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Harvard University Cambridge, Spring 2004, Waste Reduction

BACKGROUND Campus Profile is an urban campus of about 20,000 students (6,600 undergraduates) located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a lively city with a population over 100,000. Harvard occupies 4,700 acres and within the next 10-15 years, the university will be doubling the size of its campus as it develops the land acquired within the past decade across the Charles River in Allston (a segment of Boston). Recent campus greening efforts have been led by the Harvard Environmental Action Committee (http://www.greencrimson.org), the Harvard Green Campus Initiative (HGCI) (http://www.greencampus.harvard.edu), and the FAS Resource Efficiency Program (http://www.greencampus.harvard.edu/REP).

Contacts Allison Rogers, Class of 2004 Esther Tian, Class of 2005 NWF Fellow Co-Coordinator, Harvard Re-Store Harvard Green Campus Initiative Phone: 617-680-8920 Phone: 617- 519-5318 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected]

Rob Gogan Leith Sharp Director, Harvard Recycling & Waste Management Phone: 617-496-0922 Harvard Facilities Maintenance Operations E-mail: [email protected] Phone: 617- 495-3042 E-mail: [email protected]

GOALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS Goals The goal is to create a campus store, the Harvard Re-Store, which will sell and donate reused and refurbished materials to students, staff, and the local community, creating a student-operated non-profit that promotes waste reduction and reuse. Last year alone, Harvard sent 40 tons of computers and other electronic devices for recycling at a cost of $45,000. The major goals of the project are to reduce Harvard’s electronic waste, increase awareness about the importance of reusing materials, provide affordable refurbished computers to the local community with a focus on those who are economically disadvantaged, and build a student-run green enterprise.

Specific goals included creating an analysis of the feasibility of and a strategic plan for the creation of such a store; building partnerships with relevant partners on campus (including Harvard Recycling and Waste Management, HGCI, student organizations, and the college administration; to help in the institutionalization of such a store; a spring publicity campaign for

National Wildlife Federation • Campus Environmental Yearbook • 2003-2004

a “Green Move-Out” advertising the collection of computers and other reusables; selling and donating computers at the beginning of the 2005 fall semester; and implementing the initial layout for a student employment (or partial volunteer) program to refurbish and distribute the collected computers.

Long-term goals include creating an employment (or partial volunteer) program to provide computer skills training to the recipients of the computers and, once the program has proven to be initially successful, to expand beyond computers (to items such as refurbished furniture, student art projects, and recycled material crafts) with the hope that the Harvard Re-Store can become a self-sustaining, student-operated green business that will promote on-campus education and serve as a visible symbol within the commercial area of Harvard Square about the importance of reuse and waste reduction.

Accomplishments Allison built a team of interested students who together entered two different on-campus student business competitions in the spring of 2004. Their proposal won first place for the non-profit sector of the Center for Enterprise Student Entrepreneurial Competition (www.has.net/cfe/ce.html), with the prize of $1000, as well as first place in the Harvard Social Enterprise Club Venture Good Competition (http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~sec), with a prize of $1000.

The Harvard Re-Store team is currently in the process of assessing the computers collected during the 2004 spring Green Move-Out and collected from campus departments throughout the summer and the sale of computers to students and student organizations in the fall.

An unquantifiable accomplishment to date has been the growing number of supporters of the Harvard Re-Store vision who will undoubtedly help in promoting the future awareness of the project on campus.

Challenges and Responses The major challenge has been the realization that a project like this takes a long time to create a strong foundation. It can be challenging to avoid feeling as though more quantitative progress should have been made to date. However, recognizing the academic calendar can determine the speed and progress of a campus-focused program and realizing that building strong partnerships and roots for the program and searching for more resources upfront will prove to be very valuable in the long run.

ENGAGEMENT AND SUPPORT Leaders and Supporters Rob Gogan, Director of Harvard Recycling and Waste Management (http://www.uos.harvard.edu/information/dep_fac_sol.shtml), has been a key individual and visionary for the Harvard Re-Store. Rob has been promoting campus greening for years, having increased recycling rates exponentially in the 1990s after suggesting the economic feasibility for the creation of his position, having run a collection program for reusables at the end of each year, partnering with Habitat for Humanity to resell or donate certain materials, and having co-

National Wildlife Federation • Campus Environmental Yearbook • 2003-2004 • Page 2 founded the FAS Resource Efficiency Program (REP), which promotes dorm-based environmental educational awareness. Rob has also run the Annual Waste Audit (creating and assessing bench marks of how much waste can be recycled on-campus) and has partnered with REP and the Harvard Environmental Action Committee (http://www.greencrimson.org) to run the Annual Mt. Trashmore, a visible reminder about the importance of reducing waste on campus. This project would not be possible without the full support and vision of Rob.

The Harvard Faculty of Arts & Sciences (FAS) Resource Efficiency Program (REP) (http://www.greencampus.harvard.edu/REP) was founded in 2002 through the partnership of students involved in the Harvard Environmental Action Committee (EAC), Harvard Recycling and Waste Management, Harvard Office of Physical Resources, FAS Computer Energy Reduction Program, and the Harvard Green Campus Initiative. There are 19 student representatives, one per upper-class dorm and three in the Freshman Yard, who are employed four hours per week to work on a range of dorm-based ecological education programs and energy-efficiency programs. There are two captains (who work 10 hours per week) and one full- time coordinator who oversee the program, along with the guidance of founders on the REP Steering Group. REP helps students to teach other students how to reduce waste production and resource consumption and provides an avenue to communicate directly with the decision-makers about resource use on campus. Allison Rogers was the Mather House Rep during her junior year (and the first year of the program’s existence) and the Co-Captain of REP during her senior year and believes the mentorship she was provided through working with REP contributed to her ability to successfully begin the Harvard Re-Store. Similarly, REP has proven to be a strong partner in helping create awareness about the Green Move-Out and will undoubtedly prove to be a partner in creating awareness about the reuse of computers and other materials on campus. For more information on REP, see the 2003 NWF Campus Ecology Yearbook entry (http://www.nwf.org/campusecology/files/Harvard%20Literacy%20FINAL%2Epdf).

Leith Sharp, Director of the Harvard Green Campus Initiative (www.greencampus.harvard.edu), has also proven to be a key supporter and advisor for the project. The Harvard Green Campus Initiative is an interfaculty program that strives to achieve the environmental, human health, and financial benefits of high performance campus planning, design, and operations. Over the period of three years, the HGCI has supported facility, building, project managers, students and faculty to achieve over $800,000 of annual savings in reduced utility costs, resulting in greenhouse gas reductions of over 11,000,000 pounds per year (1 to 2 percent of Harvard University’s estimated annual greenhouse production for the year 2000). The main programs of the HGCI are the Green Campus Loan Fund, Longwood Green Campus Initiative, the FAS Resource Efficiency Program, the Carbon Emissions Reduction Program, and the Sustainable Buildings Program.

Finally, Harvard Student Agencies Center for Enterprise (http://hsa.net/cfe/about.html) and the Harvard Social Enterprise Club Venture Good Program (http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~sec) have proven to be partners through their generous support through the competition prize money.

Funding This project is supported through a 2004 NWF Campus Ecology Fellowship. Two thousand dollars of additional funding were also secured equally from the Harvard Student Agencies

National Wildlife Federation • Campus Environmental Yearbook • 2003-2004 • Page 3 Center for Enterprise Competition and the Harvard Social Enterprise Club Venture Good Competition.

The computers do not cost anything, as they are donated or recovered by Harvard Recycling and Waste Management. Harvard Recycling has also helped with in-kind services, such as pickup and transportation of materials, as well as providing the storage space for computers. Similarly, the Harvard Green Campus Initiative has helped with in-kind services, such as the use of its space.

The Harvard Re-Store team is currently assessing its budget (payment of student employees, managerial costs, etc.) and would be happy to share a more detailed version (as the project progresses) with anyone interested at a later date.

National Wildlife Federation’s Campus Ecology® Program I have used many of the Campus Ecology resources to include the following: State of the Campus Environment, Green Investment, Green Return, Ecodemia, and the Campus Environmental Yearbook. Consulting with Campus Ecology staff, monthly reporting and the monthly e-news also benefited my project. The resources helped me with my fellowship project and my work with the Re-Store, as well as my general campus greening work as the new Harvard FAS Resource Efficiency Program and Green Campus Undergraduate Environmental Programs Coordinator. I have found that all of them have been extremely helpful!

Campus Ecology has played a major role in the success of getting this project off the ground and, similarly, I foresee that Campus Ecology will continue to play a major role during the remaining months as a Fellow and, similarly, with the work I hope to do with this project beyond. The initial training of all of the Fellows at the NWF Annual Meeting was incredibly helpful for several reasons – first, because it allowed me to connect with other incredible people (who, in themselves, are great resources!) both at NWF and the other Fellows themselves; second, because it offered valuable training sessions to help with leadership and personal development; and, third, because it gave me the inspiration and “juice” to step away from our conference to feel motivated to make my project a success!

The general resources that Campus Ecology provides have been extremely helpful for my project and my general work as a campus environmental activist. I find it incredibly helpful to see what other campuses have done, to stay in touch with the other Fellows, and, most important, to feel supported by the staff of the NWF Campus Ecology program. I recently made sure the Harvard University library system purchased almost all of the NWF Campus Ecology materials to ensure that others at our university will be able to take advantage of these great resources.

As an NWF Fellow, the leadership development calls have been helpful to stay connected with the other Fellows and our NWF Campus Ecology leaders. They have also been a great way to get re-motivated because after each phone call, I feel more grounded with my own vision of my project, reminded of my initial goals, and feel inspired by the others I know who are supporting my work. Similarly, I know that I am continuing to develop as a leader and as an organizer, and it’s very helpful to have professional (and personal) advice on how to make those improvements.

National Wildlife Federation • Campus Environmental Yearbook • 2003-2004 • Page 4 The fellowship listserv in general (and, especially related to the fact Kathy, our coordinator, sends out awesome funding opportunities I don’t hear about elsewhere!) has been very helpful. There are several funds I will apply for that I wouldn’t have heard about without the listserv. Similarly, I have been able to forward those funds that don’t apply to my project to other student environmental activists on campus so that they can take advantage of these great opportunities.

The Buddy Program has been helpful not so much for my project yet, but helpful in that I made contacts with alumni of our university. It was great to be able to converse with people who are doing environmental work at a different level than I am and who can be strong allies, as they are alums, with helping our own university change.

The fact that I can attach NWF to my project and to my work has been extremely helpful. I definitely think the fact that my project was already supported by the NWF Campus Ecology Fellowship program helped with a proposal I submitted with a team for a business competition (which we came in first place for!), and, similarly, has helped with my ability to get positive support from college administrators and for my general work on campus.

CLOSING COMMENT One of the most important items of advice I have is to take the time to build a strong foundation of partners – whether those are college administrators, students, outside supporters, or, hopefully, all of the above! It’s been worth taking the time to research what other colleges have done to create their own computer reuse programs and, similarly, it’s been more than worthwhile to take the time these past several months to build supporters of the Harvard Re-Store vision. I really hope this program will continue for years and years, which means the more supportive partners we have now, the stronger the roots will be to ensure that the program will thrive for years to come. I’ve been very lucky to have such awesome programs as the FAS Resource Efficiency Program and Harvard Green Campus Initiative to support me (and to be personally involved with), and, similarly, have been very lucky to have such a visionary Director of Harvard Recycling & Waste Management. Even if your campus doesn’t have a campus sustainability center (yet!), most likely there are similar people on your campus who can play a similar role and can help you with building resources and getting your program off the ground. Even though I have the full support of HGCI, REP, and Harvard Recycling & Waste Management, I’ve still been trying to branch out to new avenues on campus, such as Harvard Student Agencies, our campus public service organization, and other departments within the administration.

Apply for grants! Chances are your university has business competitions (a great way to build partners) or, if not, look for outside competitions, grants, or other resources, they’re out there. It just means taking the time to do the search and to do the homework of writing the proposal. Apply to be a NWF Campus Ecology Fellowship! (Need I say more? It’s a wonderful experience and definitely worth it!) Even if you’re not a Fellow, you can still tap into their resources. Find a way to meet students from other campuses (they’ll inspire you), such as through programs like the Climate Campaign (www.climatecampaign.org). Go to conferences! It’s a great way to meet others, learn about their projects, take notes for your own campus, share about your own successes, and feel like you are developing yourself as a campus leader and organizer. Most important, build a strong team of people with whom you love to be around, who are visionary, and who are dedicated. This can be even just three committed fellow students or fellow supporters (sometimes the best work gets done in small groups). It’s so much easier to stay motivated and to stay on top of things when you are working as a team. Similarly, the diversity of their vision will help you come up with a more holistic plan. Once you’ve completed all of National Wildlife Federation • Campus Environmental Yearbook • 2003-2004 • Page 5 these steps – built a strong team of supporters, finished your research on how other campuses have been successful, looked for resources and funding, and developed a vision – plan to expect the unexpected! On a college campus, there are so many factors, departments, and segments within the administration that can sometimes pop up at the last minute and may appear to be a roadblock. Realize that you’ll have to be flexible (and creative in your last-minute thinking) and its times like these you’ll be thankful for a strong team to support you and your vision and who can help you work out a solution to the unexpected. Most important, don’t hesitate to take a break and reward yourself with little successes along the way while working on your project. It is easy to become frustrated when things don’t work out exactly as planned and, even if they do always work out just the way you want, it can sometimes become overwhelming trying to be a campus leader, trying to green your campus, while also being a student (and trying to live well) all at the same time. Know that any work you’re doing is great work and be inspired by the fact that your action in doing something will be noticed by others (whether on your campus, at other campuses, or in the general community), who, in turn, will be inspired to take action themselves.

I feel very lucky to have received the NWF Campus Ecology Fellowship. I was able to meet a handful of inspiring campus activists and staff members of NWF, who have proven to be valuable resources for my own campus greening work, for my development as a leader and organizer, and for my ability to be re-inspired constantly by hearing about their successes. It has been great motivation in trying to get the Harvard Re-Store off of the ground. Similarly, I know that because I have received this fellowship, the NWF Campus Ecology Program will be looked to as a resource by campus environmental activists at Harvard hopefully for years to come.

Please don’t hesitate to contact Alli at any point if you have questions about the Harvard Re- Store or about campus greening in general at Harvard. She will be reachable at [email protected] for the rest of her life! She would be psyched to hear your suggestions, questions, or vision and, similarly, would love to be able to tell you about her wonderful experience as a NWF Campus Ecology Fellow.

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