his design was the use of vegetable oil, allowing users to produce their own fuel and eliminate their reliance on large energy producers.
In order for a modern diesel engine to run on SVO, the fuel must first be heated so the fuel injectors can create the proper spray pattern. An SVO vehicle generally has two fuel tanks. The vehicle is started on regular diesel and uses the engine heat to raise the temperature of the SVO. Once a sufficient temperature is reached, the operator switches over to the SVO tank and discontinues the use of petroleum diesel (or biodiesel-diesel blend, as is the case at Harvard).
This pilot project shows a lot of promise. HUDS produces lots of waste oil that they must currently pay to have removed. By using SVO, a waste product turns into a usable fuel and substantial savings.
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Building Institutional Capacities: Peer to Peer Program Enters Its Second Year
Harvard Real Estate Services’ University and Commercial (U&C) group is entering its second year in an innovative “Peer to Peer” staff training program. This program aims to build institutional capacities among U&C staff by sharing best practices in resource and energy conservation.
The concept is simple: staff team up in groups of two or three, research a conservation topic relevant to their building portfolio, then share what they’ve learned at their regular staff meetings. Research generally includes technical and financial reviews, together with case studies of successful applications. The HGCI do the leg work on much of the research activities to assist staff that would otherwise not have the time.
Most research is connected to an existing project, ensuring it’s relevance and impact. This year, projects include a social marketing campaign to encourage reduced thermostat temperatures, thermoscanning and blower door tests to measure insulation and infiltration levels, and “green cleaning” practices.
The success of the HGCI’s peer to peer model with U&C has resulted in another department, Facilities Maintenance Operations, electing to fund the HGCI to launch their own program for over 40 staff involved in day to day building maintenance across Harvard. The FMO peer to peer program will focus upon building staff capacities in building commissioning.
The peer to peer training model works because it puts the learners in charge of their own educational process and capitalizes on people’s innate desire to succeed in the eyes of their peers. In organizations where people have work portfolios that reach beyond the hours of the day, it is critical to design training programs that effectively capture the attention of participants and provide them with immediate relevant benefits. The peer to peer training model has proven to be a success by doing just that.
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The Harvard Green Campus Initiative Plans Its First Ever Harvard Conference: Harvard Campus Vision 2020, A Bridge to Sustainability
For over 6 months, the Harvard Green Campus Initiative has been working in partnership with the Allston planners, the student group ‘Sustainable Allston’ and other staff and student leaders from across the university to develop a program for our first ever campus sustainability conference. The conference is scheduled for April 26th -28th, 2006 and will bring together hundreds of Harvard students, staff, faculty and alumni along with members of numerous regulatory agencies and community groups. Mark it in your calendar so that you can participate with hundreds of forward-thinking alumni, students, faculty and staff in a vibrant, profound and important exploration of Harvard’s growing role as a global leader in campus environmental sustainability.
The question behind this conference is: How can America’s oldest institute of higher education become a model of environmental sustainability, offering a world of hope to this year’s graduates and those of years to come?
Harvard is poised to embark upon the largest campus development effort of its long life. The adoption of the Campus Sustainability Principles and the active participation of thousands in the Harvard community to green the existing campus have opened the way for us to invite your participation in solving the complex and real dilemmas of planning, building, operating and using our campus within the limits of the Earth’s living systems.
Offering Interdisciplinary Perspective, Establishing Context, Fostering Connection
This interdisciplinary conference will allow people representing diverse disciplines, generations and professions in the Harvard University community to come together in new ways to set a new course for Harvard to enhance the environmental sustainability of our campus.
The conference has been designed to inspire, challenge, connect and mobilize Harvard University to become a global leader in the practice of environmental sustainability. The event has been structured to be of equal value to people just beginning to build their understanding of sustainability and people who have vast expertise in this field.
The program consists of a balance of keynote presentations, panel events, workshops, special events and networking activities. Topics will be varied but with a consistent relevance to Harvard’s sustainability efforts in campus design, operations and usage.
Student volunteers will take an active role in reaching out to conference attendees to ensure that each and every participant has an enjoyable and experience at this event. You will leave this event knowing new people and more about the Harvard campus, present and future.
You will have a better understanding of the real life challenges and imperatives of achieving global environmental sustainability, and you will have a sense of how you can contribute to the solution, both as a member of the Harvard community and in your own life beyond Harvard’s gates.
Pre-register at http://www.greencampus.harvard.edu/conference/index.php
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Helping Others Change Course: ENVR 117 Sustainability, The Challenge of Changing Our Institutions
This spring 2006 brings the third exciting offering of the Harvard Green Campus Initiative course offered through the Harvard Extension School.
Sustainability: The Challenge of Changing Our Institutions aims to address the real life challenges of environmental sustainability by building change agent capacities of students who operate within a myriad of institutional and other contexts. The course begins by exploring the wide range of institutionally related environmental impacts and the associated roles of individuals within these settings. Harvard University will be used as a primary case study to illustrate institutional practice including procurement practice, utility supply and consumption (energy, water etc), building design and operations, transportation, waste production and recycling and more. Case study materials will be used to explore: conceptual models for understanding sustainability and institutional behavior; strategies for revealing hidden impacts of institutions; approaches for achieving behavioral change; systems thinking and integrated design approaches; organizational leadership and facilitation; broad strategies for achieving innovation; building organizational learning capacities; standards, tools and other resources that have proven useful for achieving effective institutional change for sustainability.
Leading lecturers and course organizers Leith Sharp, Director of the HGCI, and Jack Spengler, Akira Yamaguchi Professor of Environmental Health and Human Habitation in the Faculty of HSPH, look forward to the third year of the course’s evolution. In 2003 this course had the largest enrollment of any new course in the history of the Harvard Extension School. In 2005, numbers remained very high and course evaluations indicated that students gained significant benefit from the curriculum.
“What is most exciting about the course are the many levels on which we examine environmental sustainability and institutional change. We investigate infrastructure and technology, campus design and operations and their related Earth’s system impacts. We also go deep into aspects of our individual and group psychological and organizational transformation to uncover the hidden obstacles and opportunities relevant to achieving real change. I think this course really has something for everyone!” Maggie Husak, Teaching Fellow, 2003-2005.
“[This course] awakened a sense of leadership and empowerment in myself to start to make these changes in my own life, as well as to positively influence my co-workers to do the same…I am assembling a committee to investigate energy efficiency improvements, recycling programs, behavioral change campaigns, and environmental procurement practices in my home institution. Without the Sustainability course, I never would have felt enabled to undertake anything of this magnitude.” Student, Fall 2003.
You may participate in this course by taking it in the classroom, or from the comforts of your own home by taking the course online. To learn more about the course and registration procedures, visit the course website at www.greencampus.harvard.edu/course. Next registration period begins in December 2005 for Spring semester. First class starts on Jan 30th, 2006 at 7:30pm.
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Teaming up for Campus Sustainability: Programs That Cultivate Student-Staff Cooperation
In 2003, the HGCI was awarded an EPA grant to develop a resource that will support national efforts to engage students in assisting organizations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The HGCI secured a partnership with the non-profit group Clean Air Cool Planet to assist with the marketing of the final product.
Over the last 3 years, the HGCI has been working on this resource which was officially launched on Oct 28th 2005. The question that guided the design of this online resource has been: What information can we provide to assist others to ignite, fund, organize and focus students and staff partnership to achieve campus sustainability?
The answer resided in two programs developed by the Harvard Green Campus Initiative (HGCI) that have had enormous success in bringing staff and students together to reduce campus greenhouse gas emissions and other impacts. They are the Green Living Program (GLP) and Student Internship Program (SIP).
The online manual draws heavily upon the experience of the HGCI in running these two programs to help members of other campus communities develop green living and student internship programs that result in the economic, environmental and educational benefits experienced at Harvard. Readers will find a wide range of ideas, approaches and resources to assist them in creating active and exciting learning opportunities that bring students, staff and administrators together to work toward the common goal of campus sustainability.
Our hope is that users will take way they can from this manual and build upon the models—evolving, adapting and improving them to benefit the user’s campus and allowing users to enjoy the fruits of focused student-staff power.
Visit the site at www.greencampus.harvard.edu/greenteams.
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Harvard Takes a Sustainability Lesson From Vancouver Master Planners
In the month of October, five Harvard staff including the HGCI Co-Chairs, Tom Vautin and Professor Jack Spengler; HGCI Director, Leith Sharp; Allston Project Manager, Carter Wall and Harvard Planning Manager, Harris Band took an impossible four days out of their extreme schedules to travel to Vancouver on a mission to learn from the best of the best about master planning for sustainability. The itinerary was organized by Jessica Woolliams, a former HGCI employee who now works in Vancouver on green building design and master planning.
The team met with the leaders of three world leading projects:
Dockside Green, Victoria
This project is outside of the Greater Vancouver region and is competing to be Canada’s first LEED platinum development and Canada’s first carbon neutral neighbourhood. Green features include biomass energy cogeneration, on-site grey- and blackwater treatment, an energy co-op biodiesel facility, green roofs, rainwater cistern collection, bioswales and bio-filtration ponds. See http://www.docksidegreen.ca
University of British Columbia: Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability
The Georgia Basin Futures Project is planning a new Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS) on the Great Northern Way campus of UBC. The CIRS will be a focal point for innovative research on sustainability at levels ranging from individual buildings to global issues. The building is aiming for a LEED Platinum Rating. The project aims to be GHG neutral and a net energy generator. It also aims to use no external water supply and manage on-site treatment of all liquid waste and solid waste plus have no stormwater run-off from site.
Southeast False Creek Model Sustainable Community, City of Vancouver
The City of Vancouver council has mandated LEED Silver as the minimum level for the 2010 Winter Olympics athletes’ village at Southeast False Creek (SEFC), although the target is LEED Gold. After the Olympics, SEFC will be home to roughly 15,000 people. Green features on the drawing board now include renewable energy, natural drainage, roof gardens, and a traffic-calmed, walkable community. They are looking at systems such as sewer heat recovery and district energy, green roofs, water conserving landscaping and site-wide stormwater applications, district composting, recycling and potentially a neighbourhood-based waste utility, urban agriculture on roof gardens and streets, car co-ops, many transit options, pedestrian orientation and centre for “eco – education” and community involvement.
The Harvard trip to Vancouver proved to be one of the most profoundly educational and inspiring experiences had by all of the members on the topic of master planning for sustainability. We have come back to Harvard with a new vision of what Allston could achieve in terms of climate neutrality (large scale onsite renewable energy systems and energy efficient design), onsite water and sewage treatment and reuse, enhanced biodiversity and livability.
Our next steps will be to share what we have learned with individuals involved in the Allston master planning process by bringing key representatives over from Vancouver to present on these projects. The first of these activities is scheduled to occur in the last week of October 2005 with three presentations from Busby Perkins + Will on the Dockside Green, Victoria project to the Harvard planning staff, another key group of senior administrative personnel involved in managing the Allston planning process and a final public presentation to the general Harvard community and participants in the North East Campus Sustainability Consortium.
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HGCI Completes Case Studies, Video Documentary of MTC-Funded Green Projects at Massachusetts Public Schools
This summer, HGCI staff, in an effort funded by the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC), completed case studies of MTC-funded green renovation or construction projects at five Massachusetts public schools. In addition to these case study write-ups, the HGCI also produced, “Williamstown Elementary: Building a Sustainable Future,” a video documentary of one particular school’s experience with the “greening” process. The video production team, including Sarah Zisa, HGCI Project Coordinator, Amy Latva-Kokko, HGCI Project Manager, and film consultant Laurel Greenberg, successfully captured the school’s “greening” process through the eyes and voices of several key players on the design and operations team. The documentary also depicts the successful incorporation of the school’s overall commitment to environmental sustainability into its curriculum.
From participation in this project, the HGCI has familiarized itself with other educational institutions which have embarked on a “greening” process, have grappled with time constraints and political and financial obstacles, and have come out successfully on the other side, some demonstrating the commitment to utilizing green features to further the learning process of its student body in the fashion of a “living laboratory.” All of this information will be of direct value to the HGCI in its efforts here at Harvard.
To review the written case studies, go to http://hpb.buildinggreen.com/CaseStudies_2_0/, select “Search by Project Name”, and enter one of the following school names:
Blackstone Valley High School
Great Falls Middle School/ Turner Falls High School
Michael E. Capuano School
Williamstown Elementary School
Dedham Middle School
“Williamsburg Elementary: Building a Sustainable Future” can be found online at http://www.blogcastproject.com/hgci_doc/.
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ReStore Program Partners with The Bridge Program to Pilot
The Harvard ReStore, led by Travis Good ’04 and Allison Rogers ’04, partnered with the Harvard University Bridge to Learning and Literacy Program to run a pilot program this fall, delivering seven fully refurbished computers to Bridge students. The mission of the ReStore is to refurbish the outgoing computers from the University (which would normally be recycled), to promote reuse of items, reduce the environmental impact of the outgoing computers, and to help bridge the digital divide. The ReStore is partnered closely with Harvard Recycling and began as a project during Good’s and Rogers’ senior years in collaboration with Rob Gogan, Director of Harvard Recycling. The goal is to provide the computers at low or no cost to Harvard employees who would benefit from having a computer at home.
The ReStore partnered with the Bridge program to run a pilot delivery this fall to seven recipients, to trial the length of the process of refurbishment and delivery, to assess what issues arose, and to document the benefits. The aim of the pilot study was also to assess the feasibility/costs associated with providing computers, software, and Internet Access to members of the Harvard community who do not have computers. The Bridge Program is a worker education program open to all hourly employees at Harvard, offering English literacy, computer literacy and other adult education courses.
With the help and support of Kris Locke, Meghan Gaffny, and Carol Kolenik of the Bridge, this October the team delivered and set up seven computers and monitors (generously provided by Harvard Recycling) for Harvard employees enrolled in technology training classes.
The partnership between the Harvard ReStore, Harvard Bridge, and Harvard Recycling has been a wonderful success, and the team hopes the program will continue to grow. Feedback from the students has included their happiness with having a computer at home, their ability to do homework on their own computer, and the great benefit of having access to the internet.
“The pilot program has been extremely successful, and we’re really hoping to run a second pilot, and grow the program even more. The collaboration between the Bridge Program, Harvard Recycling, Harvard Green Campus Initiative, undergraduate student leaders, and the ReStore has been amazing. This is an amazing opportunity for the University to reduce its ecological footprint, for completely useable computers to be used instead of recycled right away, and for us as a community and University to address the digital divide that exists. We hope the program will continue to expand,” says Rogers ’04, also the FAS Resource Efficiency Program Coordinator.
“The Restore Program is an amazing collaboration at Harvard. I remember seeing these same students who were once intimidated by technology now using the Internet and Microsoft Programs on their own personal computer at home. I feel so lucky to be part of the planning, delivery and follow up processes”, says Meghan Gaffny, Math and Computer Instructor for the Bridge Program.
For more information, please contact:
Harvard ReStore: Travis Good, travis_good@harvard.edu, Allison Rogers, allison_rogers@harvard.edu
Bridge Program: http://employment.harvard.edu/benefits/learndevelop/bridge.shtml
Harvard Bridge: Kris Locke, kris_locke@harvard.edu, Meghan Gaffny, meghan_gaffny@harvard.edu, Carol Kolenik, carol_kolenik@harvard.edu
Harvard Recycling: http://www.uos.harvard.edu/information/dep_fac_sol.shtml
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Campus Sustainability Competition Engages Entire Harvard Community
In one of its broadest outreach efforts to date, the Harvard Green Campus Initiative is sponsoring “A Vision of Sustainability,” a new art and design competition that asks every member of the campus community to think about how the Sustainability Principles adopted last year by President Lawrence H. Summers can be implemented. In addition to students, staff, and faculty in all areas of the University, the competition is open to alumni and the spouses, domestic partners and children of students and employees.
“In response to the global environmental imperative, Harvard University has stepped forward to implement a set of Campus-wide Sustainability Principles that commit Harvard to becoming a model of sustainable institutional practice. To help us develop, expand and energize an emerging vision of what campus sustainability could mean for us, we need to tap the intellect, talent, imagination and interest of the entire Harvard community. The time couldn’t be better to ask the people in our community to come forward with their ideas.” said Leith Sharp, director of the Harvard Green Campus Initiative.
Reaching Across Harvard
To publicize the competition and its $10,000 in cash prizes, generously donated by Environmental Health and Engineering Inc, the HGCI is using tried and true outreach methods as well as a whole new palette of approaches. As in the past, HGCI staff members are working with colleagues and students throughout the University to spread word of the initiative. But because the population eligible to participate in the Vision of Sustainability competition is broader than in previous campaigns of a similar nature, the HGCI has had to reach out to more departments around campus, creating new connections and discovering new supporters of campus-greening activities. In particular, staff discovered ways to reach out to Harvard’s families through Harvard’s childcare centers, the Harvard Neighbors program, Harvard’s Students, Spouses & Partners Association, the Harvard International Office and the Cambridge Public School system.
“We wanted to involve the entire community in thinking about what a sustainable Harvard campus of the near future might look like and that meant thinking in new ways about who our audience was and how we could reach them,” said Competition Coordinator Alayne Moody. “We wanted everyone who has a relationship with the campus - from the professors in the academic departments to the preschoolers in the campus childcare centers - to know about this opportunity to win prizes and have a say in what a sustainable Harvard would look like. We wanted ideas from every generation, every discipline, every profession and every background. Because the challenge of becoming a model of sustainability will ultimately affect and depend upon everyone, we believe that every vision counts. With this in mind, we are looking at the Harvard community in the broadest possible way, and we are learning so much about our community in the process of trying to reach out to all the different people in it.”
Prizes
The Vision of Sustainability competition has adult and junior categories, with the top adult prize being $2000 and the top junior prize being $1000.
Contestants are being asked to consider Harvard’s existing campuses in Boston and Cambridge, as well as the new campus being developed in Allston, and to envision ways to build or renovate these areas so that economic, environmental and community interests are in balance, or more specifically, so that the campus in line with the University’s new Sustainability Principles.
Judging the Winners
The Vision of Sustainability Art and Design Competition began in August and will conclude with the extended entry deadline of Monday, April 3rd, 2006. The Harvard Green Campus Initiative and a number of selected members of the Harvard community will determine the top entries to be entered into the final round judging event. The final judging event will involve high-level administrators such as Sally Zeckhauser, Vice President for Administration, faculty members and student leaders from across the university in a single large judging and prize giving event during our Spring 2006 Harvard Sustaianbility Conference (see page 2.) During this final judging event, all finalists will be exhibited. As part of the judging process, a panel event will occur allowing a number of the judges to converse with each other, the artists and audience members about the ideas presented in the works of art. At the end of this event, the judges will announce the winners of the top prizes.
Campus Exhibitions
The 28 prize-winning entries in the Vision of Sustainability competition will then be turned into an exhibit that will tour Harvard’s Schools and Departments in the months leading up to the Campus Sustainability Conference in April. Exhibition viewers will have the opportunity to select the one piece most representative of their own vision of a sustainable campus, and the result of this community-wide vote will be revealed at the conference. The $500 People’s Choice award will be awarded to the artist whose piece garnered the most votes. If you would like to have the exhibition brought to your building, please contact us.
For more information about the Vision of Sustainability 2020 Art and Design Competition, please visit http://www.greencampus.harvard.edu/vision2020/
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Harvard University Receives 2005 Green Power Leadership Award for Renewable Energy Commitments
U.S. EPA and DOE Recognize Harvard’s Leadership Among Nation’s Largest Purchasers of Green Power in Higher Education
Harvard University was honored October 24, 2005 as a recipient of a 2005 Green Power Leadership Award for its commitment to renewable energy. The annual awards, presented during the National Green Power Marketing Conference, are sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Center for Resource Solutions (CRS) to recognize organizations whose actions help advance the development of the nation’s green power market. Danny Beaudoin, from the Harvard School of Public Health was elected by popular demand to be Harvard representative at the awards ceremony. To see the full list of 2005 Green Power Leadership Award Winners go to www.epa.gov/greenpower/winners/index.htm.
The Green Power Leadership Awards for green power purchasers is a component of the U.S. EPA’s Green Power Partnership, a voluntary program providing technical assistance and public recognition to organizations who switch to green power for a portion of their electricity needs. Partners in the program include Fortune 500 companies, universities, institutions and state, local and federal agencies. The purchaser awards fall into three categories: On-site Generation, Green Power Purchasing and Green Power Partner of the Year.
The Green Power Purchasing award received by Harvard recognizes organizations that distinguish themselves through purchases of green power from a utility-delivered renewable electricity program, a competitive retail renewable electricity marketer or a renewable energy certificate (REC) supplier. This year a panel of eight judges reviewed nearly 70 nominations based on criteria ranging from the amount of renewable electricity purchased or generated to each organization’s strategy for incorporating green power into its operations and communications.
“We applaud Harvard for its environmental leadership,” said Kurt Johnson, director of EPA’s Green Power Partnership. “The University is providing an outstanding example for others to follow.”
In less than two years, Harvard University has become a leading green power purchaser in the higher education sector. Eight of Harvard’s schools and departments are now purchasing renewable energy—collectively accounting for nearly 22,000 MWh annually or 7 percent of Harvard’s total electricity usage.
Through the Harvard Green Campus Initiative, thousands of staff and students have been encouraged to participate directly in saving energy to raise funds for purchasing renewable energy certificates (RECs). Many design teams for Harvard building projects have elected to purchase green power for credit in the LEED certification process.
In addition, both the Kennedy School of Government and Faculty of Arts and Sciences students voted to increase school fees to offset the cost of purchasing RECs, and Harvard Business School students secured funding to install a 37-kilowatt photovoltaic array on their building. Other schools and departments purchasing green power include Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School, Harvard Divinity School, Harvard Real Estate Services and Radcliffe College.
Harvard’s commitment goes beyond purchasing green power. Harvard’s official campus-wide Sustainability Principles, established by President Summers in August 2004, specifically address green power and energy conservation. In March 2005, President Summers emphasized these principles by establishing a new fund for the research and development of renewable energy options at the University.
“We are proud to be honored for our efforts to help lead the nation’s universities toward more sustainable use of our shared energy resources.” said Leith Sharp, Director of the HGCI. “Harvard’s Green Power Leadership Award helps demonstrate the significant difference an individual commitment can make in the growth of renewable energy.”
“Our support for renewable energy and green buildings affirms the university’s commitment to developing and maintaining a campus that is beautiful, functional, and founded on sustainable principles”, said Summers (Gazette, 2005)
What is Green Power?
Green power is electricity generated from environmentally preferable renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, geothermal, biogas and low-impact hydro and biomass resources. These renewable energy sources are cleaner than traditional sources of electricity that generate carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas linked to global warming, and other air pollutants. Green power purchases support the development of new renewable energy capacity and projects by increasing the overall demand for power from renewable resources.
Additional information about the Green Power Partnership and the Green Power Leadership Awards is available at http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/.
About the U.S. EPA’s Green Power Partnership
The Green Power Partnership is an EPA voluntary program that standardizes green power procurement as part of best practice environmental management. Partners in the program switch to green power for a portion of their electricity needs in return for EPA technical assistance and public recognition. The Green Power Partnership currently includes more than 600 Partners including Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, trade associations and universities — collectively purchasing over 3 billion kilowatt hours of green power annually. Additional information is available at http://www.epa.gov/greenpower.
About the U.S. Department of Energy’s Green Power Network
The Green Power Network is the nation’s premier Web site providing green power market information. The Network’s Web site provides up-to-date information on green power providers, product offerings, consumer protection issues, and policies affecting green power markets. It also includes a reference library of relevant papers, articles and reports. The Green Power Network is operated and maintained by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) for the U.S. Department of Energy. Additional information is available at http://www.eere.energy.gov/greenpower.
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Green Campus Spotlight: Frank Hayes, Former Chief of Operations, Harvard Business School
Frank Hayes, in his former position as Chief of Operations at HBS, was responsible for the operation everything at HBS non-academic, which included overseeing basic day-to-day operations on the physical campus, its buildings and landscaping, to the administrative, to the longer term and larger investment capital projects and the associated planning. So it is no surprise that the breadth of sustainability projects that have been initiated under his direction at the Business School matches the breadth of his job description.
During his tenure at HBS, Frank was involved with many projects to make HBS a more sustainably designed and operated campus. But Frank emphasizes that implementation of these green projects was a process that slowly grew in momentum. “The important thing to note is that the Business School didn’t exactly wake up one morning ready to invest $300,000 in larger projects such as the PV on the roof of Shad Hall. We had to build up to this. We got in at ground level, doing more small level projects, jumped in on the Green Campus Loan Fund when it was formerly established. It was then that we really got our traction and were able to initiate a variety of energy saving projects.”
A Group Finding Progressive Momentum
Frank’s Operations Team at the Business School was a group all very dedicated to the prioritization of sustainable development and operations on the campus. Frank cites such Jim Brochu, Assistant Director, Physical Plant; Doug Scatterday, Director, Facilities Operations; Jason Carlson, Project Manager. Meghan Carter was recently brought on board as a sustainability consultant to fully assess the implications of sustainability across the board at the Business School. Meghan’s salary and budget is being paid for by rebates and cost-savings that the University has secured through previous and current energy saving measures across campus.
Projects initiated under his direction included a variety of loan-funded projects, both small and large scale, including such “low-hanging fruit” as lighting retrofits, irrigation systems, and the Shad Hall co-generation plant, all the way to the photovoltaics installation on the roof of Shad Hall and the green renovation of Baker Library. The Business School to date has utilized Green Campus Loan Fund dollars more than any other school, saving the sch