Faculty of Arts and Sciences

HCL Operations is just the fourth group university-wide to receive “Green Leaf 3” certification of its workspace through the Harvard Office for Sustainability’s Green Office program. Created by OFS, the program recognizes university offices for meeting sustainability goals through recycling, waste reduction and energy conservation.

Finding or giving away working surplus equipment, furniture, and books can reduce the environmental cost of production of brand new materials and disposal of the old, and of course it saves money.

Here are 6 ways you can optimize your chances of taking advantage of campus-wide sharing of equipment and supplies at FAS:

The FAS community has noticed a change in their bathrooms- the addition of dual flush handles to many toilets and super low flow aerators on the sinks. The FAS Green Program and the FAS Office of Physical Resources and Planning have been working over the past year to change about 900 sinks and 675 toilets in FAS bathrooms campus-wide.

The FAS EcoChampions program seeks to recognize and reward staff, students, researchers, and faculty who find creative and interesting ways to improve their department, office, dorm, or building’s environmental footprint.

When the Fine Arts Library’s printed collections, photographs and graphic images were temporarily relocated to the Littauer building in July 2009, it was to allow for the renovation and expansion project of the Harvard Art Museum at 32 Quincy Street.

Sparked with friendly competition and the will to help decrease Harvard’s environmental impact, eight finalists came together in early December to present their individual eco-projects and compete for first place in this fall’s Eco-Project Competition.

The first FAS Eco-Citizens junk mail party was a huge success. Eight staff and students came together to call and email catalogs, journals, and other junk mail senders to remove staff names from the mailing lists.

As the trees are standing leafless and the temperatures are (finally!) dropping it's time to bring out our winter sweaters and wool socks. And, per habit, every time our closets change their duds we often discover long forgotten items that we'll doubtfully wear this winter, especially since that bulky christmas sweater saw no cheer last season.

In recent months, several lights in libraries managed by HCL Operations have been turned off and occupancy sensors installed in other areas, helping the library not only contribute to the green efforts, but save some green as well.

One of the country’s newest green relocatable classrooms recently opened on Harvard’s campus.  For the next eighteen months, this modular school building will first house the Harvard Yard Child Care Center, and then the Oxford Street Daycare Cooperative, while their permanent locations in the Vanserg Building and Shannon Hall are being renovated.  This 5,700 square foot space is locat