Summary of Programs
FAS- Green Program
Faculty of Arts and Sciences
The FAS Green Program acts as an umbrella for several environmental efforts at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, including its new greenhouse gas reduction program, occupant engagement initiatives in residential, office and lab buildings, as well as LEED-EB and LEED-CI projects. The depth and breadth of FAS programs reflect the school's wide-ranging commitment to environmental stewardship and also its efforts to create a culture of sustainability in its community.
Graduate Green Living Program
The Graduate Green Living Program is a peer-to-peer training and education program for residents of graduate housing. With the support of the program’s partners, we employ Green Living Representatives to lead a variety of events and activities that will encourage residents to adopt more environmentally sustainable lifestyles. Green Living Representatives focus on recycling, waste reduction, water and electricity conservation, and reducing the use of heating and cooling. Representatives also have the opportunity to suggest infrastructure and policy improvements that will remove barriers to conservation that the residents are experiencing. The program, new in the 2005-06 academic year, is based loosely on the FAS-Resource Efficiency Program.
FAS- Resource Efficiency Program
Harvard College, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Harvard houses over 6000 undergraduate students in over 20 dorms and houses. We employ 20 students to engage in peer to peer training and education activities. This program was established with the purpose of educating and engaging this student body in a wide range of campus sustainability initiatives which so far include water conservation, environmental procurement, paper conservation, mindful use of heating and cooling, minimization of food waste, learning about climate change and renewable energy, recycling and reuse of paper, cardboard, clothes, equipment and furniture and more.
Green Campus Loan Fund
Campus - wide
The Green Campus Loan Fund provides capital for high performance campus design, operations, maintenance and occupant behavior projects. Basic project eligibility guidelines state that projects must reduce the University’s environmental impacts such as greenhouse gas reductions, energy conservation, and water conservation etc. The loan supports both existing building reconstruction and new construction efforts including renewable energy projects.
Green Campus Building Service
Campus - wide
The many small improvements that are possible over a buildings life can add up to dramatic improvements in building performance. To help staff throughout the university address the opportunities for improving building performances, the HGCI provides a full high performance building service. This service includes the provision of building system assessments, envelop analysis, occupant comfort assessments, building project identification, evaluations of project costing and funding options, project management for project implementation, staff training and occupant education programs to support high performance building objectives, and the development of standards and guidelines of ongoing building management. Through this service a wide range of environmental performance and human health improvements are achieved in a diversity of building typologies.
The Green Building Resource
Campus - wide
The Green Building Resource is a web-based tool designed to support the implementation of Harvard’s Green Building Guidelines and Harvard’s Sustainability Principles. Using the experience and knowledge gained from Harvard’s 25 LEED projects, the Resource fosters continuous improvement in cost-effective green building design. HGCI will continuously update and expand the Resource to reflect the frontier of best practice across the university.
Longwood Green Campus Initiative
Harvard Medical School, harvard School of Public Health and Harvard School of Dental Medicine
Harvard's Longwood campus contains three of Harvard's Schools, the Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard School of Dental Medicine. In order to effectively engage these Schools, the Longwood Green Campus Initiative was established. This initiative has been tailored in response to the unique demands of a laboratory intensive, healthcare focused university campus. Projects to date include achieving Massachusetts' first LEED Gold renovation project, an assessment of energy conservation opportunities in Harvard laboratories, renewable energy purchasing for student dorms and more recently, wide reaching behavioral change programs to minimize unnecessary resource consumption.
Green Office
Campus - wide
The Green Office Program helps offices at Harvard to become more sustainable. It provides information, outreach materials, and fact sheets to help offices use less resources, purchase green products, and lessen their carbon footprint. The Green Office team can also do workshops with offices to educate the staff on best practices. The Green Office Checklist and Rating System help offices to benchmark their actions and serves as a guide to making changes.
Sustainability Course
Community - wide
Extension School Course on Achieving Institutional Transformation for Environmental Sustainability: This course is made available to both classroom and distance learners, graduate, undergraduate and non-credit students. The course addresses the real life challenges of achieving environmental sustainability for individuals who operate within a myriad of institutional and other contexts. The course is specifically designed to explore the wide range of institutionally related environmental impacts and the associated roles of individuals within these settings. Harvard University is 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 are heavily 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.
Greenhouse Gas Inventory
Campus - wide
The HGCI maintains and updates a greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories that currently covers FY90 to FY06. The Inventory tracks greenhouse gas emissions associated with steam and chilled water production and with purchased electricity. The Inventory tracks emissions separately for each school as well as for the Cambridge-Allston Campus and the Longwood Medical Campus.
Clean and Renewable Energy
Campus - wide
Harvard must begin to switch to clean and renewable energy sources in order to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. As the campus grows, conservation can only do so much to mitigate the growth of our carbon footprint; switching to carbon-neutral or low-carbon energy will be the most impactful way to cut our emissions to 1990 levels and beyond. HGCI's Renewable Energy team encourages purchases of green power and maintains a database of renewable energy options that will be deployed in the new Allston campus and on the existing campuses.
Best Practices Exchange
Campus - wide
HGCI hosts forums for bringing university professionals together to learn about best practice in achieving campus environmental impact reductions. Exchanges have included costs and benefits of green building, construction and demolition waste recycling and reuse, building commissioning, LEED training and more.
Recycling at Harvard
Campus - wide
Harvard University has been recycling for over 10 years.