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Data & Progress

Sustainability Action Plan: Stakeholder Engagement

Stakeholder Engagement

Aligning Harvard’s network of decentralized Schools and Central Administration Business Units around shared goals and policies to advance sustainability requires extensive stakeholder engagement with our diverse community of tens of thousands of students, faculty, and staff. 

This Sustainability Action Plan benefited from a robust stakeholder engagement process between 2020-2022, which included hundreds of stakeholders: faculty, senior administrators, facilities and operations teams, student leaders, alumni, and external experts. 

Stakeholder Engagement Process

  • STEP 1 | Presidential Committee on Sustainability
  • STEP 2 | Faculty, Student, and staff engagement
  • STEP 3 | Office for Sustainability drafts plan
  • STEP 4 | Multi-stakeholder review
  • STEP 5 | Review and sign-off by Schools, senior administrators, and the Presidential Committee on Sustainability
  • STEP 6 – Ongoing | Periodic review managed by the Presidential Committee on Sustainability

Acknowledgments

Hundreds of stakeholders played important roles in the creation of Harvard’s Sustainability Action Plan and not all can be named here. Below we recognize key stakeholders who contributed to the Plan.

  • Presidential Committee on Sustainability
  • Sustainability Plan Subcommittee of the Presidential Committee on Sustainability:
    • Bill Clark (co-chair): Harvey Brooks Research Professor of International Science, Public Policy and Human Development (HKS)
    • Jody Freeman (co-chair): Archibald Cox Professor of Law (HLS) 
    • Melissa Fiffer: Doctoral Student, Harvard Chan School of Public Health (’22)
    • Alicia Harley: Post-doctoral Research Fellow in the Sustainability Science Program (HKS)
    • Heather Henriksen: Managing Director of the Office for Sustainability (OFS)
    • Charles Hua: Student, Harvard College (’23)
    • Brooke Pulitzer: Assistant Provost for Research (OVPR) 
    • Karen Thornber: Harry Tuchman Levin Professor in Literature and Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations (FAS)
    • David Havelick: Assistant Director, Office for Sustainability
  • Council of Student Sustainability Leaders (’20-’21, ’21-’22, ’22-‘23)
  • Sustainability Management Council (Operational and Administrative Leaders)
  • Senior Leadership, including:
    • Doug Elmendorf: Dean of Faculty, Harvard Kennedy School; Don K. Price Professor of Public Policy
    • Rakesh Khurana: Danoff Dean of Harvard College; Professor of Sociology and Organizational Behavior
    • Robin Kelsey: Dean of Arts and Humanities, Faculty of Arts and Sciences; Shirley Carter Burden Professor of Photography
    • Sherri Anne Charleston: Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer
    • James Stock: Vice Provost for Climate and Sustainability; Harold Hitchings Burbank Professor of Political Economy (FAS)
  • Futerra (creative and technical partner)