{"id":546917,"date":"2010-04-29T10:02:21","date_gmt":"2010-04-29T14:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/?p=44672"},"modified":"2010-04-29T10:02:21","modified_gmt":"2010-04-29T14:02:21","slug":"how-to-engineer-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/546917","title":{"rendered":"How to engineer change"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note: This is the fourth in an occasional series of stories on the measures that individual Schools at Harvard are using to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.<\/em><\/p>\n

H<\/span>arvard\u2019s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences<\/a> (SEAS) is a rigorous world of applied mathematics, materials science, bioengineering, and other demanding disciplines.<\/p>\n

But it is also a world in which nearly every common space includes green laminate signs or motion-control sensors to turn off lighting. The collective message: Be green.<\/p>\n

Turn off the lights, wear a sweater, shut the sash on your fume hood. It\u2019s not rocket science. Or, as they say at SEAS: It\u2019s not quantum physics.<\/p>\n

But simple steps like these \u2014 along with exacting building standards and other technical measures \u2014 have helped SEAS to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 11 percent from fiscal 2006 to fiscal 2009. That kind of progress also owes a lot to University-wide measures to save energy, said Edward P. Jackson<\/a>, SEAS director of physical resources.<\/p>\n

That number puts the School on track to meet the University\u2019s ambitious GHG emissions goal of a 30 percent reduction by 2016, inclusive of growth, with 2006 as the baseline year.<\/p>\n

SEAS tightened the University-wide standard for temperature set points by adjusting heating and cooling systems to start later and finish earlier. \u201cWe did it, and waited for complaints,\u201d said SEAS manager of facilities Donald Claflin<\/a>. \u201cAnd there weren\u2019t many.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saving energy is everybody\u2019s business, from big energy systems to students who pause to shut off the lights. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of little pieces,\u201d he said. \u201cEverybody\u2019s involved. Everybody\u2019s a player.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the technical side, SEAS has installed efficient lighting in its five buildings, and on the two floors it leases at 60 Oxford St. It has also implemented an automated energy management system in the Maxwell Dworkin building, and examined its operating system through the lens of energy savings. By this fall, SEAS will have motion-detection sensors on lights in all of its operation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s many small steps,\u201d said Fawwaz Habbal<\/a>, SEAS executive dean. \u201cLittle drops of water on a stone will eventually make a mark.\u201d<\/p>\n

This kind of effort \u2014 assess, innovate, invent \u2014 is perfect for engineers, he added. \u201cYou give us a problem and we solve it.\u201d<\/p>\n

SEAS students, faculty, and staff also are exploring other pathways to sustainability. Some are personal-scale pathways. Custodian Joanne Carson sets aside coffee grounds in a composting bowl in the kitchen at Pierce Hall. People take them home for their gardens, she said.<\/p>\n

Other pathways are on a bigger scale. For one, in fiscal 2009, SEAS recovered 60 percent of its recyclable waste, piling up 73 tons for the blue bin.<\/p>\n

All SEAS buildings are covered by a green cleaning program that minimizes chemical use. And four LEED projects are under way at SEAS; one more is complete. (LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a professional U.S. rating system for sustainable building.)<\/p>\n

The SEAS Computing and Information Technology office has already been converted from 2,000 square feet of lounge space to three energy-efficient offices in Maxwell Dworkin.<\/p>\n

At SEAS Northwest Labs B1, a LEED project now under construction will bring together researchers in medicine, engineering, biology, and applied sciences.<\/p>\n

Renovations are ongoing at the SEAS Vlassak Lab and the Weitz Lab, both in the Gordon McKay Laboratory of Applied Science on Oxford Street. LEED-standard renovations are also taking place in two engineering science laboratories at 58 Oxford St.<\/p>\n

\u201cLabs are really challenging,\u201d said Habbal. At SEAS, they are energy-intensive hives of complicated gear, from computers, fume hoods, and imaging systems to quantum-cascade lasers.<\/p>\n

In addition, SEAS researchers there are looking into new sources of energy, African water resources, efficient computing, carbon sequestration, and the chemistry of climate change.<\/p>\n

Sustainability, said SEAS administrative director Jennifer Casasanto<\/a>, \u201cis part of our dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sustainability is also about encouraging ideas. That means student involvement.<\/p>\n

SEAS is part of an arts-science collaboration that helps students and faculty turn their ideas \u2014 many of them about green technology \u2014 into practical reality. The Laboratory at Harvard, located in the Northwest Science Building, is run by SEAS faculty member David Edwards, Gordon McKay Professor of the Practice of Biomedical Engineering, along with SEAS staff member Hugo Van Vuuren.<\/p>\n

A couple of ideas have already reached reality. One is the sOccket<\/a>, a portable energy-making device shaped like a soccer ball. Kick, dribble, or throw it around, and the sOccket \u2014 rigged with inductive coil technology \u2014 stores energy. Prototypes have been tested in South Africa and Kenya.<\/p>\n

Also, SEAS student Henry Xie \u201911 developed the Harvard Reuse List<\/a>, an online supply swap for students and staff.<\/p>\n

Traditional classroom work touches on sustainability, as well. The oldest such class \u2014 and \u201ca capstone experience for students,\u201d said Habbal \u2014 is Engineering Science (ES) 96.<\/p>\n

Students take on real-world issues at Harvard, then produce book-length recommendations for action. Past examples include energy use at Pierce Hall, the Blackstone complex, and Harvard athletic facilities and Houses.<\/p>\n

SEAS classes in applied mathematics, environmental engineering, and climate studies deal with sustainability too.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an issue that requires cooperation, awareness, collective action, and intensive study. \u201cThe bottom line,\u201d said Habbal, \u201cis mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note: This is the fourth in an occasional series of stories on the measures that individual Schools at Harvard are using to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Harvard\u2019s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) is a rigorous world of applied mathematics, materials science, bioengineering, and other demanding disciplines. But it is also a world […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4175,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-546917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4175"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546917\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}