Ecophilic Initiatives

Examples of how the University and its constituent parts have been going green during the past several years...

The winning entry in Harvard’s 2008 environmental cartoon contest, created by Matt Smith, a staff member at the Fine Arts Library
At the Science Center, solar panels provide energy for Cabot Science Library and exterior lights.

The University will cut its net greenhouse-gas emissions by 30 percent during the next eight years, President Drew Faust vowed in a July 8 announcement. This is Harvard's first-ever commitment to bring emissions below a specific level, but during the past several years, the University and its constituent parts have been going green in other ways. For example:

  1. Discussions of climate change and air pollution often take on a somber and even apocalyptic tone—but the Harvard Green Campus Initiative has brought some levity to the conversation with an environmental cartoon contest. The contest—heading into its sixth year—is open to students and staff members in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. View more entries from the 2008 contest here.

  2. Harvard has already begun factoring conservation concerns into its plans for new construction and renovations to old buildings; it will need to do much more of this to meet its new greenhouse-gas emissions goal even as the University expands significantly with development in Allston. At the Harvard Green Campus Initiative website, a "green tour" of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences takes you to the bio labs, where wastewater from reverse osmosis and deionization is reused in urinals; to William James Hall, where the emergency-exit signs are now illuminated with light-emitting diodes that last more than 20 years; and elsewhere.

Read more about the greenhouse-gas emissions pledge in "Environmental Action," September-October 2008.

Related topics

You might also like

‘Passengers’ at A.R.T. Blends Acrobatics with Einstein’s Relativity

Review: Quantum mechanics meets circus arts at the American Repertory Theater’s performance

Harvard Research Funding Cuts Are Illegal, Judge Rules

The Trump administration violated the University’s First Amendment rights and must restore all funding, the court said.

In Sermon, Garber Urges Harvard Community to ‘Defend and Protect’ Institutions

Harvard’s president uses traditional Memorial Church address to encourage divergent views.

Most popular

Bringing Korean Stories to Life

Composer Julia Riew writes the musicals she needed to see.

How MAGA Went Mainstream at Harvard

Trump, TikTok, and the pandemic are reshaping Gen Z politics.

Shakespeare’s Greatest Rival

Without Christopher Marlowe, there might not have been a Bard.

Explore More From Current Issue

Student walking under bright stage lights shaped like smartphones displaying social media apps.

Two Years of Doxxing at Harvard

What happens when students are publicly named and shamed for their views?

Brandon Terry, wearing a blue suit, standing before The Embrace, a large bronze sculpture of intertwined arms in Boston Common.

A New Narrative of Civil Rights

Political philosopher Brandon Terry’s vision of racial progress

Catherine Zipf smiling, wearing striped shirt and dark sweater outdoors.

Preserving the History of Jim Crow Era Safe Havens

Architectural historian Catherine Zipf is building a database of Green Book sites.