Sustainability Standards
The Office for Sustainability is committed to raising the standard of sustainability at Harvard. From the chemicals we use to clean our buildings, to the materials we use to construct state-of-the-art buildings, we are ensuring our operational choices are informed and intentional to contribute to a healthier, more sustainable future on our campus and beyond.
View Harvard’s Sustainability Standards:

Upcoming Sustainability Events
03
Monday
8:00 am-8:00 am GMT+0000
Development While Decarbonizing: India’s Path to Net Zero
India’s net-zero ambitions require a profound rethinking of how development and decarbonization intersect—not just in theory, but in the way institutions operate, capital is mobilized, and communities are engaged. This opening panel will explore the structural trade-offs and coordination challenges involved in aligning national climate goals with local development imperatives. It will examine how policy frameworks, financial innovation, and entrepreneurial ecosystems can work together to support transitions that are both equitable and executable. Drawing on cross-sector experience and past fieldwork, the conversation will surface actionable insights on how India—and by extension, other emerging economies—can structure a pragmatic yet ambitious path to net zero.
07
Friday
1:00 pm-4:30 pm GMT+0000
Harvard Climate & Sustainability Expo
Are you a Harvard or MIT student or alumni interested in a career in climate and sustainability? The Salata Institute Climate and Sustainability Career Expo is a collaborative effort across Harvard schools and MIT to connect organizations focused on climate, sustainability, and the environment with Harvard undergraduates, graduate students, and alumni. Join us for the next expo on Friday November 7, 2025 from 12:30 – 4:30pm.
22
Wednesday
12:00 pm-1:30 pm GMT+0000
International Law & Climate Interventions – Is There a There There?
What does international law say, if anything, about climate intervention research and deployment? What might it say? What should it say? Join us for a lunch seminar titled “International Law and Climate Interventions — Is There a There There?” featuring Daniel Bodansky, Regents’ Professor of Law at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University.
Daniel Bodansky is the author of The Art and Craft of International Environmental Law (Harvard University Press, 2010; 2nd edition co-authored with Harro Van Asselt, OUP, 2014), which received the 2011 Sprout Award from the International Studies Association as the best book that year on international environmental politics. He also co-authored International Climate Change Law (with Lavanya Rajamani and Jutta Brunnee) (OUP 2017), which received the 2018 Certificate of Merit from the American Society of International Law as the best book that year in a specialized area of international law. Prior to joining the ASU faculty in 2010, he taught at the University of Washington Law School from 1989-1999, served as Climate Change Coordinator at the U.S. State Department from 1999-2001, and held the Woodruff Chair of International Law at the University of Georgia from 2002-2010. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, served on the Board of Editors of the American Journal of International Law from 2001-2011, and is a graduate of Harvard (A.B.), Cambridge (M.Phil.) and Yale (J.D.).
03
Wednesday
12:00 pm-1:00 pm GMT+0000
Floods Splintering Earth’s Ice Sheets
Laura A. Stevens is a geophysicist whose research focuses on hydrological drivers of ice-sheet deformation, combining a range of observational techniques and theoretical approaches to understand ice-sheet dynamics in our warming climate. At Radcliffe, Stevens is interrogating a newly collected dataset to explore whether emerging, high-elevation lakes on top of the Greenland Ice Sheet could augment this ice sheet’s contribution to sea-level rise, alongside collaborating with Harvard’s polar oceanographers to reimagine directions for the joint field of fjord-ice-sheet dynamics.
29
Wednesday
6:00 pm-7:30 pm GMT+0000
The Environment Forum with Michael Lobel | Van Gogh and the End of Nature
Vincent van Gogh has become indelibly identified with depictions of the natural world, from the variegated colorations of flowers, trees and other types of vegetation to the manifold forms of the terrain. Yet nature— both as concept and experience — was being profoundly reshaped in Van Gogh’s time, particularly through the intense and widespread impact of industrialization. This lecture reconsiders the imagery, historical circumstances, and artistic approach of one of modern art’s most iconic figures, as well as his art’s relevance to threats of climate change and environmental despoliation we face today.
20
Monday
4:30 pm-6:00 pm GMT+0000
Energy Seminar at Harvard: Anil Achyuta, Partner, Energy Impact Partners
The Energy Seminar at Harvard hosts weekly seminars with leading voices in climate and energy, offering a unique opportunity to engage with the founders, investors, executives, and policymakers driving decarbonization.
Join on 10/20 for a seminar with Anil Achyuta, partner at Energy Impact Partners, for a presentation titled “Peace time and war time VC.” Anil Achyuta is a Partner at Energy Impact Partners’ Frontier Strategy, where he spearheads global investments in early-stage climate tech startups. He oversees fund strategy, portfolio development, and high-impact investments that align financial returns with climate innovation. Previously, Anil was one of the founding members and Managing Director at TDK Ventures, a global frontier tech corporate venture capital fund. While at TDK, Anil spearheaded numerous investments and exits, and served as an Observer on seven Boards.
20
Monday
4:30 pm-5:30 pm GMT+0000
Harvard Voices on Climate Change: Trade, Tariffs, and Climate
The Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability and the Harvard Alumni Association invite you to the next installment of Harvard Voices on Climate Change, a virtual series showcasing Harvard faculty and fellows on different dimensions of the climate challenge.
In this session, Professors Catherine Wolfram, MIT Sloan School of Management, and Joe Aldy, Harvard Kennedy School, both Faculty Co-Leads of the Global Climate Policy Project at Harvard-MIT, will discuss how trade measures such as tariffs, border adjustments, and climate coalitions are shaping the global energy transition. The conversation will examine the intersection of economics, policy, and diplomacy in building a more climate-aligned international trading system.
06
Thursday
12:00 pm-5:00 pm GMT+0000
15th Veronica Rudge Green Prize: “Urban Design as a Development Strategy” Workshops
Established in 1986, the biennial Green Prize recognizes projects that make an exemplary contribution to the public realm of a city, improve the quality of life in that context, and demonstrate a humane and worthwhile direction for the design of urban environments. Eligible projects must include more than one building or open space constructed in the last 10 years.
The 15th Veronica Rudge Green Prize in Urban Design has been awarded to the Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture (RICA) campus in Bugesera, Rwanda. With this award, the GSD acknowledges excellence in not just design but also process. Demonstrating a commitment to experimentation, the RICA project sets a new standard for evaluating innovation in the field of urban design. The project was realized through constant negotiation between city officials, motivated designers, and mobilized citizens. This process now serves as a model to educate other cities about implementation pathways. MASS led the master planning, architecture, landscape, engineering, furniture design and fabrication, and construction for the project.
05
Wednesday
6:30 pm-8:00 pm GMT+0000
15th Veronica Rudge Green Prize: “Urban Design as a Development Strategy” Reception
Established in 1986, the biennial Green Prize recognizes projects that make an exemplary contribution to the public realm of a city, improve the quality of life in that context, and demonstrate a humane and worthwhile direction for the design of urban environments. Eligible projects must include more than one building or open space constructed in the last 10 years.
The 15th Veronica Rudge Green Prize in Urban Design has been awarded to the Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture (RICA) campus in Bugesera, Rwanda. With this award, the GSD acknowledges excellence in not just design but also process. Demonstrating a commitment to experimentation, the RICA project sets a new standard for evaluating innovation in the field of urban design. The project was realized through constant negotiation between city officials, motivated designers, and mobilized citizens. This process now serves as a model to educate other cities about implementation pathways. MASS led the master planning, architecture, landscape, engineering, furniture design and fabrication, and construction for the project.
28
Tuesday
11:00 am-2:00 pm GMT+0000
Freecycle at HGSE Gutman Cafe
Stop by the Gutman Cafe for a Freecycle event! Drop off reusable goods you no longer need, and browse a fantastic selection of items brought by others. Find some secondhand items to gift this year. Popular items include books, clothes, and working household goods. Open to Harvard-ID holders only, and no donation is necessary to shop.