Featured series 
Tag: Sustainability
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Campus & Community
Harvard College Library is going green
The changes may not be immediately evident, but little by little, Harvard College Library (HCL) has been “going green” for years, even before the University’s newest commitment to sustainable practices.
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Campus & Community
Living in the green zone at ‘Rock Hall’
“Rock Hall” — the nickname for John D. Rockefeller Jr. Hall at Harvard Divinity School (HDS) — looks just like what it is: a spare, elegant building in the Modernist tradition.
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Campus & Community
Paul Zofnass ’69, M.B.A. ’73 establishes GSD sustainability initiative
Paul Zofnass ’69, M.B.A. ’73 has established a sustainability initiative at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) with a $500,000 gift.
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Science & Tech
10 ways to help
1. Drive less: Walk, bike, and take public transportation instead. Check out the Harvard Commuter Choice Program for information on ridesharing, discounts for MBTA passes, and more.
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Nation & World
Green politics at IOP
An environmental call to action issued by Harvard President Drew Faust accelerated this year, with a pledge to reduce campus-wide greenhouse gas emissions and with an October celebration of sustainability efforts.
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Science & Tech
Gore: Universities have important role in sustainability
Former vice president Al Gore ’69 addressed a crowd of 15,000 in chilly, leaf-strewn Tercentenary Theatre Oct. 22, 2008, delivering the keynote address in a multi-day celebration of the University’s commitment to sustainability.
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Science & Tech
GSD lecture and panel address ‘Designing for Sustainability’
Interest in green building is high at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD), judging by the attendance at a lecture Tuesday (Oct. 21) in the Stubbins Room at Gund Hall. “Designing for Sustainability” was part of the popular and event-packed sustainability celebration instituted this year by Harvard President Drew Faust.
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Campus & Community
HRES fetes completion of grad, professional student housing program
Harvard Real Estate Services (HRES) Tuesday (Oct. 21) celebrated the completion of an eight-year program to provide housing for approximately 50 percent of the University’s graduate and professional students. The program, which included both new and renovated properties in Cambridge and Boston, provides students with myriad housing options — everything from single-family homes to high-rise…
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Campus & Community
Students watch ‘An Inconvenient Truth’
It’s “an inconvenient truth,” but only about 25 people showed up for a Harvard screening Sunday (Oct. 19) of a film by the same name, which earned former Vice President Al Gore ’69 both an Oscar and a Nobel Peace Prize.
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Science & Tech
Controlling greenhouse gases, universities, individuals matter
From 1850 to 2000, the use of fossil fuels worldwide grew 140-fold, a practice that has gradually filled the Earth’s atmosphere with warming gases.
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Campus & Community
Alice Waters special guest at ‘smart food’ panel
In anticipation of Harvard’s upcoming sustainability celebration, a panel discussion on sustainable food took place Tuesday (Oct. 14) in the Faculty Room at University Hall. It began with a reception at which chefs doled out demitasse cups filled with a chowder of Cape Cod Bay scallops and Berkshires bacon, and wait-staff circulated trays of heavenly…
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Campus & Community
‘Green’ University celebration commences
If you flew over Harvard University in a small plane, you would see only a few outward and obvious signs of sustainability. You would see a glittering solar array on Shad Hall at Harvard Business School, a landscaped green roof on Gund Hall, home of Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, and you would see a…
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Nation & World
HBS summit addresses future
The timing couldn’t have been worse, or perhaps better, for Harvard Business School’s (HBS) “Centennial Global Business Summit,” a three-day conference Oct. 12-14.
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Science & Tech
Arctic ice is thinning steadily
There was a polar bear sighting at Harvard last week. At Pforzheimer House on Thursday (Oct. 2), global warming expert James J. McCarthy delivered a crisp summary of how fast ice is melting in the Arctic — and why we should care. The audience of 80 took in his companion slide show, including images of…
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Science & Tech
Exelon executive offers regulations, incentives to ‘green’ energy supply
The head of the nation’s largest nuclear power plant owner decried America’s lack of an energy policy Monday night (Oct. 6) and laid out a five-point plan featuring a mix of new regulations and financial incentives for coal, nuclear, and renewable power sources as a way to ‘green’ America’s energy supply.
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Campus & Community
Al Gore to celebrate sustainability at Harvard
Former Vice President Al Gore will be coming to campus on Oct. 22 for the first-ever University-wide celebration of sustainability. The event, hosted by President Drew Faust, will mark the official launch of the University’s new greenhouse gas reduction effort and will also celebrate Harvard’s broader environmental initiatives, including the critical role the University plays…
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Science & Tech
Environmental report card grades Harvard A-
Harvard received the highest ranking in a recent “College Sustainability Report Card” that graded the green credentials of 300 colleges and universities. Harvard received high ranks for an array of activities, including recycling, green buildings, energy supply, transportation, and student involvement. Overall, the University was among 15 nationwide that received the top A- grade, earning…
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Campus & Community
Ken Burns to headline Theodore Roosevelt celebration
Theodore Roosevelt is considered a principal architect of the U.S. national park system. To help mark his 150th birthday this fall, noted filmmaker Ken Burns will come to Harvard to offer remarks and show clips from his upcoming documentary, “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea,” due out in fall 2009. Scheduled for Oct. 3 at…
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Health
Harvard Forest: 3,500 acres, global impact
Harvard may be rooted in Cambridge, but it has a lot more roots in the small north-central Massachusetts town of Petersham. That’s where you’ll find the woods, streams, and fields of the Harvard Forest, a 3,500-acre research and teaching facility that’s been part of the University for more than a century. Having been closely monitored…
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Nation & World
Electric cars, ‘cap and trade,’ and more
R. James Woolsey Jr., a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, has a favorite personal strategy for ensuring U.S. domestic security: his Toyota Prius hybrid, upgraded with an A123 conversion kit that allows it to run largely on a battery rechargeable by house current.
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Campus & Community
CHGE releases new ‘Healthy Harvest’ guide
The Harvard Medical School’s Center for Health and the Global Environment (CHGE) recently published “Healthy Harvest: Regional Food Guides for New England and Mid-Atlantic States.” These comprehensive guides (available at http://www.healthyharvest.org) include detailed information about when produce is available regionally both fresh and from storage, as well as food-specific information on varieties, nutritional content, how…
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Campus & Community
Praise and preservation
Harvard University President Drew Faust used the bully pulpit of Appleton Chapel this week (Sept. 16), urging the University’s citizens to act responsibly on environmental matters.
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Campus & Community
Byerly Hall greens itself
Byerly Hall, a handsome slate-roofed building at 8 Garden St., opened in 1932. Its Georgian Revival exterior, exterior clock, and white-trimmed windows complement the stately 19th century ambiance of Radcliffe Yard. But beneath old red brick now beats a 21st century heart, including water and energy systems that meet modern standards for sustainability and efficiency.
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Campus & Community
In brief
Harvard-affiliated study runs in Journal of Community Psychology; Docents sought for Semitic Museum; Habitat for Humanity sale begins Aug. 23; HMS to host second ‘Freecycle’ event, donations sought; HMS to host quantitative genomics conference, poster component; Deadline for first print issue
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Campus & Community
HKS hosts eco-friendly summer event
There was something conspicuously absent from Harvard Kennedy School’s (HKS) annual summer picnic last week (July 9): garbage. The “zero waste” event was one of the first of its kind held at Harvard and was organized by the HKS Green Team, a group of staff dedicated to the pursuit of campus sustainability.
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Campus & Community
Allston projects demonstrate commitment to sustainability
In the future, Harvard will go beyond traditional ivy and red brick to create campuses with more energy-efficient buildings that minimize water usage and produce low air emissions.
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Nation & World
Sachs insists new technologies essential
Jeffrey Sachs, the internationally renowned economist, returned to his alma mater Monday (April 14) to give his prescription for saving the world. Sustainable development, he said, is the “central challenge of our time.”
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Campus & Community
Digging spoons: GSD café has tableware fit for composting
Beginning earlier in the spring semester, the Chauhaus café at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) started providing only tableware made from bio-based plastics fit for composting.
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Campus & Community
Going for the green at Harvard
William James Hall and the Hoffman Labs have emerged victorious in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) Environmental Competition 2008, Harvard’s biggest and most comprehensive eco-contest ever.
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Science & Tech
An ocean of bad tidings
Jeremy B.C. Jackson earned his first chops as a scholar by studying the ecological impacts of an event that unfolded over the last 15 million years: the formation of the Isthmus of Panama, dividing the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and setting off profound evolutionary oceanic and terrestrial changes.