Sustainability at Harvard

Track our Progress

Tracking and reporting on key indicators is a critical part of Harvard’s Sustainability Program and is a major component of the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Implementation Planning currently underway. New tracking protocols and plans for reporting are currently under development and will be posted in this area of the site as soon as possible.

GHG inventory reporting

Harvard has been tracking and publicly reporting University Greenhouse Gas Emissions since 2000, with the latest inventory released for Fiscal Year 2007.

With the formal announcement of a Greenhouse Gas Reduction Goal, the Office for Sustainability has partnered with our Environmental Health & Safety Department to initiate a review process to establish a formal GHG reporting methodology and to document assumptions necessary for our future tracking needs associated with the GHG reduction goal. A GHG Inventory & Measurement Working Group, with representation from the Schools and Units, was formed to review all assumptions and make final recommendations for Harvard's GHG reporting protocols against our GHG reduction goal. The Working Group has recommended using the Climate Registry Protocol as the methodology and expanding the inventory to include all of Harvard’s North American campuses. These changes will result in a restatement of our baseline 2006 Inventory, which is the basis for our 30 percent reduction goal.

Updates to Harvard's GHG Inventory will be added to this website as available.

Ratings and Rankings

Fiscal Year 2009

Fiscal Year 2008

  • Sustainability Endowments Instittue Scorecard: Highest Grade of A- (with 11 other institutions)

The Harvard Fact Book: Environmental performance indicators

Since 2006 Harvard has included a section on "Environmental Performance" in the annual Harvard Fact Book.

School- and department-specific sustainability reports

Fiscal Year 2008

Fiscal Year 2007

Fiscal Year 2006