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Sustainable Purchasing

Ready to make more informed, sustainable purchasing decisions for your office? Contact rachel_martinez@harvard.edu to request the Sustainable Office Worksheet, a resource designed by the Harvard Office for Sustainability to help purchasers follow best practices.


GENERAL TIPS

Practice Patience

Be mindful about the harms of an immediacy economy (e.g., next-day deliveries may have a higher emissions footprint than a 2-day order).

Right-Size Orders

Avoid excess by right-sizing orders of office materials and food for events.

BPI Compostable

Choose Reusable & Compostable

Choose BPI-certified compostable products when reusables are not a viable option.

Consider health in the supply chain

Give preference to companies that have healthier and safer labor practices.

Prioritize durability

Purchase for quality and long-term durability, not quantity.

Reduce unnecessary packaging

Buy in bulk when needed to reduce unnecessary packaging.

Bulk Order

Stop Before Your Shop!

Do you need the product?

Can you share or borrow the product instead of purchasing it? Check with your department administrator if this resource already exists.

Recycle arrows icon in dark green.

What will happen to the product when you are done using it?

Can you reuse this product? Donate it? If not, what is the proper and most sustainable way to recycle this product? Learn more about zero waste.

Graphic, green icon of trees and shrubbery.

What are the impacts of the product?

What are the upstream resources necessary to create the product (Scope 3 emissions)? What are the supply chain impacts on climate, health, and wellbeing for all?


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Sustainability Resources

Explore sustainability resources at Harvard.

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Upcoming Events

November

10

Monday
4:30 pm-6:00 pm GMT+0000

Launch Party: 2026 President’s Innovation Challenge

Join us for the exciting launch of this year’s President’s Innovation Challenge (PIC)! Experience an evening packed with inspiration as Harvard’s brightest founders come together to ignite new ideas. Hear from Executive Director Jill Kravetz and a panel of past winners, who’ll share insider tips on crafting a standout application and making the most of your PIC experience. Mingle with student and alumni entrepreneurs, connect with advisors, and fuel your ambitions over snacks and mocktails. Open to all fully matriculated Harvard students and select alumni, the PIC is your chance to turn bold solutions into impact. Don’t miss your shot—apply by December 8, 2025! Learn more at innovationlabs.harvard.edu/pic .

November

06

Thursday
6:00 pm-9:00 pm GMT+0000

Open to the Public

The Radiant Sea: Color and Light in the Underwater World

Harvard Museums

Dive into the wonders of the ocean with marine biologist and photographer Steven Haddock, Senior Scientist, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, and coauthor with Sönke Johnsen of The Radiant Sea (Abrams Books, 2025). Through stunning photography, insightful captions, and engaging essays, the book explores how sea creatures display transparency, vivid pigmentation, iridescence, bioluminescence, and fluorescence—from the shallow tropics to the deep sea. In this presentation, Steven Haddock will share the science behind these luminous marine phenomena, along with stories from the scientific expeditions that enabled him to capture them. Videos, animations, and hands-on demonstrations will bring the book’s remarkable images to life. This event offers a unique glimpse into the vibrant world hidden beneath the waves.

November

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.

November

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.

December

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.

November

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.

November

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.

December

03

Wednesday
11:00 am-2:00 pm GMT+0000

Freecycle at Smith Campus Center (SCC)

freecycle
Zero Waste

Stop by the Smith Campus Center for an December Freecycle! 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.
Everyone is welcome, and no donation is necessary to shop.

November

05

Wednesday
11:00 am-2:00 pm GMT+0000

Freecycle at Smith Campus Center (SCC)

freecycle
Zero Waste

Stop by the Smith Campus Center for an October Freecycle! 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.
Everyone is welcome, and no donation is necessary to shop.