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

The $7 Hybrid Car - Interested?

Ever wish you had a car, but don't want to deal with payments, parking, and maintenance? Zipcar is the perfect solution for you! 

Here's how it works. First, you pay a $25 yearly membership fee. $75 is the normal rate, but Harvard students get a discount. A few days after registering and paying that fee, you get a Zipcar member card in the mail. Using your membership number, you can reserve a car online or by phone.  Hourly rates range from $7 for a small hybrid, to $11.25 for an SUV or large vehicle that could work for moving, to $13.25 for the Mini Cooper Convertible if you're trying to impress somebody.

Tone Your Backside!

Langdell Introduces Double-Sided Printing

As of the beginning of the academic year, we're happy to report that through a collaborative effort with the good folks at ITS, a new scheme is in place to encourage double-sided printing at Langdell library without increasing the overall printing volume. Double-sided printing is now available at all of the printers throughout Langdell. The price per page of single-sided printing is also now double what it was last year while the price of double-sided printing has not changed. However, the default printing option is still set to single-sided so make sure that you choose the double-sided option before printing if you want to pay less and help the environment in the process. Additional details can be found on the related post on the ITS blog: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/hlshelp/08/new-printing-costs-and-benefits/

Picture found at http://askehbl.wordpress.com/2009/02/23/duplex-printing-coming-soon-to-a-library-near-you/

HLS Reduces Its Wasteline

At the suggestion of the Green Living Reps, the HLS student government recently conducted a poll to determine student attitudes towards the potential elimination of paper cups at the free coffee stations around campus. We're excited to report that the overwhelming majority of students said they supported such an effort! The Dean of Students is now in the process of purchasing reusable mugs for 1L's and LLM's (reusable mugs were handed out to 2L's and 3L's last year) and working out an implementation plan that will address the many of the helpful comments that were received from student voters. A related post can be found on the HLS Student Government blog: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/studentgov/2009/10/06/the-great-coffee-cup-debate-the-results-are-in

Americans use four hundred and ten thousand disposable paper cups every 15 minutes. Chris Jordan depicts this in his artwork, above, which can be found at http://www.eventsupplies.co.uk/blog/archives/category/catering-supplies-news-info-other