All HGSE students, faculty, and staff interested in making our school healthier and more sustainable are encouraged to join the HGSE Green Team! Come enjoy a (free!) plant-based and planet-friendly lunch and connect with each other to exchange ideas and explore collaborations. Please RSVP for this in-person event by Wednesday, April 2nd for the meeting so we can plan accordingly to avoid food waste.
The symposium will be a one-day event held at Pound Hall (tentative) at HLS, accommodating approximately 50 attendees. The event will feature six to seven invited speakers who are experts in environmental justice and heat exposure, a poster session, and a networking session. This event is open to public. The primary purpose of this symposium is to foster collaboration and knowledge exchange in addressing environmental injustice in a world with increasing heat exposure. This symposium is highly multidisciplinary and welcome members from academia, law, policy, and community organizations.
Hear a keynote speech from Dr. Amruta Nori-Sarma about extreme heat and environmental justice within the context of public health. This will be followed by two panels titled Mobilizing Resources for Heat Solutions and Continuing the Work for Environmental Justice. The event will end with a reception and poster session. Snacks and refreshments will be provided.
Schools and departments across the University are partnering with the Charles River Conservancy for a morning of cleaning up trash, microplastics, and debris to support a cleaner, healthier Charles River. The CRC will provide a brief education on the local river watershed and provide tools and training. All Harvard community members and their family and friends are welcome to participate!
The Harvard Law School (HLS) Green Team is hosting a Freecycle event on April 17 in Hauser 105! Donations can be dropped off between 10:30-11:30 am and the event will run from 11:30 am-1:30 pm. Drop off reusable goods you no longer need, and browse a fantastic selection of items brought by others. Popular items include books, clothes, and working household goods.
The cultural place-maker Ximena Caminos presents “marine acupuncture,” an innovative practice combining high art and deep science to target critical pressure points within our oceans and fostering environmental awareness through art and action-driven conservation. The ReefLine will be a 7-mile underwater public sculpture park, snorkel trail, and hybrid reef off Miami Beach’s shoreline. Conceived by Ximena Caminos and developed by the BlueLab Preservation Society, the ReefLine nonprofit team collaborates with the architecture firm OMA, as well as marine biologists, researchers, architects, and coastal engineers to design the master plan. Caminos’ lecture, followed by a conversation with Pedro Alonzo and Charles Waldheim, highlights how this pioneering approach uses human ingenuity to ignite ecological processes that regenerate the reef.
Join the Harvard Office for Sustainability and Harvard Common Spaces for an Earth Day Festival on Tuesday, April 22, 2025 from 12 to 2 pm at the Science Center Plaza!
How do we design spaces that evolve with us—shaping, shifting, and adapting to the conditions, behaviors, and needs of those who inhabit them? Adaptive Environments explores how architecture can move beyond the static, making adaptability a core principle in creating resilient, future-ready environments that respond dynamically to their users and surroundings. This symposium, brings together leading voices in architecture and design—including keynote speaker Kjetil Thorsen, Founding Partner of Snøhetta—delves into the dynamic interplay between people, nature, and built environments. We will examine how architectural concepts rooted in an understanding of spatial and material knowledge from the past, combined with emerging technologies, can enable environments that enhance inhabitants’ well-being, extend longevity, and support sustainability by responding intelligently to their surroundings. Discussions will focus on design principles that engage with outdoor conditions, prioritize environmental responsibility, and foster spaces that adapt intuitively to changing needs. We will explore how emerging technologies—IoT, AI, and automation—can enhance scalability and real-time adaptability, creating more efficient, responsive, and human-centered spaces across diverse contexts.
The Green AI Summit, hosted by Harvard Undergraduate AI and Sustainability Group, co-sponsored by Boston University Center for Information and Systems Engineering (CISE), brings together global leaders, researchers, and innovators to explore the intersection of artificial intelligence and sustainability. As AI technology continues to shape the world, the Green AI Summit serves as a critical platform to address the environmental and social impacts of these advancements and to champion responsible development practices.
What if future homes responded to nature and the material intelligence of living systems? This exhibition explores emerging approaches to domestic space that prioritize sustainability, adaptability, and sensory engagement. Featuring inflatable algae-based modules, the installation explores responsive interiors. Sensor devices suggest how future homes might intuitively engage with their environment.
Attend this talk in which Laura A. Schifter and Jonathan Klein highlight the many ways in which K-12 schools and students have tremendous potential to advance solutions on environmental issues, and they provide frameworks for enacting change, in Students, Schools, and Our Climate Moment. Schifter and Klein demonstrate how the effects of climate change intersect with US public schools on multiple levels—for example, schools must prepare students to face the challenges of an uncertain future, accommodate disruptions brought about by extreme weather conditions, and evaluate their systems’ energy consumption and carbon emissions.
Learn about Harvard’s “Museum of Trees” and what it takes to keep North America’s first public arboretum open to all. Presented by Danny Schissler, Head of Operations and Project Management at the Harvard University Arnold Arboretum. Join us on Wednesday, April 20, from 2-3 pm at the Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Building 2, Room 102 (Harvard ID required), or join via Zoom at hsph.me/arnoldarboretumsustainability.
