Pledges Soar for Green Cause

The Harvard Sustainability Pledge rallied to a record-breaking number of participants for 2007 as over 8,000 people pledged their support for campus sustainability efforts at Harvard.

This an increase of about 1,000 pledges from the 2006 campaign and a jump from the inaugural effort of 1,000 signers in 2002.

“The campaign is a huge advance in sustainability that can be made on campus just by improving efficiency without broader changes in infrastructure,” said Environmental Action Committee co-chair Zachary C. Arnold ’10.

In exchange for each pledge, Harvard will add $1.50 into a renewable energy fund for an on-site project resulting in about $12,000 this year.

The campaign, led by the Harvard Green Campus Initiative, emphasized the simplicity and accessibility of developing eco-friendly habits according to its organizers.

“People have a view of environmentalism that to reduce energy usage you have to use solar panels and not drive a car, and although these are good things, there are easier things we can do,” said Environmental Action Committee treasurer Karen A. McKinnon ’10.

The pledge aims at reducing waste and conserving energy through simple steps such as having students turn off their computers each night, pulling curtains down to maximize insulation, and using green cleaning products.

The Green Campus Initiative tried to encourage inter-house competition by tracking the number of pledges according to how the upperclass Houses compared.

Although most Houses rallied more than 50 percent of participation from their residents, McKinnon said some students opted to not sign the pledge because they considered it a merely symbolic act.

“If there is no follow through, the pledge is meaningless,” she said.

The real-time online monitoring of House pledge rates also fueled competition, driving the cause of environmentalism home for many students, according to Arnold.

Cabot led with 94 perecent of its House members signing the pledge.

The threat of Leverett House catching up, coupled with the incentive of cookies for pledges, boosted the effort within Cabot said McKinnon, who is also the Currier House Resource Efficiency Program representative.

Friendly competition has not been limited to inter-house rivalry, however, as similar campus-wide sustainability efforts and pledges have been implemented at peer institutions in the Ivy League.

Several other inter-collegiate sustainability efforts have also triggered awareness and competition. Harvard currently ranks third in a ranking of 400 colleges and universities for cumulative recycling, according to the RecycleMania competition.

Harvard has also become a global model of campus sustainability, several Green Campus Initiative leaders said.

“Few Ivies have the student-to-student change initiatives Harvard has,” Arnold said.

Faculty support for the sustainability pledge has also been widespread.

“The faculty at Harvard tend to be aware of issues and willing to take stand,” McKinnon said.