'REP'-ping Green At Harvard

The tale of extracurriculars on a shoestring budget is all too familiar for most Harvard students: hectic days and nights of hastily planned rose sales and grant applications, all with hopes of raising the couple hundred dollars needed to keep a group alive.

But one group, the Resource Efficiency Program (REP), enjoys an unusual relationship with Harvard. The program, started in 2002, received over $300,000 from Harvard to get off the ground and the College now invests over $120,000 in REP annually. Each REP leader is also paid an hourly wage to encourage them to get out the sustainable word.

REP leaders say that the cost of the program is offset by lower electricity bills that are the direct result of their efforts in the Houses and in the Yard. Yet some wonder how effective 16 REP leaders are in the face of 6,000 busy, largely environmentally apathetic students. When it comes to campus environmental policies, is REP really worth the College’s green?


A PRAGMATIC APPROACH

In June of 2002, several student groups on campus—including the Environmental Action Committee (EAC), the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Office of Physical Resources, University Operations Services, and the Harvard Green Campus Initiative—combined interests to involve students in energy conservation.

“We’re students who thought it was important to start recycling and conserving energy to reduce our environmental impact. [REP] was formed to start educating students on how they can make a difference in any small way,” says Philip W. Kreycik ’06, who has coordinated the REP undergraduates since June 2006.

Much of what students see and hear about sustainability is pushed by REP. The group’s representatives, one from each upperclass house and three from the freshman Yard, initiate projects aimed at widespread reduction in energy consumption. REP leaders are paid around $10 an hour for their efforts. The program hopes REP leaders can convince students to reduce their wasteful tendencies and save the University money that is squandered when rooms are too hot or dishware is stolen.

REP’s practical approach to conservation and environmentalism is focused on pragmatic, often seasonal solutions to small-scale energy abuse problems.

“In the fall we have these different two-week campaigns that we’ll run, we’ll do stuff on dining and dishware, and the next week we’ll talk about recycling,” says Spring Greeney ’09, the student representative from Pforzheimer House. “As the weather gets colder, we’ll talk about heating, and how to control it or turn it up. In the spring, we work on a couple large-scale projects.”

Such seasonal specificity for projects is well-structured, and it gives students a relevant, achievable goal. “A more practice-oriented approach is the foundation for REP,” says Meredith M. Lanoue ’06-’07, one of the program’s three captains.

Other than the small, House-specific initiatives taken on by each REP leader, the program also has a College-wide competition called the Green Cup. The Green Cup challenges houses to see which can reduce their energy consumption the most.

“They [Houses] can do eco-projects, which are led by individuals in the house, in order to ‘green the house,’” says Greeney. The house that wins gets $1,038, to celebrate the 38th anniversary of Earth Day.

Finally, a long-term goal of REP is to encourage life-long sustainable habits in Harvard students. A large-scale light-bulb swap is currently underway to have students switch from traditional bulbs to compact fluorescent lights.

“Hopefully when students start paying their own bills they’ll start using incandescent [bulbs] because they’ll save lots and lots of money on their bills,” says Kreycik.


ONE AMONG MANY

It is sometimes hard to tell what differentiates REP from like-minded organizations like the EAC, the Office of Physical Resources, and University Operations Services. All three share at least one of REP’s goals. Does the College need such an expensive program?

“We deal with practical actions that students can take,” says Kreycik, noting that the EAC is focused more on advocacy. “Not to say that the EAC doesn’t do practical work, but the REP focuses on day-to day life and on the operations of the buildings, for example.”

And unlike the EAC, REP’s association with higher administrative groups at the College came at its inception, giving it a unique edge in navigating the often convoluted College activities bureaucracy.

“Very quickly, [student representatives] realized it would only be effective if the University would be behind them and if they got funding,” says Kreycik. “We do brainstorm with our funders, but it’s mainly students finding problems and trying to figure out a way to try to address them, bring them to our allies in the administrations, and we work on it as a team.”

And, of course, there’s the financial incentive. It may seem odd that a group run primarily by students has paid positions, but as Greeney points out, “REP actually saves the College a lot of money.”

Netting cash for these projects is contingent upon REP’s effectiveness. “We have to prove to them that we can influence student behavior that has repercussions for them,” says Lanoue. “It costs $80 to dispose a ton of trash, and we get paid $15 for a ton of paper that we recycle and we pay twenty something dollars to recycle a ton of cans and bottles,” says Lanoue. “It definitely makes more economic sense to recycle.”

Having paid positions also ensures effort on the part of student leaders. “Some think that having REP be a paid position is not ideal, but I think that it’s a good move...because it provides extra incentive for REPers to take it seriously,” says Firth M. McEachern ’08, a former Cabot REP leader and FM comper.


GAUGING GREENNESS

At times, it may seem difficult to gauge the effectiveness of a program aimed at increasing sustainability, a numerically immeasurable quantity. But though there are no distinct numbers to evaluate sustainability, REP does have some results to go by. Allison I. Rogers ’04, a former program coordinator, points to recycling and trash numbers as a measure of the program’s success. “If we were to go back to the baseline in 2001, the last year before it existed, we would see a huge difference in the number of energy consumption and trash and recycling,” says Rogers.

More important, however, is how effective REP has been in getting through to students.

“If you don’t have this environmental value system, it’s hard for someone to instill that in you, to give you little bits and facts,” says Greeney.

“At first I felt as if I were badgering people, taking over board space in Cabot and putting signs up saying how much food has been wasted and how much electricity we’re using,” says McEachern. As more and more students questioned the statistics he sent in e-mails, McEachern realized how surprisingly difficult his job was—convincing three or four hundred notoriously skeptical Harvard students to believe his numbers.

“Sometimes,” he says, “I got it wrong. There was one time we were talking about how much Christmas lights waste when they’re on and I got it wrong by a factor of two, and I had to admit and apologize for that.”

Yet despite his earlier missteps and the felt apathy of Cabot residents, McEachern says he was pleased to see students responding to his environmental push. One student went so far as to report on the acting residential dean, pointing out that she left her lights on at night. With the power his REP leader status gave him, McEachern confronted the dean who then promised to flip the switch.

Yet even if students themselves aren’t spurred to activism by REP, the statistics speak for themselves. Since the program was started, College-wide energy consumption has decreased by 9 percent, $288,488.56 has been saved in lower energy bills, and 885.24 metric tons of CO2 has not been added to the atmosphere. With the exception of Winthrop, all of the houses have shown a reduction in their energy usage, with Mather leading the way with a 12.4 percent reduction over the past three years.


THE GRASS IS GREENER...IN THE FUTURE

Still, REP is far from perfect. Coverage is oftentimes uneven through the houses. Kirkland has door-drop signs that allow students to check what kinds of publications they want in their basket, while most houses do not. Since this was a task that was taken up by Kirkland House with Kirkland funds, REP couldn’t offer funding to other houses to get the program started.

“It just doesn’t make sense to have the discrepancies between houses,” says McEachern, who undertook many campaigns with his own money. Further, while the flexibility of allowing students to undertake their own projects often leads to innovative, more creative ways of conserving energy, this also places a large gulf between paid environmentalists and their audiences.

Clearly, there is still work to be done. “I’d say that Harvard is a leader in these issues but it could be more of a leader,” says Kreycik. If the College takes on additional projects in the reduction of energy consumption, REP may need to take on more leaders to reach the entire student body.

Lanoue points to the fact that Yale University has two representatives per house as part of its Student Taskforce for Environmental Partnership (STEP) program. “That’s something that we’d love to have, working in pairs rather than working singularly,” says Lanoue.

Like many Harvard students, REP leaders want to push the envelope. “I think it can move to the next level,” says Rogers. “There’s a college in Maine whose entire graduation is waste free...Harvard has a long way to go before something like that.” REP is also attempting expansion into the athletic department and collaboration with a similar program at Harvard Business School. Lanoue cites these as examples of how REP is trying to “get our presence everywhere on campus.”


THE ROAD AHEAD

Despite REP’s demonstrable achievement, far more must be accomplished to justify the hefty sum the College is spending on it. A first step might be the implementation of a more concerted, uniform effort throughout the entire student body, which may cut costs and increase the visibility of the program. Despite REP’s shortcomings, it has the long-term potential to effect widespread change on the entire University campus, from increased recycling to projects as large as wind energy for all of Harvard. REP obviously has the financial backing; only time will tell whether it has the potential for more than fleeting success.


SIDEBAR: Fast Facts on Energy Use at Harvard