Who Runs It?

The Role of the Harvard Green Campus Loan Fund

The Harvard Green Campus Initiative promotes and administers the fund while also developing services that will effectively increase engagement in high performance campus projects. The Green Campus Loan Fund (GCLF) is promoted and supported by all HGCI staff. The GCLF is independently evaluated and advised by a cross-faculty/department Advisory Committee. In addition to representatives from the HGCI, this committee includes members with expertise in and responsibility for engineering and utilities, environmental impact, health and safety, operations, finance and administration, and maintenance.

This program enables the HGCI to help interested partners identify, develop, finance, and earn recognition for GCLF projects through the following avenues:

  • Providing project conception and development support
  • Awarding financing to approved projects
  • Facilitating communication between networks of empowered individuals concerned with reducing Harvard's environmental impact
  • Publicizing project successes and recognizing the work of individuals dedicated to improving campus sustainability

With this resource, the HGCI is able to provide a direct financial incentive for realizing the vision of sustainable campus living and operations at Harvard University.

Green Campus Loan Fund Advisory Committee

Central to the success of the Green Campus Loan Fund (GCLF) is the management and strategy support provided by the Loan Fund Advisory Committee.

To ensure that the GCLF was promoted and understood within the disparate facility departments at Harvard, the HGCI enlisted the support of key central administration and department facilities staff to serve on the fund’s Advisory Committee. The purpose of the committee is to provide strategic advice and oversight of administrative and marketing approaches, as well as to provide crucial assistance and legitimacy to the project proposal review process. The responsibilities of the of the Advisory Committee are as follows:

  • Creating GCLF criteria and establishing proper evaluation processes
  • Identifying opportunity areas for GCLF promotion, providing general advice and support for continued loan fund development and expansion
  • Reviewing project applications
  • Monitoring and reviewing GCLF processes and procedures to gauge program effectiveness and accountability

When reviewing project applications, the Advisory Committee evaluates on the following criteria:

  • Financial payback
  • Environmental impact reductions
  • Degree of project innovation
  • Potential for project replication elsewhere at Harvard
  • Community education/outreach opportunities

See the 2007 GCLF Advisory Committee members and their University functions.