Harvard Garners Recycling Award

Harvard: famous for exclusive admissions, a large endowment, and recycling.

The American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) awarded Harvard its 2007 Recycling Award in the university or college category on Tuesday. The awards are designed to recognize successful efforts to recycle paper.

Harvard now joins past winners University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Oregon. The AF&PA, a national trade organization for the forest products industry, established the awards in 2005.

“It’s a modest award,” said Kris R. Kiser, the executive director of paper sectors at the AF&PA.

Unlike celebrities honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, who leave with glamorous gift baskets and a gold-plated Oscar, recipients of the Recycling Awards walk away with a $1,000 stipend and an original piece of paper artwork handmade by Sally Vitsky.

Applicants for the awards are judged by a panel drawn from the AF&PA’s member companies, the Environmental Protection Agency, and well-known conservation organizations. Kiser would not disclose the names of Harvard’s competitors but said the University “was an exceptional entry and scored well above the other applicants.”

What set Harvard’s recycling program apart?

“Volume,” Kiser said. The University recycled more than 2,600 tons of paper from July 2005 to June 2006, according to Paperrecycles.org, a Web site operated by the Paper Industry Association Council, a group that includes the AF&PA.

Both the Harvard Green Campus Initiative (HGCI) and the Resource Efficiency Program (REP) credit Robert M. Gogan, supervisor of waste management at Facilities Maintenance Operations, for Harvard’s strengthened recycling efforts.

“Harvard has made consistent and excellent progress that is a product of Rob’s good work,” said Director of HGCI Leith J. Sharp. Sharp commended Gogan for involving people across the campus in the University’s recycling endeavors.

“Rob Gogan has always been amazing,” said Meredith M. Lanoue ’06-’07, a captain of REP.

The award was officially delivered at a ceremony held Tuesday at 46 Blackstone Street, the office of University Operations Services where Gogan works. Last November, The Crimson reported that the Environmental Protection Agency ranked Harvard as the top paper recycler in the agency’s Recyclemania competition, which includes 93 schools in 33 states.