Sustainability and the Built Environment

Please join Harvard faculty, students, and alumni for a hands-on exploration of Harvard’s work with respect to sustainability and the built environment, hosted by the Graduate School of Design. This is an opportunity to foster new connections among faculty, to identify curriculum and research opportunities for students and to explore ways academic research can help the University and community adapt to climate change.


The primary goals are to  1) share what faculty are doing in sustainability, particularly with respect to buildings, campuses, cities, and landscapes; and 2) learn how Harvard might be a test bed for research and teaching related to energy and climate impacts on infrastructure.


This pointed and interactive program involves a short plenary, three breakouts led faculty, and closing synthesis of the workshop. The full agenda ishere.

Details:  April 10, 2012, 2:00 – 5:00 pm (followed by reception); The Graduate School of Design, 48 Quincy St. room 112.

Please respond to this short invitation letting us know your plans.

Sincerely,

Heather Henriksen, Director, Harvard Office for Sustainability
Prof. Richard A Peiser, GSD
Prof. Jack Spengler, HSPH
Prof. Christoph Reinhart, MIT
Prof. John Macomber, HBS

The faculty organizers of this program wish to acknowledge the vital assistance, both intellectual and financial, of:

Harvard University Center for the Environment
Harvard Office for Sustainability
and the Real Estate Academic Initiative

Harvard USGBC Chapter Event - Tour of 46 Blackstone Feb 29th

The Harvard Student USGBC Chapter is hosting it's first event, a tour of the double LEED Platinum certified 46 Blackstone building. The tour is being conducted by Kevin Bright of Harvard Green Building Services. It will be a good opportunity to learn more about LEED and green buildings.

The tour will be held on Wednesday February 29 at noon, and will last about an hour.  The group will meet in the courtyard of 46 Blackstone Street.   

Please RSVP for the event at the following link: 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDkwSXR0b180VzlVSkliVXdRSnVmWWc6MA

The following is background information on the project:  

http://green.harvard.edu/harvard-building-goes-double-leed-platinum

Harvard University has announced a second LEED Platinum certification for its Campus Services building. The university initially achieved its first LEED Platinum certification with the building in 2007 in the New Construction category. Now, the building has earned a second Platinum nod in the LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance (EBOM) category and has outperformed the energy reduction predictions developed during the original renovation.  The double platinum distinction is the first in both New England and the Ivy League, and only the fifth worldwide.

Biodiversity, Ecology, and Global Change. “Global Change, Biodiversity and Poverty: Insights from the Himalaya”

DATE	Thursday, February 16, 2012
TIME	5:00 pm – 6:00 pm EST
WHERE	Biolabs Lecture Hall, 16 Divinity Ave, Cambridge
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR	Harvard University Center for the Environment with generous support from Bank of America
SPEAKER(S)	Kamaljit S. Bawa, professor, Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts, Boston
CONTACT INFO	Lisa Matthews: matthew@fas.harvard.edu
NOTES	Followed by a reception. Global change in the form of climate, land use and biodiversity change is underway in the Himalayas at an unprecedented rapid rate. The Himalayas are the most spectacular of the 34 global hotspots of biodiversity. With about 15 000 glaciers—the highest concentration in the world— these mountains are also the source of Asia’s eight largest rivers. More than 2.0 billion people inhabit the basins of these rivers. Thus global change in the Himalayas is likely to have serious consequences for almost one third of the humanity. In the first part of his talk, Kamal will present recent data from his group on climate and land use change in the Himalayas. In the second part, he will outline the constraints in maintaining multi-functional landscapes that could conserve ecosystem services and foster human wellbeing. In the third and final part, he will comment on the knowledge and institutions required to promote landscape resilience.
MORE	http://environment.harvard.edu/kbawa

Events of Interest Today

Radcliffe Institute Fellows’ Presentation Series. “Habitable Worlds”   DATE Wednesday, February 08, 2012 TIME 4:00 pm EST WHERE Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Radcliffe Gymnasium, 10 Garden Street Cambridge, MA ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study SPEAKER(S) Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, 2011–12 Maury Green Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute, Emory University COST Free CONTACT INFO             617-495-8212       MORE http://www.radcliffe.edu/fellowships/fellows_2012garland-thomson.aspx Seminar in Environmental Economics and Policy: "Destruction, Disinvestment, and Death: Economic and Human Losses Following Environmental Disaster"   DATE Wednesday, February 08, 2012 TIME 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm EST WHERE Harvard Kennedy School, Littauer-382 SPEAKER(S) Solomon Hsiang MORE http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k82245&pageid=icb.page443881

Design Opportunity: Harvard Community Garden Projects

T H E    H A R V A R D    

C O M M U N I T Y  G A R D E N

invites design students to collaborate on upcoming installations slated for Spring of 2011. This is an opportunity to make a measurable impact on the Harvard community and see the dynamic process of collaborative design! Projects to be designed and implemented for the spring are: [1] an earthen oven made from locally-sourced sustainable materials, [2] a small greenhouse, and [3] entry signage and gate. Please come to our first design meeting to learn all about the garden and your potential role in making it great for next season. We hope to see you there!

November 16 @ 6 pm

Rm 318 at the GSD

 Check out our website and blog: www.garden.harvard.edu

Facebook page: www.facebook.com/HarvardCommunityGarden, 
or the Crimson article from Harvestfest 2010

Questions? Contact Cassie Bosco [cbosco@gsd.harvard.edu]

Farm Hack Blog and Events- Designers Needed!

GSDers,

If there's one thing that designers are good at- it is visualization.
We can explain and diagram the sh*t out of anything.

That is why our skills can be applied to a broad range of topics including....
The FARM BILL!

Anybody going to New York around Dec. 3 can participate in the Farm Bill Hackathon.

For more collaboration between Design and Farming,
please take a look at the Farm Hack Blog on the National Young Farmer's Coalition website.

Feel free to send relevant hacks, articles, and events in their direction.