Sustainability Press

In many places around the world, April 22 is Earth Day, an international celebration of the environmental movement. This year at Harvard, Earth Day was celebrated throughout the month of April. Various initiatives across the campuses reached out to students, faculty, staff and community members to get involved in why the natural world and sustainability is important to them. People were asked to take photos, post tweets, and fill in the blanks on community pledge blackboards, which asked “For the Future of the Planet I will...”.

View Harvard's Earth Month Storify Page for a visual story of Earth Month at Harvard. 

These ongoing projects were punctuated with Earth Day events and fairs held throughout the month, at different campuses.  The Harvard Law School held their fair on a rainy day, moving the festivities to inside the new Wasserstein Hall. With live music, lots of free local and organic food, the Green Living Reps said they saw a great turnout in spite of the weather. Representatives from Divest Harvard, Quad Bikes, Harvard Vegan Living Society, Boston Organics, and many other student groups and local food venues made this event a great success.  

The college also held an Earth Day Fair, where hundreds of students showed up to play recycling basketball, participate in a clothing swap, and receive water bottles for completing a scavenger hunt. Here the undergraduate Resource Efficiency Program also announced the winners of the sustainability “Green Cup Challenge”, a competition between the undergraduate residential houses to be the most environmentally friendly. Many students who don’t normally cross paths with the environmental groups on campus came out to get in on the fun, and learned about the Harvard Community Garden, Students for a Just and Sustainable Future, and many more active student groups.

Earth Day fairs were not the only exciting events to happen this year for Earth Month. Mt. Trashmore, a pile of trash that demonstrates of how much trash Harvard generates in one day, made an appearance at both the college and at HBS. A pole also shows how much higher the pile could be if we weren’t recycling- usually reaching more than twice the height of the mountain of trash! Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health also hold Sustainability Fairs, showcasing local, organic products and sustainability initiatives in the Longwood Area.  

Throughout the year, there are countless other projects that promote environmentalism in the broader Harvard community. April’s celebrations highlight the dedication of Harvard to the natural world, and building a community committed to sustainability.

On Friday, March 8, Harvard Law School's Green Living Representatives, Sarah Canby, Laura Wolf, Dave Joch, Gabrielle Hodgson, and Michael Gruben, along with HLS Sustainability Program Manager Anne Sargent and Supervisor of Recycling and Solid Waste Removal Rob Gogan, completed the law school’s bi-annual waste audit. 

The waste audit revealed both positive developments and some opportunities for improving HLS’s recycling and composting efforts. On a positive note, fewer pizza boxes were found in the trash, suggesting that people may be remembering to recycle pizza boxes more often. 

The audit also revealed that a large quantity of food waste and compostable take-out containers from the Hark are still ending up in the trash. Green Living Representatives will continue to work to educate the HLS community about compositing these items. Paper towels are another compostable item commonly found in the trash. This is likely because there are often not compost bins in places like bathrooms where paper towels are commonly used. The Green Living Representatives will work to continue to increase the availability of composting bins on campus. 

Overall, the waste audit was a “stinky” success, and the Green Reps look forward to continuing to improve HLS’s composting and recycling rates in anticipation of the next audit in the fall. If you are interested in becoming a Green Living Representative, apply by April 26,2013. 

Green Living Representatives and first-year law students at Harvard Law School are in full swing this semester, promoting sustainability across campus by competing in green challenges, hosting interactive and informative events, and encouraging the return of HLS FreeCycles.

Last week, students in first-year law sections completed the second challenge of the yearlong Green Cup Competition: bringing a reusable container to class. Green Cup is a participation-based competition designed to build awareness and engagement in campus sustainability initiatives and individual behavior change actions. A total of five challenges constitute the competition, with the section with the most points at the end of the series winning $500 toward a zero-waste event for the group.

Green Living Representatives also kicked off a composting project, pushing for all lunch-hour events to be compostable. In conjunction with an independent student project aimed at making compostable products more accessible to student organizations, the Reps created a video by interviewing students about whether or not they had ever planned a compostable event and what they like to compost.

This week, HLS brings back FreeCycles—community based events for donating and reusing unwanted goods. Kitchen and office supplies, books, CDs, clothing, toys, unopened cosmetics, non-perishable food, linens, tools and all other reusables will be accepted and available Wednesday, February 13.

Finally, Reps are hosting an event with Rick Culter of the Climate Reality Project, an organization co-founded by Vice President Al Gore and dedicated to spurring a global cultural movement demanding action on the climate crisis. Culter will give an interactive presentation Monday, February 19. Attending the event is also the third challenge of Green Cup for all first-year law sections. 

How you can get involved:

• • Stop by the Harvard Law School FreeCycle: Wednesday, Februray 13, 11 am–2 pm
• • Join the HLS Green Living Program for an interactive presentation on the Climate Reality Project: Tuesday, February 19, 12 pm

OFS will be awarding two student scholarships to this year’s NetImpact Conference: October 25-27, 2012.

Net Impact is a community of more than 30,000 changemakers who are using our jobs to tackle the world’s toughest problems. We put our business skills to work for good throughout every sector, showing the world that it’s possible to make a net impact that benefits not just the bottom line, but people and planet too.

The annual Net Impact Conference is the premier event for students and professionals using their careers for good. For our 20th anniversary conference, we are bringing together more than 2,800 changemakers from all over the world and 300 dynamic speakers from across industries, from Fortune 500 companies to emerging nonprofits. More information can be found here.

The scholarship will cover admission (a $380 value) to the conference and is only open to Harvard University graduate and undergraduate students. Participants will need to arrange their own travel and lodging. The conference is being held in Baltimore, Maryland.

Click here to apply. For more information, please contact sustainability@harvard.edu.

Harvard’s campus is a living lab – burgeoning with student projects designed to reduce Harvard’s carbon footprint, build community, and bring awareness to the possibilities of innovation and collaboration.

Innovation and collaboration can be seen in the bee habitat on the roof of Gund Hall, the harvest of the Divinity School garden, the enlightening podcast, Sense and Sustainability, and the Law School bike share. And this only scratches the surface.

Graduate and college students across campus have turned their creative ideas into a reality with the help of funds from OFS. Whether your idea is a podcast, an outreach program, a carbon calculator, or something completely different, we want to hear about it: www.green.harvard.edu/grants.

Get funding for your innovative project today. Applications due Thursday, October 18, 2012. 

**check out previously funded projects here.

***sign up for office hours to explore an idea or connect to staff, faculty, and other students who can help.

Two offices participating in the Harvard Green Office Program can now boast that they are not only taking steps to reduce the environmental impacts of their day-to-day office activities, but also that they are doing so in a LEED Platinum office. 

In August 2012, The Harvard Law School (HLS) Hauser Hall Basement Office Suite earned Platinum certification under the LEED for Commercial Interiors (LEED-CI), version 2009 rating system for the approximately 4,000 SF renovation carried out to accommodate the HLS Finance and Human Resources departments relocating from another Harvard owned building in Cambridge.

As the second Platinum certification for HLS, this project is a testament to the School’s commitment to sustainability and their support of Harvard’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Goal of reducing emissions 30% below 2006 levels by 2016, inclusive of growth. The ability of the project team to incorporate that commitment into the renovation is evidenced by the 86 points earned under the LEED rating system, which is the second highest number of points earned for a LEED-CI project at Harvard. To achieve this level the project team focused on sustainability from project conception through construction and analyzed sustainable alternatives to all materials used in construction and design.

"Hauser Hall was constructed in 1994 and won the American Institute of Architects achievement award that same year. It is notable for its curved geometry and refined details," said Sisia Daglian with Austin Architects. "The renovation of the basement for HLS Finance and Human Resources departments has been another award winning achievement for Hauser Hall - LEED Platinum for Commercial Interiors. Architecturally, the renovation honored the innate geometry of the building, as well as many of the original details and design intent. The thrust of the sustainability effort was made by careful selection and tracking of building materials, attaining 11 of the 13 credits in the Materials & Resources category including a first-time Harvard accomplishment: 2 points for Materials Reuse (MRc3.1-3.2, 10% of total material cost).  The end users were enthusiastic and supportive of reusing as much of their existing casework and furniture as possible, even embracing the repurposing of original Hauser Hall doors as wall paneling."

Select project highlights include:

1. 95% of the total percentage of construction waste was diverted from landfill.

2. 56% of the total material value came from materials manufactured within 500 miles of the project site.

3. Installing occupancy sensors on lights and setting back room temperatures and ventilation rates at night and when spaces are unoccupied for a predetermined period of time.

For more information, see the HLS Hauser Basement Offices case study on the Harvard Green Building Resource.

Led by Clinic Director and Clinical Professor Wendy Jacobs, Harvard Law School students have prevailed in a two-year battle to lift restrictions on the installation of solar power in Massachusetts.

For more than two years, Harvard Law School’s Emmett Environmental Law & Policy Clinic has represented a group of general contractors who specialize in renewable energy projects but were being blocked from installing solar power by a state licensing board. Taking a position that was contrary to a host of state programs designed to promote solar energy, the Massachusetts Board of State Examiners of Electricians tried to prevent anyone other than licensed electricians from organizing, managing or installing solar power in the state. The clinic stepped in to defend the solar contractors in enforcement actions and challenge the Board's policy.

On July 18, the Massachusetts Superior Court granted summary judgment in the clinic’s favor, holding unequivocally that: “Plaintiffs may advertise and contract for PV System installations and subcontract with licensed electricians.” 

To read the entire story visit the HLS News site:

http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/2012/08/08_environmental-law-clinic-rene...

With commencement week well underway the Office for Sustainability asked Schools about what they’re doing at events to go green. Most of the planning centers around waste reduction, creating signs and processes to ensure that as much recycling and composting is captured as possible to reduce the amount of trash produced. Here’s a quick look at what some Schools are doing to cut down on waste and reduce Harvard’s environmental footprint.

At the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the green team has created great signage to allow guests to clearly figure out what items go in which bin (see photo above). Their Dinner Dance will also be 100% compostable. Nearby, at the Harvard Law School which saw a 95% recycling/composting rate at last year’s commencement, the green team is ramping up for another successful year by providing re-usable lunch boxes and reusable water bottles. Events will also feature compostable utensils and cups and green team members will be on hand to help guests sort waste. Harvard Divinity School has been hosting zero waste commencement events since 2010.

This spring Harvard Law School installed Vending Misers and Snack Misers on all their cold beverage and non-perishable snack machines. The devices turn machines on and off based on activity as well as internal cooling cycles, conserving energy by not over-cooling and shutting off lights and displays when machines are not in use. HLS predicts the 20 devices installed will save 3.4 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents and $1,440 each year.

A 2012 study by Harvard postdoctoral researcher Julia Puaschunder that observed student behavior surrounding energy conservation in Harvard Libraries found that environmentally-conscious actions can be "nudged" by social forces. In her study, Puaschunder placed tent card signage in Harvard Law School's Langdell Library and Widener Library study carrels asking students to turn off their tasklight when finished studying.

The tent cards included one of two logos: a Harvard University logo or a "Sustainability at Harvard" logo. Both tent cards improved students conservation habits, with the Harvard University logo having a slightly stronger effect than the "Sustainability at Harvard" logo, leading the researcher to conclude that both environmental conscientiousness and social norm compliance triggers can help improve conservation behavior. Based on these findings, Harvard Law School will be installing similar tent cards permanently in the Langdell Library study carrels.

This study builds on a 2011 study also conducted by Puaschunder evaluating recycling habits in Harvard dormitories that came to a similar conclusion that signage promoting environmentalism and/or an institutionalized social norm positively affects recycling habits.

Click here to download a PDF of Puaschunder's memo for the lighting student and click here for the memo on the recycling study.

Puaschunder may be reached at jpuachunder@fas.harvard.edu for more information. Please note these studies have not been peer-reviewed.

It turns out bike-friendliness is second nature for Harvard University. Weeks after being named a Silver-Level Bike Friendly University by the League of American Bicyclists, Harvard University was recognized as a Gold-level Bike Friendly Business by Mayor Menino and the City of Boston. Representatives from Harvard’s Longwood campus were joined by Harvard’s Commuter Choice Program in receiving Gold-level awards from Transportation Commissioner Thomas Tinlin and Director of Boston Bikes Nicole Freedman. 

In total, 41 Boston businesses were recognized in the gold, silver, and bronze categories. Gold-level businesses must achieve 22 points on a criteria checklist that ranges from number of outdoor and secured indoor bike racks, bike commuter financial incentives, Walk/Ride days, access to bike tools, and shower facilities. The combined efforts of the Longwood Cyclists’ Group, Harvard's Commuter Choice Program, and the various school-based bike-initiatives continue to contribute to the level of bike-friendliness and improved measures to create a healthy and safe cycling community on Harvard’s campuses. Kudos!

Read the announcement. 

Last month, the Office of the Executive Dean and Academic Administration at the Graduate School of Design received their Leaf One Green Office certification. Executive assistant Ashley Torr spearheaded the effort, but all of the members were actively involved in greening their office. “We are excited to be the second office at the GSD to achieve Leaf One, and hope that this accomplishment helps to encourage our fellow GSD offices to join us in becoming a Green Office as well” said Ashley. 

Not only was this the second office to complete the program, but they also went above and beyond some of the Leaf One guidelines.  As a policy, this office already purchases 100% recycled paper! This dedication to sustainability around the office is the attitude that the Green Office Program hopes to support and promote, and we are happy to have the chance to congratulate them on their achievement.  

Researchers from several Harvard Schools and initiatives were instrumental in developing the City of Boston’s first Cyclist Safety Report released on May 15, 2013 by Mayor Tom Menino. The report examined four years of bicycle crash incident data supplied by Boston Police and Boston EMS that will now inform City officials in their continued efforts to make Boston’s roadways safer for vulnerable users.

The Boston Police Department, in collaboration with the Boston Area Research Initiative at Harvard’ Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, the Harvard Injury Control Research Center and the Boston Cyclists Union reviewed BPB crash data generate baseline crash estimates and maps for planning purposes.

Dahianna Lopez, a PhD student in Health Policy at Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, conducted the bicycled and pedestrian injury research as part of her dissertation. Lopez received funding from the Boston Area Research Initiative (sponsored in part by the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study) and was advised Dr. David Hemenway, Professor of Healthy Policy and Director of the Harvard Injury Control Center at the Harvard School of Public Health. Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science also provided an in-kind computer scientist to assist with data manipulation.

Key findings from the report include:

• Although the number of cyclist fatalities spiked in 2012, data shows a minimal increase in total incidents between 2010 and 2012. There was a substantial increase in ridership during this period.
• Injured cyclists are less likely to be wearing a helmet than the average cyclists. 
• A majority of incidents that resulted in injury involved motor vehicles.
• Cyclist accident incidents involving and/or injuring pedestrians are minimal. Pedestrians comprised only 2-3% of incidents and injuries in all cyclist incidents.
• Key behavioral factors associated with accidents included cyclists not stopping at red lights or stop signs, cyclists riding into oncoming traffic, drivers not seeing cyclists and drivers/passengers opening doors.
• Young adults, particularly men between 19 and 31 comprise more than half of all injured cyclists.

The City used the report to develop a series of recommendations to improve safety including helmet use, targeted safety and education campaigns, and a focus on specialized enforcement in “hot-spots.”

Read the City of Boston’s press release.

The Hoffman Laboratory was not originally designed with energy efficiency in mind. Built in 1963, it was in operation thirty years before the U.S. Green Building Council was even formed, and before Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) became a household term.  When Mitra Nathasingh, the current Building Manager, inherited the building in 2007 upon joining the FAS Office for Physical Resources and Planning, he found the building in dire need of updates, but also recognized countless opportunities for energy efficiency improvements.

His first move was to make a list of all the improvements that were needed, in order of priority, using both his own experience and a number of building assessment reports that were generated by third party consulting firms. Since then, he and his team have worked hard to complete every identified Energy Conservation Measure (ECM), bringing the building up to speed with cutting edge best practices for energy efficiency. 

Here are a few highlights from their laudable efforts:

• In 2007, all outdated linear fluorescent lighting was replaced with efficient T8 linear fluorescent bulbs. The project saves approximately 45,800 KBTU in energy each year, which translates to almost $1,900 in cost savings.
• To minimize the impact of fume hoods, which can use three to five times as much energy as a typical home in the United States, occupancy sensors were installed so that ventilation rates can be scaled back during periods when the labs are not inuse. The project saves almost 600,000 KBTU each year and reduced annual energy costs by over $12,000.
• Inefficient and drafty windows were rebuilt to improve performance and reduce heat loss.
• A green cleaning program was implemented in partnership with the custodial staff to ensure that environmentally sound products and procedures are used. This program, which has been Green Seal certified (a rigorous industry standard), contributes to healthy surroundings for building occupants and cleaning staff, and minimizes the impact of cleaning operations on the environment. 
• Recycled content paper is used throughout the building to help combat deforestation. The Building Operations Team plans to install hand dryers in the near future to further minimize this impact.  
• Whenever a space is renovated, or a group moves in or out of the building, unwanted furniture is reused—either in house or through Harvard Recycling’s Surplus Center. 
• All new renovations are LEED certified to ensure that best practices regarding energy efficiency, waste management, and other conservation-related topics are incorporated wherever possible.  
• Old, inefficient bathroom fixtures were replaced with more efficient units—including solar powered faucets, low flow toilets, and low flow urinals. 
• Composting bins were installed in kitchenettes throughout the building to divert food scraps from the waste stream, and instead turn them into nutrient rich soil. Organics degrading in landfills without air emit methane (a greenhouse gas 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide). Composting adds oxygen to organic waste, so it emits only carbon dioxide as part of the natural carbon cycle during decomposition.

The Resource Efficiency Program (REP) celebrated the end of its annual inter-House Green Cup competition at the Environmental Action Committee's Earth Day Festival on April 27. The sun smiled down on the MAC Quad as students conversed with enviro groups' at their booths, ate free veggie burgers and ice cream, and played ReGames including a plastic bottle recycling free throw shooting challenge. In between live music sets, REP gave awards for the culmination of efforts in three categories: Cabot House, placed first in both the Participation and Green House Commmittee (HoCo) contests, Mather House placed second in Green HoCo, and Winthrop House placed first in Resource Conservation. Adams and Pforzheimer House received honorable mention awards for Participation and Resource Conservation. At the end of the day, Cabot took home this year's overall Green Cup trophy. Congratulations!

You can see more Green Cup highlights, as well as highlights from other REP and Green '16 campaigns on our end-of-year slide show.

Image: Before (left) and After (right) Lighting Upgrade; the difference in lighting with the energy efficient LED bulbs is undetectable. 

In a building centered around the visual arts, nothing could be more paramount than lighting—a painter has to be able to get the right colors on the canvas, and a photographer needs control of her shadows. So when we wanted to explore efficient lighting in the Carpenter Center, we had to be very careful about the fixtures/bulbs we chose. Attempts were made over a couple of years to find a more energy efficient replacement bulb that would satisfy the studio and individual needs and be aesthetically acceptable in this architecturally important building. During this time the LED technology caught up with our needs and we found a LED bulb which provided the illumination needed and closely resembled the PAR38 Halogen that we have been using.

The Carpenter Center had 620 Halogen lamps, all on track lighting throughout the building, using roughly 180,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh), or over $20,000 of energy a year! Beyond energy consumption, many of these bulbs lasted less than a year, which meant that a dozen new bulbs had to be installed each week, which is both a waste of money and employee time! 

To start the retrofit process, we first did a mock up in one small section of a studio with 40 LED PAR 38 bulbs. The LED bulbs were accepted and all of the studios were retrofitted with the new energy efficient bulbs. 

The LED fixtures had very good color temperature and brightness. Even better, they had an expected lifespan of 10 years, so there would be much less time spent replacing bulbs.

All 620 90 watt Halogen bulbs were replaced with the 18w LED equivalents. There were a few additional complications—for example, all of the track lighting needed extra securing to handle the additional weight of the LEDs. But it was all worth it—now, nearly a year later, we are seeing some pretty incredible results. The building is using about 10,000 kWh less energy each month, which translates to about $14,400 in savings annually! The project has already payed itself back in energy savings alone, and that is without including the cost of replacing bulbs each year (since the installation, building manager Dan Lopez has only had to replace three bulbs). 

Dan has not stopped with electricity savings—next he is focusing on cooling savings. He is working closely with the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ (FAS) Energy Team to manage his building cooling and ventilation system more efficiently, while still maintaining acceptable conditions in the studios as well as the Sert Gallery. This should result in thousands more dollars of savings each year. 

In the last year, Dan has demonstrated that it is possible to take an architecturally important building, even one that has very specific needs, and manage it in a manner that not only meets those needs, but does so efficiently. 

Thanks to Carpenter Center Building Manager Dan Lopez for his help with the story. 

(Note: The below is a press release of the announcement. For more information you can read the Harvard Gazette story)

The City of Cambridge, Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Monday May 6, 2013 signed a historic “Community Compact for a Sustainable Future” aimed at leveraging the intellectual and entrepreneurial capacity of the business, non-profit, education, and municipal sectors in Cambridge to contribute to a healthy, livable and sustainable future. The three signatories also announced they have already recruited the participation of an initial group of major business partners including Akamai Technologies, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, and Whole Foods.

“Climate change is a crisis that requires a comprehensive and collaborative response. Cambridge is uniquely positioned to serve as a leader in this response: We have unmatched intellectual capital and a culture of innovation and commitment to the environment. I am thrilled to partner with Harvard and MIT and look forward to joining with others in the business community to create a more sustainable Cambridge for residents, students and employees,” said Cambridge Mayor Henrietta Davis.

The Compact lays out a clear framework for how the group can address climate change at the local level and improve the quality of life and wellbeing of the Cambridge community by considering nine key areas of collaboration such as energy efficiency, renewable energy, climate mitigation and adaptation, storm water management and green tech incubation. It aims to harness the signatories’ collective capacities in research, teaching, social best practices and governance to generate new and innovative solutions to the challenges of climate change and sustainability.

• View of a PDF of the signed Compact.

“Harvard is honored to be among the first signatories of the Community Compact,” said Harvard President Drew G. Faust. “We have much to gain from continuing to work together to confront climate change, and I hope other leaders across the city are inspired to join us—and our partners in the private sector—in creating a healthier and more sustainable Cambridge.”

“Climate change is a global challenge. But momentum for action begins with strong local collaborations," said MIT President L. Rafael Reif. “Cambridge has helped to pioneer the idea of urban environmentalism. Building on that commitment, and drawing on the scientific, technological and policy expertise of MIT and Harvard, together we can make a difference for our local community and perhaps extract lessons with global value as well."

Signatories will work to develop and share new and innovative strategies, technologies, services, products, and best practices that can be used as replicable models for others considering cost-effective solutions. They will build capacity and support for the Compact by establishing a steering committee to oversee the effort, begin collecting data to evaluate progress, and create a forum for annual reporting to the community. Additionally, the group will explore opportunities to connect researchers with community needs and initiatives and to better connect students with local entrepreneurs and social enterprises.

“We are proud to take a leadership role in measuring and then minimizing the environmental impact of our business operations, and sharing the financial and social benefits of sustainability with our customers,” said Tom Leighton, CEO of Akamai.  " We believe energy efficiency and the management of greenhouse gas emissions are not only critical in information technology, but in all fields. We applaud the mission of the Cambridge Community Compact for a Sustainable Future, and hope others in our business community will join with this important initiative.”

The Compact grew out of on-going discussion and collaborations amongst Cambridge, MIT and Harvard who have all established aggressive goals and initiatives focused on climate change and sustainability, including targets for greener transportation, efficient buildings, and greenhouse gas emissions and energy reductions. The Compact will enable the signatories to build on these commitments by continuing to share best practices and improve operational efficiencies on topics ranging from waste reduction to energy efficiency, green buildings and shared support for projects such as the Hubway bike share program.

“Today is about formalizing the sustainability work of Harvard, MIT and Cambridge, but it is also about beginning the process of reaching out to other key partners,” said Cambridge City Manager Robert Healy.

In this third story of our “Green-prenuers” series, the Office for Sustainability (OFS) features a Q&A with Emily Sadigh (College ’99, HGSE ’05). Trained as an educator and certified as a Biomimicry Specialist, Emily designs strategies for the public sector, universities, and businesses to go green and build learning systems for sustainability. With the Alameda County Sustainability team, Emily applies change management tools to promote broad-based participation in climate action in one of California’s largest counties. Emily has been recognized as a Next American Vanguard, one of the top 35 civic leaders under 35 working to improve U.S. cities, and Toyota and the National Audubon Society recently named her a TogetherGreen Conservation Leadership Fellow for her pioneering work applying biomimicry to organizational change. Connect with Emily on Twitter: @emilysadigh.

OFS: How did your experiences at Harvard influence your professional work in the sustainability field?

Sadigh: My Harvard experience has significantly shaped how I approach my work, which involves leading internal change efforts to green the operations and facilities of large organizations and creating learning systems that support innovation for sustainability. As a social anthropology concentrator at Harvard College, I learned a valuable insight that has guided my work ever since: the first step before making efforts to embed environmental sustainability in the culture of an organization is to understand that culture.

While working at Harvard’s Office of Sustainability (then the Green Campus Initiative) from 2002 to 2004, I had outstanding mentors and gained hands-on experience in climate action areas like waste reduction and energy conservation. As the founding coordinator of Harvard’s Resource Efficiency Program, I learned how to create engaging campaigns and manage a large group of peer environmental educators. I still collaborate with colleagues from that time and continue to be inspired by Harvard’s greening campaigns.

My master’s studies at the Harvard Graduate School of Education focused on adult education for sustainability because I wanted to learn best practices – based on findings in adult developmental psychology – in teaching adults. Today I use the principles I learned at HGSE when educating Alameda County’s 9,000 employees through orientations, trainings, competitions, and interactive events. 

OFS: What is involved in your cutting-edge work to apply biomimicry to a new arena, organizational change?

Sadigh: While studying biomimicry, I became very interested in how the natural forms and systems that are so well adapted to earth’s operating conditions can not only inform product and building design, but also guide organizational innovation. I am currently applying principles of biomimicry in a pilot network of about 25 employee volunteer “green ambassadors” who share opportunities for green workplace actions, such as clean commuting, with their colleagues. 

“Life’s principles” – a fundamental tool in biomimicry – describe patterns in how organisms relate to the world and each other. With the green ambassadors, we are applying four of these principles – the natural world’s ability to self-organize, demonstrate resilience through variation and decentralization, stay locally attuned, and use feedback loops – to design the network and to encourage the ambassadors to turn to nature when tailoring their campaign approaches. For an illustration of a “life’s principle” in action, consider how the narwhal, a small arctic whale, locally attunes to its environment. The narwhal uses its sensitive tusk as a sensor that helps it avoid solid ice and find food. The green ambassadors realized that they needed to be the tusk or, in other words, provide regular progress reports to their colleagues.

OFS:  How would you describe a “typical” day or week for your day job as Sustainability Project Manager at the County of Alameda?

Sadigh: There is always something new to learn: The environmental issues I am working on vary from green building to telecommuting, and the skills I apply may range from metrics development to grant-writing to meeting facilitation. 

In a typical week, I am juggling several projects in varied stages, such as conducting feasibility and best practice research; developing and presenting a new policy for review by the County’s executive leadership; supervising campaign design on a specific topic like “smart printing” and training our peer educators to promote it; analyzing survey results; and developing a case study presentation. One welcome and regular aspect of the week is our sustainability group meeting where we celebrate successes and share new developments.

OFS: What projects are you most proud of at Alameda County?

Sadigh: I’ll share two projects that promote broad-based participation in sustainability; we hope other organizations will be inspired to adopt each of these projects. First, over the past 18 months, we have created and have been working with six internal teams tasked with carrying out key initiatives from the Alameda County Climate Action Plan for Government Services and Operations. This effort has involved over 50 staff members from 13 agencies serving on cross-agency teams with engaged executive sponsors. The teams have launched programs such as shared departmental transit cards that employees can check out, to make it easy to use public transportation for on-the-job travel.

Second, I have had the pleasure of leading the county’s involvement in a program that promotes both public service careers and citizen involvement in climate action: the Bay Area Climate Corps. For the past three years, this AmeriCorps pilot program has trained and placed 30 AmeriCorps volunteers each year in local governments and non-profits to provide a year of service. Alameda County has so far hosted 14 volunteers who have implemented our Climate Action Plan and ensured that eligible community members’ homes receive federally subsidized energy efficiency upgrades. We welcome Harvard graduating students and alumni to apply for the 2013-14 positions!

OFS: How have you maintained your connection with Harvard since graduating from the College and Graduate School of Education?

Sadigh: Harvard and Radcliffe alumni have been very generous in supporting my career explorations through externships, shadowing opportunities, and informational interviews. I am delighted to continue this tradition and support Harvard students who are interested in careers in sustainability by hosting them for externships and internships. I make it a point to reach out to students involved with Harvard’s Office of Sustainability when the County has openings. 

Working with current students help keep me up to date on life at Harvard today. I also enjoy reading the Crimson and Harvard Magazine and visiting campus whenever I’m in the area. I look forward to a very green 15-year reunion next year! 

Image Captions: Green Ambassadors learn to use Alameda County's public electric vehicle charging stations, Photo Credit: County of Alameda; Emily Sadigh, Photo Credit: Sarah Rea; Alameda County employees share what they do to be green at work, Photo Credit: County of Alameda

In many places around the world, April 22 is Earth Day, an international celebration of the environmental movement. This year at Harvard, Earth Day was celebrated throughout the month of April. Various initiatives across the campuses reached out to students, faculty, staff and community members to get involved in why the natural world and sustainability is important to them. People were asked to take photos, post tweets, and fill in the blanks on community pledge blackboards, which asked “For the Future of the Planet I will...”.

View Harvard's Earth Month Storify Page for a visual story of Earth Month at Harvard. 

These ongoing projects were punctuated with Earth Day events and fairs held throughout the month, at different campuses.  The Harvard Law School held their fair on a rainy day, moving the festivities to inside the new Wasserstein Hall. With live music, lots of free local and organic food, the Green Living Reps said they saw a great turnout in spite of the weather. Representatives from Divest Harvard, Quad Bikes, Harvard Vegan Living Society, Boston Organics, and many other student groups and local food venues made this event a great success.  

The college also held an Earth Day Fair, where hundreds of students showed up to play recycling basketball, participate in a clothing swap, and receive water bottles for completing a scavenger hunt. Here the undergraduate Resource Efficiency Program also announced the winners of the sustainability “Green Cup Challenge”, a competition between the undergraduate residential houses to be the most environmentally friendly. Many students who don’t normally cross paths with the environmental groups on campus came out to get in on the fun, and learned about the Harvard Community Garden, Students for a Just and Sustainable Future, and many more active student groups.

Earth Day fairs were not the only exciting events to happen this year for Earth Month. Mt. Trashmore, a pile of trash that demonstrates of how much trash Harvard generates in one day, made an appearance at both the college and at HBS. A pole also shows how much higher the pile could be if we weren’t recycling- usually reaching more than twice the height of the mountain of trash! Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health also hold Sustainability Fairs, showcasing local, organic products and sustainability initiatives in the Longwood Area.  

Throughout the year, there are countless other projects that promote environmentalism in the broader Harvard community. April’s celebrations highlight the dedication of Harvard to the natural world, and building a community committed to sustainability.

May is National Bike Month, a time to celebrate the cycling community and the positive health and environmental impacts of riding a bicycle. At Harvard, recently recognized as a Bicycle Friendly University Silver Level by the League of American Cyclists, the engagement and strength of the bike community continues to grow. Harvard is currently the highest ranked Bicycle Friendly University in New England and in  all the Ivy Leagues, so this month, we're recognizing the commitment shown by our students, staff, and faculty to make Harvard a bicycle friendly, and healthy, campus.

Get out those bikes and get involved this May!

Harvard School of Public Health Bike Fair, Tuesday, May 7: Join the School of Publich Health and the Longwood Medical Area are hosting a Bike Fair complete with tune-ups, workshops, bike registration, raffles, prizes, and more. 

MassCommute Bicycle Challenge, May 11–19: During Bay State Bike Week, join Harvard's team for the 2013 MassCommuter Challenge by selecting “Harvard University” from the Employer/Institution dropdown menu. Log all of your bicycle trips including commuting to/from work, running errands and attending social activities, to help Harvard win this friendly competition among Massachusetts businesses, institutions, and municipalities. 

Bike to Work Breakfasts: Harvard will host two separate Bike-to-Work Appreciation Breakfasts for all cycling commuters. Just show your helmet!

• Bike Breakfast at HSPH, Tuesday, May 7, Longwood
• Bike to Work Appreciation Breakfast, Wednesday, May 15, Cambridge

Bike Bash, Tuesday, June 4: Save the date for a culmative celebration for all of the MassCommute Bicycle Challenge participants at the Queen's Head Pub.