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How Are We Doing?

Just like former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, who would so famously ask New York City residents during his tenure as mayor, "How am I doing?," the Bulletin wanted to know how the Kennedy School was doing in reducing its energy use. To find out, we contacted the Harvard University Green Campus Initiative and the University Operations Services. Below are some answers.

Recyclables recovered In FY2007, the Kennedy School recovered 48 percent of its refuse for recycling. This was comprised of the following materials:

100 tons of paper and cardboard
105 tons of compostables
0.4 tons of containers (glass, metal and plastic)
21 tons of used furniture, computers, and other equipment
226 tons of total recycling

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School breakdown Harvard's total greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by school. Schools with laboratories create more GHG emissions.

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Pollution prevented Kennedy School recycling prevented these pollutants from release in 2007:

138.10 tons of carbon dioxide
4.53 tons of methane
1.36 tons of carbon monoxide
0.45 tons of nitrogen oxides
0.43 tons of sulfur dioxide
Equivalent to the annual exhaust of 23 cars

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Resources conserved Recycling and composting in FY 2007 conserved these environmental equivalents:

2 Blodgett Pools (1,584,800 gallons of water)
15 truck loads of trash (1,326 cubic yards of landfill space)
19 households average energy use
1,050 trees (equivalent to 3 acres of pulpwood)

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Harvard emissions by utility type (offsets excluded) In 2006, more than half of Harvard’Äôs GHG emissions were due to electricity use. Here's a breakdown by utility type:

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The Value of Energy Credits

Spending energy wisely has long been a goal at the Kennedy School, but two years ago the school stepped up its commitment by purchasing energy credits that are used to support wind farm technology, a clean, renewable source of energy.

How it works, says Larry Black, the school's facilities and services buildings manager, is the school pays Sterling Planet, a renewable energy provider, the difference between what the school spends annually for electricity and what it would spend if it were to use clean, renewable energy, which is not yet available in the Northeast. This year, says Black, the school paid $10,000 or 3 percent of its annual electricity bill to Sterling Planet to purchase renewable energy certificates or RECs.

The school's participation in this program, says Black, is "just one more example of the school's commitment to taking every possible measure to conserve energy."

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