Greening the Holidays

Want to be environmentally conscious this holiday season? There are plenty of ways to be mindful of the planet while still spreading holiday cheer.


Go Local: when looking for the perfect gift, look no further than Cambridge! Check out the list of locally owned businesses that are members of the non-profit organization, Cambridge Local-First. In particular, check out Greenward, a store on Mass Ave that sells "eco-modern" goods. Or, consider a gift certificate to a local certified Green Restaurant.

Green Gifts: Check out these 101 Green Gift Ideas for an array eco-friendly gift ideas. And, learn the art of re-gifting and getting away with it...something we all are tempted to do every once and a while! You're sure to find an appropriate green gift for everyone on your list.

Give Less Stuff: Take your sister to a movie, make a donation in your mother's name, cook your boyfriend an organic dinner. There are plenty of ways you can give this season without giving stuff. And, think outside the box with these these alternative gift ideas.

Wrapping Reuse: Wrap your gifts with things you have around the house; magazine pages, retail shopping bags, old maps or even pickle jars (washed out of course). Give a gift within a gift by placing it inside a canvas bag, reusable gift wrap cloth, or wrapping it in a scarf. Reuse ribbon and add some natural flare, like a pine cone, instead of a bow. Green gift wrapping can be fun, functional, and save you money.

Mindful Decor: Save and reuse decorations, make garland out of cranberries or popcorn, buy a real tree (you can't beat the smell), nix the tinsel and fake snow and be crafty by making original decoration or ornaments from that junk-drawer of yours. Reduce what you send to the landfill this holiday season. Natural decorations can be beautiful (and tasty) and old/reused decorations add character.Checkout more ideas here.

Green Cuisine: Buy local, sustainable and organic for your holiday feast. And even better, do so on a budget. Wherever you will be this holiday, check what is in season for a fresh and delicious meal.

Photo Credit: jek in the box/CC-NA-ND 2.0

Hamilton Hall Wins the Reduce Your Juice Competition

The results are in, Hamilton is the winner of the Reduce Your Juice Electricity Competition! It was a fight until the end, but Hamilton outperformed Gallatin with a 4% reduction in the last week making their average reduction for the competition 3.5%. Congratulations Hamilton!

In total, the 5 HBS dorms made a notable impact on the school’s electricity consumption. If we keep our energy conserving behaviors up throughout the year, we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 10 metric tons of carbon dioxide. This is equivalent to saving 1,020 gallons of gasoline, 21 barrels of oil and $3,600 per year. *

While the competition is over, it is still important to keep conserving, so let’s continue on the right path. Visit the HBS Sustainability site for simple tips on how to reduce your energy consumption.

*Source: EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator and the Office For Sustainability

Photo Credit: Amarand Agasi cc by-nc-sa

A Behind the Scenes Look at HBS Energy Projects

For the first time ever, the HBS Green Living program coordinated with HBS Operations to offer students a tour of campus energy conservation projects. In 2008 President Faust announced the University’s greenhouse gas reduction (GHG) goal; to reduce GHG emissions 30% below a 2006 baseline by 2016, including growth. HBS has been hard at work and has since achieved a 27% GHG reduction! This behind the scenes tour of campus energy projects gave students insight into how HBS has been reducing their energy consumption and how they plan to continue on this downward trend.

In response to impressive student interest, two tours were offered on Tuesday, December 8. The first stop on the tour was the Shad Atrium, where the group was introduced to the tour leaders, Jason Munro, the HBS Associate Director of Facilities Management and Samantha Monaghan, the Assistant Manager of Sustainability. Jason and Sam then led the group up to the roof of Shad where we saw the green roof (well, we could see some of the 9,000 perennials peeping through the fresh snow). We also learned about Shad’s photovoltaic panels, which provide an annual savings of more than $11,000 and avert 75,000 of carbon dioxide per year.

From the roof we headed down to the basement where we saw (and heard!) Shad’s co-generation unit. The co-gen unit produces electricity and uses the thermal energy that would other wise be waste heat, to produce Shad’s domestic hot water (showers, laundry) year round and part of the heating hot water needed in winter. This unit saves HBS $51,566 and 1 million pounds of carbon dioxide per year. We then traversed through the tunnels, beyond the student mailroom, and ended up at the HBS Chilled Water Plant. Here we learned about how HBS has tightened the HVAC schedule and implemented new protocols that, with the help of the highly technical Environmental Monitoring System software, have helped contribute significantly to HBS’ 27% GHG reduction.

The Green Living Program and HBS Operations will be offering tours again in the spring semester. These are sure to be very educational if you are considering a career in cleantech/sustainability or if you are simply interested in learning about some of the green technologies that are right in our backyard.

Copenhagen Climate Summit Starts today!

The largest and most important UN climate change conference in history, with diplomats from 192 nations in attendance, started today in Copenhagen. This could be the best, and last, chance for a global deal to be made to protect the world from global warming.

56 newspapers around the world have published this editorial today to coincide with the start of the negotiations; Fourteen days to seal history's judgment on this generation.

Check out the live blog of the conference to stay informed of summit happenings.