Dean Supports Green Goals

Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) Michael D. Smith has expressed support for a plan to reduce Harvard’s greenhouse gas emissions, following a private meeting last Thursday with members of a task force charged with proposing gas reduction strategies.

The draft, written by undergraduates, faculty members, and administrators on the task force, calls for the University’s flagship school to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 to a level 11 percent below total emissions in 1990.

“[Thursday’s meeting] was the first time I got all the details,” Smith said in an interview Friday. “I think it’s a very important initiative. I’m in support of it.”

The next step in the process will be for Smith to speak with University President Drew G. Faust, a key step before a final decision is made, according to Environmental Action Committee (EAC) Co-Chair Mitchell C. Hunter ’09.

The task force has been working to create the draft for the past year.

The group was assembled after 88 percent of Harvard undergraduates and 93 percent of graduate students voted to reduce FAS’s greenhouse gas emissions in an online referendum last fall.

This semester, the EAC has actively worked to garner student support for the plan’s implementation, according to Hunter.

The organization has planned a variety of educational events on climate change, including speaker events, barbecues, and movie screenings.

At these events, students were updated on the formulation of the draft and were given green buttons to wear in order to demonstrate their support for its implementation.

Smith said in Friday’s interview that he has a green button of his own.

According to the EAC, FAS produces 100,000 metric tons of carbon emissions each year.

An 11 percent reduction of this number would be consistent with policies already in place in 31 American cities and Yale University’s recent pledge to reduce emissions by 10 percent, according to government statistics.

However, a number of concerns have been raised about the potential financial cost of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and whether a reduction to a level 11 percent lower than in 1990 is a feasible goal given Harvard’s expansion into Allston.

But Smith said he is optimistic about the prospects of the plan.

“[There is] a very bright future for the future of that initiative,” Smith said. “I think everyone is excited about it.”

—Samuel P. Jacobs contributed to the reporting of this story.