Harvard Office for Sustainability

04/01/2026

🌍 Join the Harvard Office for Sustainability and our incredible campus partners on Earth Day, Wednesday, April 22, from 12 to 2 pm at the Science Center Plaza.
Meet some of the people behind sustainability at Harvard and enjoy:
♻️ A Freecycle hosted by Harvard Recycling
📱 E-waste recycling provided by HUIT
🔋 Battery and plastic bag recycling
🚲 Bike safety check-ups sponsored by Harvard Commuter Choice
🗣️ Engaging conversations with partner departments tabling at the event
🚯 A Charles River Clean-Up event hosted by Harvard Kennedy School and partners (registration required)
🔗 Learn more at sustainable.harvard.edu/earthday

11/04/2025

The Harvard Office for Sustainability released the 2024-2025 Harvard Annual Sustainability Report. Explore how the University is making progress toward its climate goals and transforming how we power, build, operate, and lead. Together, we are creating a more : https://loom.ly/zBL7xpA

Fossil Fuel-Free by 2050 In February 2018, a faculty-led Climate Change Task Force recommended Harvard set a goal to be Fossil Fuel-Free by 2050. Known as Goal Zero, this target […]

06/26/2025

Save the Date! takes place September 15-21. Hear from Harvard faculty, climate experts, leaders, and stakeholders as they explore solutions to the most complex and challenging dimensions of the climate crisis. Visit: https://loom.ly/3ne91Ok for details.

06/13/2025

The Consortium for Climate Solutions (C4CS), led by Harvard, MIT, Mass General Brigham, and PowerOptions, received the Environmental Business Council of New England's Nicholas Humber Award for Outstanding Collaboration: https://loom.ly/z-q1EUI

C4CS brings together municipal buyers and smaller non-profits across Greater Boston to advance large-scale renewable energy procurement through an innovative Virtual Power Purchase Agreement. This collaboration enables 12 partners to collectively invest in 408 MW of new renewable energy, equivalent to powering 130,000 U.S. homes and avoiding nearly 1 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually.

In this groundbreaking collaborative model, the Consortium demonstrates that collaboration amplifies climate action, enabling greater renewable energy investment than any single institution alone.

06/12/2025

Harvard is excited to announce the launch of “Accelerating a Zero Waste Future: A Framework for Waste Stewardship,” a new plan to transition our campuses to zero waste. Developed by the Waste Stewardship Steering Committee in collaboration with University leaders, the framework prioritizes waste prevention, reduction, reuse, and responsible recovery, and aligns with Harvard’s Sustainability Action Plan. This University-wide effort will empower every school and unit to take action, engage the community, and create a healthier environment. https://loom.ly/qv00dxE

06/05/2025

The Harvard Office for Sustainability recently took a staff retreat to Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University to learn about this historic "museum of trees" and the sustainability features of Weld Hill Research Building, a state-of-the-art lab building that draws energy from more than 1,000 solar panels and a closed-loop system with 88 ground-source wells. Learn more about this 281-acre preserve in the heart of Boston, free and open to the public every day: https://loom.ly/VSsuGx4

05/28/2025

As the academic year closes, we proudly celebrate Harvard’s graduating student sustainability leaders. From projects focused on lowering AI emissions and sustainable design, to creative campaigns reducing plastic waste and energy use, the sustainability work of Harvard students underscores the power of student innovation and collaboration.

Read our Q&A with graduating student sustainability leaders who participated in OFS programs like the Council of Student Sustainability Leaders (CSSL), Student Sustainability Associates (SSAs) at Harvard Business School, and the Sustainability Leadership Council (SLC) at Harvard Kennedy School: https://loom.ly/yBpQ-N0

As the academic year comes to a close, read Q&A with graduating student sustainability leaders. These dedicated students have been instrumental in advancing Harvard’s sustainability goals, and their work is a testament to the power of collaboration and student leadership in building a more sustain...

05/13/2025

🌲 The Landscape Services team is planting new trees in Harvard Yard this spring. Three trees were planted during Earth Week, with one tree replacing an elm that needed to be removed this past fall. The plantings are part of a continuing effort to create a more sustainable environment for the community.

05/07/2025

Forever chemicals—a term for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a group of industrial chemicals that are extremely difficult to break down—are pervasive in our environment and in our buildings. With growing health risks and regulatory considerations, now is the time for organizations to act.

Explore practical, research-based strategies to reduce exposure to PFAS in the workplace in this Harvard Business Review article written by Joseph G. Allen, Associate Professor and Director of the Healthy Buildings Program at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Heather A. Henriksen, Harvard Chief Sustainability Officer; and Michael W. Toffel, Senator John Heinz Professor of Environmental Management at Harvard Business School: https://loom.ly/oePUmOQ

Forever chemicals are toxic and widely used in buildings and yet they remain on the rise globally with little regulation to control them. In the United States, for example, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations currently cover only forever chemicals in water—and only six of the more th...

05/06/2025

Resource Efficiency Program student members (REPs) hosted a poster session to share their findings on how to advance campus sustainability and energy efficiency. Projects covered a variety of topics, including building lighting audits, exterior door heat loss and mitigation tactics, strategies to improve work order processes, and more.

The poster session follows a year of REP student engagement sustainability campaigns, designed to educate students in residential buildings on topics like heating efficiency, winterization, and waste reduction. Learn more about the Resource Efficiency Program: https://loom.ly/QIuMMVA

05/01/2025

The Harvard Office for Sustainability team took a hard hat tour of the David Rubenstein Treehouse Conference Center. Currently under construction in Allston and opening in fall 2025, the Treehouse has a highly sustainable design, including a mass timber structure that significantly reduces the building's embodied carbon. The project is striving to achieve Living Building Challenge Core certification. Learn more about the Treehouse: https://loom.ly/f48HFRY