Green Building

In October 2009, the Harvard Office for Sustainability’s Green Building Services (GBS) team completed an 8 hour Direct Digital Controls (DDC) training delivered by Harvard Facilities Maintenance Operations (FMO). Digital controls and a Building Automation System (BAS) allow operators to control their buildings in an efficient manner.

Harvard University has spent a considerable amount of effort developing its Green Building Guidelines, a set of building design standards for projects over 5 million dollars requiring the use of particular materials and power efficiency levels to ensure that all future construction projects meet certain sustainability benchmarks.

With the certification of the Faculty of Arts and Science's Zhuang Lab, Harvard now has 20 new construction, major rehabilitation, and interior renovation projects certified by the U.S.

The Inn at Harvard has officially been approved as an ENERGY STAR building and is listed on the ENERGY STAR website. The ENERGY STAR label is a nationally recognized standard of excellence in energy performance. It signifies that a building is doing its part to fight global warming by using less energy than its peers.

The University now has a new and powerful tool for determining, among other things, how much energy is being consumed. Energy Witness® is the new utility billing and reporting system replacing the Progress® online utility reporting tool.

UOS has launched a virtual tour of LEED® Platinum Blackstone South—giving a much wider audience the ability to experience the innovative building.

If all goes well, Stuart McNeil, building manager for the Department of Physics, will be well into retirement by the time someone has to change the light bulbs he has just installed in Professor Jene Golovchenko’s biophysics lab.

Byerly Hall, a handsome slate-roofed building at 8 Garden St., opened in 1932. Its Georgian Revival exterior, exterior clock, and white-trimmed windows complement the stately 19th century ambiance of Radcliffe Yard.

But beneath old red brick now beats a 21st century heart, including water and energy systems that meet modern standards for sustainability and efficiency.

The ground behind Andover Hall has been shaking off and on for months. A backhoe moves chunks of earth by the bucket load. Men and women in hard hats and jeans yell over the sounds of thundering machines and grinding metal. One year ago, Rockefeller Hall was home to a community of Harvard Divinity School (HDS) students, a refectory, and a few meeting rooms.

“Rock Hall” - the nickname for John D. Rockefeller Jr. Hall at Harvard Divinity School (HDS) - looks just like what it is: a spare, elegant building in the Modernist tradition.

But its straight lines, wide windows, and understated functionality nicely conceal what it has become: one of the most energy-efficient buildings at Harvard.