Students Combat Climate Change

The ideal Valentine’s date for the Environmental Action Committee isn’t tall, dark, and handsome. It’s 2036—the year that the EAC hopes that Harvard will become climate neutral.

Wearing short dresses and high heels outside the Science Center in yesterday’s 30 degree weather, several of the group’s female members distributed chocolate kisses and requested students to sign their petition for campus-wide climate neutrality.

The EAC petition, which has already collected over 1,000 signatures, asks the University to reach zero-net greenhouse gas emissions by its 400th anniversary and to form and fund an interdisciplinary effort to expand teaching and research about climate change.

“[Climate neutrality] is a defining issue,” said Karen A. McKinnon ’10, while handing out the “We Need a Date!” fliers. “We students want Harvard to stand up and be a leader.”

Three EAC members met with University President Drew G. Faust last week to discuss Harvard’s future sustainability projects.

“It was an opportunity to present our position,” said EAC Co-Chair Zachary C. Arnold ’10. “We discussed why a date for climate neutrality is appropriate.”

Arnold added that Faust seemed receptive to collaboration with the EAC on university-wide environmental initiatives.

“The meeting with the EAC was both positive and constructive,” said University spokesman John D. Longbrake. “The University is committed to reducing its environmental footprint, and we’re going to continue to have an open dialog with the EAC.”

As part of the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, 480 universities, including Cornell, Penn, and Duke have committed to climate neutrality by the year 2050.

Although Harvard has not committed to complete climate neutrality, it has already taken a number of steps toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The University has the most buildings certified through the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System, according to a Sierra Club survey last fall.

Longbrake added that the University has created a $12 million fund to support conservation and alternative-energy research projects.

And Dean of the Faculty Michael D. Smith approved a plan in December that calls on the Faculty of Arts and Sciences to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 89 percent of their levels in 1990 by 2020 .

—Staff writer Natasha S. Whitney can be reached at nwhitney@fas.harvard.edu.