Campus’ green pledge makes a difference

Forty-three hundred members of the Harvard community signed the Campus Sustainability Pledge in a two-week campaign that ended on Nov. 23. In so doing, pledgers promised to support Harvard’s official Campus-wide Sustainability Principles and to implement those principles in their own lives by taking simple actions to conserve resources.

The pledge campaign was run by the Harvard Green Campus Initiative and sponsored by the Faculty of Arts & Sciences, Harvard Medical School (HMS), Harvard School of Dental Medicine, and Harvard School of Public Health.

In addition, 21 Harvard buildings have won renewable energy by meeting the challenge set forth by the University to get at least 50 percent of the building occupants to sign the pledge. Harvard will purchase wind power to offset 10 percent of the greenhouse gas emission from each of these buildings for one year.

“One important aspect of the pledge campaign is using the savings from the energy conservation efforts of students, staff, and faculty to purchase renewable energy for the buildings in which they work and live,” said Leith Sharp, director of the Harvard Green Campus Initiative.

Massachusetts Hall, which houses the President’s Office, was among the winners of the challenge this year. President Lawrence H. Summers thanked everyone in the building for their efforts and asked his staff to “remember and uphold the pledge [they] took to work toward a greener campus.”

Peter Stroup, director of facilities at HMS, said, “It is truly encouraging to see so many members of the Longwood community pledge to support sustainability efforts on campus, and to take personal action to make change.”

This past fall, Harvard was awarded a Green Power Purchaser Award by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy for being a top university purchaser of renewable energy in 2005.

The winning buildings are:

• Dudley House (GSAS)
• Phillips Brooks House (Social Service)
• 60 JFK (Office of Physical Resources)
• Geology Museum
• Massachusetts Hall (Administration/Dorm)
• Gund Hall (GSD)
• Hoffman (Earth and Planetary Sciences)
• Kirkland House
• Morton Prince House (Freshman Dean’s Office)
• Cabot House
• Quincy House
• Music/Paine Hall
• Leverett House
• 1705 Mass Ave. (Dudley Co-op)
• 77 Dunster St. (FAS Core Office)
• TMEC (HMS)
• Gordon Hall (HMS)
• 160/164 Longwood (HMS)
• Countway Library (HMS)
• Shattuck (HSPH)
• Kresge (Building 3) (HSPH)To learn about Harvard’s efforts toward sustainability, as well as more about climate change and renewable energy, visit the Green Campus Web site, http://www.greencampus.harvard.edu.