University Operations Services

When you’re working away in your dorm or office trying to implement sustainability initiatives, it can often feel overwhelming.  It shouldn’t be that way, especially when there are so many impassioned students, staff and faculty throughout Harvard dedicated to making Green the new Crimson!

Typically when the temperature spikes, so does energy use. It’s pretty simple. Pulling heat and humidity out of buildings, offices, and classrooms – thus making them comfortable to occupy – requires a vast amount of energy.

If you thought a yard sale was a great place to find a bargain, try a yard swap.

For the second straight year, Harvard University, led by FMO’s Recycling and Solid Waste group, has won the 2010 RecycleMania Grand Champion competition among Ivy League schools! The prize is just one of several awards handed out during RecycleMania—an annual event sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency involving more than 600 colleges and universities across the country.

FMO Landscape Services played an integral role in the design and creation of the new Harvard Community Garden—which was officially dedicated on Sunday, April 18. The Garden consists of 25 raised beds spaced along stone dust patios at 27 Holyoke Place.

FMO Landscape Services is utilizing a new technique for transplanting trees that significantly increases the odds that the tree will survive. Typically during transplantation, an excavator removes a three foot deep root-ball and slices through the majority of roots outside this zone.

Last November, Harvard University’s Building Energy Auditing Service completed a comprehensive energy assessment of the Harvard Divinity School (HDS) campus. After completing an assessment at HDS’ Andover Library over the summer of 2009, the audit team won a competitive bid to perform an energy audit of the school's remaining six buildings.

Refined Vegetable Oil (RVO) was recently mixed with standard No. 6 fuel oil to fire the Blackstone Steam Plant’s boilers that deliver heat to more than 160 campus buildings. The purpose of the test was to compare the air emissions from the RVO mix with the emissions created by burning straight No. 6 fuel oil. The initial results are promising.

It’s a little bottle that packs a big cleaning punch. FMO Custodial Services is piloting a new product within Blackstone that uses only water, but reportedly cleans even better than bleach.

In October 2009, the Harvard Office for Sustainability’s Green Building Services (GBS) team completed an 8 hour Direct Digital Controls (DDC) training delivered by Harvard Facilities Maintenance Operations (FMO). Digital controls and a Building Automation System (BAS) allow operators to control their buildings in an efficient manner.