Above the Lawn

Harvard Business School Showcases Its New Green Roof


It's alive!  The roof, that is.  Over the summer the Harvard Business School installed a new Green roof on top of Shad Hall (also known as the building across from the football stadium).  The roof is part of a University-wide effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 30% by 2016 from 2006 levels.  


Apex Green Roofs was hired to roll out the Roofscape, and the Business School is now the proud new owner of the University's first Green roof.  The groundcover is already two inches high, and with miles of fall-colored treetops and church steeples in the background makes for an impressive vista.  The Business School currently has no plans to open the roof up for visitors, but tours are available upon request.     


Green roofs are sprouting up across the country, bringing with them attractive scenery, environmental benefits, and no end of gardening puns.  With a pricetag of around $15 per sq ft (although costs are much less in countries where Green roofing companies have gotten off the ground), why the recent surge in Green roofs?


(1) Green roofs are excellent insulators.  This reduces CO2 emissions of buildings, as well as heating and cooling costs.   
(2) Green roofs soak up rainwater and filter pollutants.  The HBS Green roof is expected to decrease stormwater runoff by as much as 80%.
(3) Green roofs extend the lifetime of a roof by protecting it from harsh weather and extreme temperatures.  


Since Green roofs have been popular in Germany for over 50 years, maybe a better question is why have they taken so long to catch on in the US?  


Should the law school invest in its own Green roof?  Are the benefits worth the costs?  If so, should a Green roof on campus be open to students?   

Food, Inc.

Food, Inc. Film Screening

Thursday November 5

7:15pm

Hauser 102

Food Inc. is an award winning 2009 documentary about the social and environmental impacts of our nation’s food industry.

This Thursday, over 25 screenings of Food Inc. will be taking place across the country.  The Law School’s 7:15pm screening in Hauser 102 will be followed by a 9pm EDT video teleconference discussion with Gary Hirshberg, Stonyfield Farms CEO, featured in Food Inc., and Josh Trought, New Hampshire organic farmer and director of the educational farm D Acres.  

Snacks provided!

Sponsored by the HLS Green Living Program.

FILM SYNOPSIS

In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that's been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA . . . Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield Farms' Gary Hirschberg and Polyface Farms' Joe Salatin, Food, Inc. reveals surprising -- and often shocking truths -- about what we eat, how it's produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.

Energy Competition Heats Up

Holmes takes the lead in dorm-wide conservation competition!  


The dorm that reduces its energy consumption the most in coming weeks will win a free dinner, environmental bragging rights, and of course, eternal glory.  So remember to Reduce Your Juice!  


This week's tip:
Shut down machines at night and enable automatic computer power management.  


Tip from last week:  switch off lights, and be sure to take the sustainability pledge! 

Get in on the (individual) action!

Come hear Prof. Vandenbergh speak about Climate Change tomorrow


Visiting Professor Mike Vandenbergh presents recent work on voluntary individual climate action.


"THE BEHAVIORAL WEDGE: The Potential for Household Actions to Rapidly Reduce U.S. Carbon Emissions." 


Tomorrow (Nov. 3), 12 PM, Pound 201

Reduce Your Juice!

The Annual HLS Electricity Competition

From October 26-November 22, the HLS student residences (Ames, Dane, Holmes, Shaw, Hastings, North, and the HLS apartments) will be competing to see who can reduce their electricity usage the most and express their commitment to sustainability. The prize will be a dinner for the entire dorm.

75% percent of the competition is based on electricity reduction. The other 25% is based on the taking the university-wide sustainability pledge, found here: http://www.green.harvard.edu/pledge/.  There are lots of great tips there for sustainable living. The goal this year is to get 10,000 members of the Harvard community to take the pledge.

Even if you don’t live in the residences, this is a great time to think about what you can be doing to cut down on electricity.  As the weather turns colder, heating will ramp up electricity usage, so it’s an important time to really try and bring it back down in other ways.

The residences will get weekly updates on their progress, along with new tips each week, which we’ll be reposting here. If you don’t live in the residences, make an effort to reduce your electricity usage and then use that as an excuse to treat yourself to dinner at the end of the month.

This week’s tips are all about lighting. Turn off your lights! Leaving florescent lights on doesn’t save energy. Replace your incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents (CFLs), which use 75% less energy and last six times longer (fewer bulbs to buy!).  Brighten your rooms by opening the blinds during the day and keeping your bulbs clean and dust-free. Use “task lighting,” like a desk lamp, instead of lighting up your whole room.

Good luck reducing your juice, and keep checking back here for updates and more green living tips!

Image from:  http://blueridgebluecollargirl.wordpress.com/2007/10/14/the-faces-that-launched-a-thousand-quips/

Hallogreen Costumes

Cambridge Thrift/Resale Shops: Just in time for Halloween costumes!

This is a basic listing of a few stores. More info about each will be coming soon!

1. Goodwill (Locations in Cambridge and Somerville)

http://www.goodwillmass.org/retail_locations.html

The trusty standby! Goodwill has lots of men's and women's clothes, as well as household items and books. 

2. Frida Bee

http://www.yelp.com/biz/frida-bee-cambridge

This store is a little pricier than Goodwill, but their merchandise is consistently good quality.  

3.  Raspberry Beret

http://www.raspberryberet.us/directionsandhours.html

This store was featured on MTV's "Made" this spring.

4. Oona's 

http://www.yelp.com/biz/oonas-cambridge

This store is overflowing with clothing, and is right on Mass Ave. near the undergrad campus. 

Great Menu, Great Venue

Fall Harvest: Farmers Markets around Harvard Law

“Locavorism” was chosen by the Oxford American Dictionary’s word of the year in 2007, and the movement toward eating locally-grown food has continued to expand. An easy way to eat locally and sustainably is to stop by the Harvard Farmers Market on Tuesdays right in front of Memorial Hall. 

Last week, some summer crops were still available, including corn, grapes, and berries. There’s a great selection of root vegetables, including sweet potatoes, carrots, and beets, along with basic veggies and the crisp apples and festive pumpkins that are New England fall specialties.  Aside from the farmer’s stands, you can find candied nuts, ice cream, potted plants, baked goods, maple syrup, and jars of jam made from local fruit.  This market ends on the last Tuesday in October, but you can still find produce, bread, and other local goodies in front of the Charles Hotel on Fridays and Sundays until the end of November.  Hurry and partake in some local, sustainable food before the long winter arrives!

Harvard University Farmers Market

http://www.farmfresh.org/food/farmersmarkets_details.php?market=55

Tuesday: 12:30-6:00

--Through October 27

Charles Square Farmers Market

http://www.farmfresh.org/food/farmersmarkets_details.php?market=54

Sunday: 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM
Friday: 12:00 PM to 6:00 PM

--Through November 22

Bill McKibben On Campus

Bill McKibben is speaking at Harvard’s Memorial Church this Sunday, October 18th from 2:00pm-3:30pm. 

Bill McKibben is an environmental activist, writer, and the founder of 350.org, an international campaign devoted to raising awareness and action against climate change.  McKibben and others are organizing grassroots support for aggressive reductions in CO2 emissions both locally and globally. 

The organization is sponsoring a planetary day of action on October 24, 2009, which will include over 1000 rallies taking place in iconic places worldwide.  (The Boston area rally is from 2:00pm to 3:30pm at the Old North Bridge in Concord, MA 01742.  Details: http://environment.harvard.edu/events/index.htm?event_id=157517375)

More details from the Harvard University Center for the Environment events calendar:

http://environment.harvard.edu/events/index.htm?event_id=190931240