Hanzhang Lai is graduating from the Harvard Graduate School of Design in May 2026 with a Master in Design Studies and concentration in Ecologies. During her time at Harvard, Hanzhang became involved in campus sustainability initiatives and programs, including the Office for Sustainability’s Council of Student Sustainability Leaders (CSSL). Learn more about Hanzhang’s experience at Harvard.
How are you involved with the Harvard Office for Sustainability?
I had been following the events initiated by the Harvard Office for Sustainability (OFS) since I joined Harvard. This year I joined CSSL as a member, and it has been a wonderful year surrounded by passionate peers from all different walks of life.
What is your best memory working in sustainability at Harvard?
My best memories aren’t singular moments but an accumulation of small ones — through different classes, symposiums, panel discussions, and informal corridor chats. What kept pulling me forward was the diversity of lenses: scientists, policymakers, designers, activists, and people in finance, all circling the same urgent questions from different angles. I left each exchange not with more answers, but with better questions.
Bonus: Exposure to all the plant-based food options around Harvard at CSSL gathering events!
What other sustainability experiences did you have at Harvard and beyond?
Beyond CSSL, I was part of the Salata Institute Student Ambassadors Program, which connected me to a wider stream of sustainability information and opportunities. One highlight was moderating a panel at the Climate in Career Action Speaker Series hosted by the Salata Institute. I also made the most of cross-registration across Harvard and MIT, taking courses spanning environmental justice, material science, climate policy and regulation, business models and financial mechanisms, and design practice. I wanted to understand sustainability not through one discipline, but as something that cuts across all of them.
What were the most inspiring sustainability topics you learned about?
It might seem obvious, but the more I learn about the consequences of material life cycles and Scope 3 emissions, the more I realize how much environmental cost is embedded in habits so ordinary they feel invisible. Coming from the design industry, where materiality is sometimes abstracted, this has been a quiet reckoning. What gives me hope is knowing that researchers and practitioners in the Harvard community are actively working to measure and address these impacts — turning what feels invisible into something we can actually act on.
What advice would you give to incoming students?
Branch out and do not be afraid of introducing yourselves!