Students Vote on Greener Harvard

As students log in to vote for new Undergraduate Council leadership this week, they will be asked to make another decision: whether or not they support reducing greenhouse gas emissions at Harvard.

The choice comes in the form of a referendum, which calls on the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to a level that is 11 percent below total emissions in 1990 by the year 2020.

The ultimate implementation of the referendum, the second to appear on the UC presidential ballot in five years, is in the hands of the University.

But unlike the last question to appear on the ballot, this resolution seems to have already garnered support from the administration.

In a recent meeting with students, FAS Executive Dean Nancy L. Maull agreed to set up an Energy Audit Task Force to recommend a target reduction for greenhouse gas emissions, according to Jake C. Levine ’06-’07, co-chair of the Environmental Action Committee (EAC), which supported the UC bill.

The last referendum to appear on a UC presidential ballot was a 2004 initiative asking students whether they supported a $10 termbill fee to fund renewable energy at the College.

Though 82 percent of voters supported the fee, Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71 told the UC at the time that he “could not recommend” the proposal if it were submitted to the Faculty.

The University ended up committing $100,000 a year to purchase renewable energy, according to Levine.

The resolution to place the question on the ballot, which the UC passed unanimously last month, was sponsored by UC presidential candidates Tom D. Hadfield ’08 and Ali A. Zaidi ’08 , who are both representatives on the council.

All of this year’s UC presidential candidates have endorsed the referendum.

The ballot statement also asks students to take initiative themselves. Part of the statement reads, “I pledge to do my part to realize these reductions while I am at Harvard.”

EAC co-chair Spring Greeney ’09, said specifics were excluded from the referendum because detailed planning can only occur once a task force has been established.

In the meantime, Hadfield said, “students need to keep pressure on the administration to reduce Harvard’s environmental impact.”

“I hope the referendum will send a clear message to the administration,” he added.

Zaidi said that he thinks FAS will be receptive to the referendum if it passes, citing the sustainability proposals that were signed into effect in 2004 by then-University President Lawrence H. Summers.

“We have had some very successful conversations with deans already,” Zaidi said yesterday.

Yamaguchi Professor of Environmental Health and Human Habitation John D. “Jack” Spengler said that he hopes the referendum passes.

“This is a very serious situation we are facing worldwide, a global crisis,” he said. “Institutions and individuals are going to have to take on the responsibility.”