As part of an ongoing effort to make the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) more sustainable, HSPH Operations announced this February that the school will no longer be selling bottled water in Sebastian's Café. Members of the HSPH community are encouraged to bring their own water bottles and take advantage of free filtered water, available through the two black spigots near the entrance to the café. Sebastian's Café will continue to sell AquaHealth sparkling water, which comes in many flavors and is available for purchase in compostable cups.
The impact of this sustainable change is enormous. By eliminating the sale of bottled water from its cafeteria, HSPH will eliminate about 1000 plastic bottles a week from the waste stream, which adds up to over 52,000 plastic bottles per year. That’s enough plastic to fill two entire landfills!
In order to promote and aid this effort, HSPH Operations gave away more than 2,500 eco-friendly refillable water bottles during Harvard's ID exchange effort the week of February 2nd. In addition, Sebastian's Café announced that it will have refillable water bottles available for sale for $5.99 each beginning in February. Many departments, such as Epidemiology, also have purchased and installed water filtration systems on their floors. Environmentally conscious Green Team members from the Epidemiology Department took action and voiced their support for a sink and water filtration system when they heard that their departmental kitchen was going to be renovated. It's a perfect opportunity to make this type of change!
HSPH will eliminate about 1000 plastic bottles a week from the waste stream, which adds up to over 52,000 plastic bottles per year. That’s enough plastic to fill two entire landfills!
