Earth Week Networking Event
Join other HACE members to inform, celebrate, and find support for your climate actions.
Networking will be structured around industry and geographic-focused breakout groups.
Register here.
HACE Book Club
Book: Weather by Jenny Offill
Lizzie works in the university library and takes on a side hustle answering letters for the podcast Hell or High Water. The novel compresses her thinking about expectations, routines, and the challenges of writing hopeful responses to doomsday junkies, with a measure of black humor.
DC Earth Day Happy Hour
Join fellow DC area climate professionals for a networking happy hour in honor of Earth Day!
Lindi von Mutius, Director of the Salata Institute Climate Action Accelerator, will join us! Come meet your fellow climate and environment alums to find more support as you advance more individual and collective actions.
Monday, April 22
5:30 - 7:30 pm
Mission Dupont (upstairs loft)
HACE Book Club
Book: A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
Few books have had a greater impact than A Sand County Almanac, which many credit with launching a revolution in land management. Written as a series of sketches based principally upon the flora and fauna in a rural part of Wisconsin, the book, originally published by Oxford in 1949, gathers informal pieces written by Leopold over a forty-year period as he traveled through the woodlands of Wisconsin, Iowa, Arizona, Sonora, Oregon, Manitoba, and elsewhere; a final section addresses the philosophical issues involved in wildlife conservation. Beloved for its description and evocation of the natural world, Leopold's book, which has sold well over 2 million copies, remains a foundational text in environmental science and a national treasure.
Spring Onboarding Session
Come join HACE members for an orientation and networking session! The first 15 minutes of the session will be onboarding for those who want to learn about HACE and current volunteer opportunities. Then, we will organize 45 minutes of networking where you can meet fellow alumni working worldwide to confront the climate crisis and protect the environment. Whether you are a new or old member, we’ll have something for you!
Register here.
Spring Onboarding Session
Come join HACE members for an orientation and networking session! The first 15 minutes of the session will be onboarding for those who want to learn about HACE and current volunteer opportunities. Then, we will organize 45 minutes of networking where you can meet fellow alumni working worldwide to confront the climate crisis and protect the environment. Whether you are a new or old member, we’ll have something for you!
Register here.
HACE Book Club
Rosalie Iron Wing has grown up in the woods with her father, Ray, until, one morning, he doesn’t return. Told she has no family, Rosalie is sent to live with a foster family in nearby Mankato ― where she meets rebellious Gaby Makespeace, in a friendship that transcends the damaged legacies they’ve inherited. Years later, Rosalie returns to her childhood home and begins to confront the past, on a search for family, identity, and a community where she can finally belong. In the process, she learns what it means to be descended from women with souls of iron ― women who have protected their families, their traditions, and a precious cache of seeds through generations of hardship and loss, through war and the insidious trauma of boarding schools.
Weaving together the voices of four indelible women, The Seed Keeper is a beautifully told story of reawakening, of remembering our original relationship to the seeds and, through them, to our ancestors.
Personal Investment Event: Climate-Conscious Retirement Planning, Part 3
Personal Investment Event: Climate-Conscious Retirement Planning, Part 3
Thurs Feb 22nd, noon ET
Please join us for our third and final installation in the retirement planning series! Join us to learn about how you can take climate action with your 401(k), 403(b), Roth IRA, or other retirement plans. We will be joined by leadership from two additional innovative retirement solutions providers:, Eliza Arnold from Arnie and George Guerrero from Just Futures.
As a reminder, our previous event featured Timothy Yee from Green Retirement and James Regulinski of Carbon Collective. If you missed the first event or are interested in supporting socially-conscious, climate-conscious retirement planning in your workplace, email events@harvardclimate.com and we can share resources from our first event.
Please register and send questions in advance at the Zoom registration link. Please note that HACE does not provide financial advice or recommendations. This series has worked to expose attendees to different providers who can align fiduciary duty in retirement planning with social and environmental values.
Zoom link: https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwqd-uppjooE9Oqqwy0hLoIErBplhnyJVxx
HACE Book Club
The reality of runaway climate change is inextricably linked with the mass consumerist, capitalist society in which we live. And the cult of endless growth, and endless consumption of cheap disposable commodities isn't only destroying the world, it is damaging ourselves and our way of being. How do we stop the impending catastrophe, and how can we create a movement capable of confronting it head-on?
In Post Growth Living, philosopher Kate Soper shares a new vision of the good life, one that is capable of delinking prosperity from endless growth. Instead, she calls for a renewed emphasis on the joys of being, one that is capable of collective happiness not in consumption but by creating a future that allows not only for more free time, and less conventional and more creative ways of using it, but also for more fulfilling ways of working and existing. This is an urgent and necessary intervention into debates on climate change.
HACE Book Club
A smog has spread. Food crops are rapidly disappearing. A chef escapes her dying career in a dreary city to take a job at a decadent mountaintop colony seemingly free of the world's troubles.
There, the sky is clear again. Rare ingredients abound. Her enigmatic employer and his visionary daughter have built a lush new life for the global elite, one that reawakens the chef to the pleasures of taste, touch, and her own body.
In this atmosphere of hidden wonders and cool, seductive violence, the chef's boundaries undergo a thrilling erosion. Soon she is pushed to the center of a startling attempt to reshape the world far beyond the plate.
Sensuous and surprising, joyous and bitingly sharp, told in language as alluring as it is original, Land of Milk and Honey lays provocatively bare the ethics of seeking pleasure in a dying world. It is a daringly imaginative exploration of desire and deception, privilege and faith, and the roles we play to survive. Most of all, it is a love letter to food, to wild delight, and to the transformative power of a woman embracing her own appetite.
HACE Book Club
Join us in December as we discuss Amitav Ghosh’s The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis, which provides a prospective on the climate crisis told through the lens of the history of the nutmeg. Register for this conversation here.
To join a community with other alumni and chart your path for climate action, please sign up here. After you have signed up (or if you are already a member), we will send details on the book and the link to register for the meeting via Zoom.
Questions? Contact hacebookclub@gmail.com
COP28: What’s on the Agenda?
Saturday, November 18, 11:00am - 12:15pm ET
Please register here for the Zoom meeting.
Join our expert panelists and moderator for an overview of the upcoming COP28, specific agenda items, the role of equity in international negotiations, and how the Harvard community is participating.
Panelists:
Diksha Bijlani, IFI Reform Lead, Climate Finance Partnerships, COP28 Presidency (HKS, MPP ‘20);
Rumaitha Al Busaidi, Business Development Manager, Hydrom (HKS, MPA ‘20);
Alisha Shaparia, JFK Fellow and Master in Public Policy Candidate (HKS, MPP ‘24);
Robert Stowe, Co-Director, Harvard Program on Climate Agreements, HKS (College, AB ‘81);
Moderator: Marianne Mensah, Lecturer in Climate Change and Sustainability, Founder, Climate Innovation Education Lab - CIEL (HKS, MPA).
This event is being co-organized by Harvard Alumni for Climate and the Environment and the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability.
COP28 WhatsApp Group
Are you attending COP 28 this year? Are you interested in a way to stay in touch and exchange information with other alums who are also attending? Sign up here for the COP28 WhatsApp Group.
HACE Book Club
Join a conversation about Regeneration, linking justice, climate, biodiversity, equity, and human dignity. Paul Hawken’s book is the first to describe and define a fast-spreading regeneration movement and offers a framework for action, policy and transformation.
To join a community with other alumni and chart your path for climate action, please sign up here. After you have signed up (or if you are already a member), we will send details on the book and the link to register for the meeting via Zoom.
Questions? Contact hacebookclub@gmail.com
Personal Investment Event: Climate-Conscious Retirement Planning, Part 2
This is the second in a three-part series on aligning retirement planning and fiduciary duty with social and environmental values; we will be joined by Green Retirement Solutions and Carbon Collective.
Please register and send questions in advance at the link here.
Climate Action Project support sessions for HCAT & others
Sessions on Fridays, October 13th & November 10th, 10:00am ET
Are you working on a Climate Action Project following the Harvard Climate Action Training or independently?
Register here to continue your Action Project work in randomized small peer groups, find resources, and get community support in these 75-minute sessions.
HACE Fall networking & Onboarding Sessions
Sessions on Tuesday, October 10th at 8:00am ET or 8:00pm ET
Come join us for a special session this fall! The first 15 minutes of the session will be onboarding for those who’d like to learn about HACE and current volunteer opportunities. This will be followed by 45 minutes of networking when you can meet fellow alumni working worldwide to confront the climate crisis and protect the environment. So, whether you are a new or old member we’ll have something for you!
Register here for the 8:00am ET session.
Register here for the 8:00pm ET session.
Climate Week NYC Social Event (in-person)
Come join us for a Climate Week kick-off social and networking event organized by HACE NYC working with HCNY Resilience & Adaptation SIG. The event will be outdoors with cover available if it rains. Share your interest here.
Climate Week NYC Zoom Planning Event (virtual)
Join other HACE members for a Zoom meeting where both Climate Week newcomers as well as old hands can share information about events and help navigate the website for Climate Week NYC. Register for the planning here.
For example, HACE member Jennifer A. will be attending the March to End Fossil Fuels on Sunday, September 17 at 1:00pm ET. If you want to join Jennifer to participate please sign up here and email her at jennifer@climatevoice.org.
HACE Book Club
HACE Book Club is on vacation in August.
But here is what we are doing in September! On Saturday, September 9 at 11 am (ET) join us to discuss the new eco-thriller Birnam Wood. Eleanor Catton lets us look at perceptions, actions, and consequences. Do you want to join a community of alumni to help chart your path for climate action? Please sign up here.
After you sign up (or if you are already a member), we will send you details on the book and the registration link for the Zoom meeting. Did you sign up, but there’s no sign of an email? Check your spam folder. Still no sign? Contact hacebookclub@gmail.com.
Climate Action Project support sessions for HCAT
Fridays, September 8, October 13, November 10, all at 10:00am ET
Are you working on a Climate Action Project following the Harvard Climate Action Training (or the pilot Climate Boot Camp in 2021)?
Register here to continue your Action Project work in randomized small peer groups, find resources and get community support in these 75-minute sessions.
What Does the IRA Mean to You?
Thursday, June 22 - 9am PT / 12pm ET / 5pm BST
Consortium of University Alumni for a Sustainable Planet founding members Harvard Alumni for Climate and the Environment, Stanford Alumni in Sustainability, MIT Alumni for Climate Action and Yale Blue Green are coming together to activate each of their alumni communities to host their inaugural Climate & Sustainability virtual event.
The discussion will center on the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The IRA has been described as the most significant climate legislation in US history, offering funding, programs and incentives to accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy. The $369 billion in IRA energy security and climate change resilience investments will have significant impacts for the world and aim to change the trajectory of climate change. Speakers include: Dr. Nicky Sheats (Harvard); Quinton Zondervan (MIT); Ian Monroe (Stanford); David Pogue (Yale).
You can sign up for the event here.
CUSP is a networked organization of university alumni acting together to solve humanity's greatest challenge.
Environmental Justice: Climate Change and Wine
Saturday, June 17 - 11am PT / 2pm ET / 7pm BST
Please join HACE and Harvard Alumni in Wine and Food (HAWF) for a discussion on how climate change impacts wine and people in the wine sector!
Much has been written about climate change and wine. This discussion will highlight the real impact of climate change on wineries, grapegrowers and farmworkers. We will hear from author and academic Linda Johnson-Bell, Steve Matthiasson of Matthiasson Vineyards, The Napa Valley Farmworker Foundation and Lideres Campesina, each bringing a different perspective to the table. Join us to learn more about what individuals and the broader sector can do to address the challenge.
HACE Book Club
Saturday, June 17 - 8am PT / 11am ET / 4pm BST
Please join us for a glimpse of the future and what endures across time in Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel. The acclaimed author looks at the end of the world, at loss, and the passage of time. For July, our book group will continue, with discussion of non-fiction on nature-based solutions to the climate crisis. To join a community with other alumni and chart your path forward, and to vote on books and meeting times, sign up here.
Register for the Zoom meeting at this link
HACE Summer Onboarding & Networking Sessions (virtual)
Thursday, June 15 - 5am PT / 8am ET / 1pm BST
Thursday, June 15 - 5pm PT / 8pm ET / 1am BST
Come join us for a special session this summer! We will hold onboarding and networking events concurrently. You can meet fellow alumni working worldwide to confront the climate crisis and protect the environment. Meanwhile, those who are interested will get a chance to learn more about HACE and our volunteer opportunities. Whether you are a new or old member we’ll have something for you! (We will be on hiatus with our networking sessions until September.)
HACE Happy Hour for Harvard Climate Action Week
Join fellow HACE members for an in-person meet-up immediately following and just around the corner from the “Climate Policy in Action” event. This is a special opportunity to network with old friends and new in Harvard Square mid-way through this very exciting week. We have a space reserved on the second floor, but if the weather is pleasant, look for us in the beer garden outside.
Climate Policy in Action: A Conversation with Nat Keohane
Register to attend at HKS | Register for the Zoom
Please join us at the IOP Forum for a Harvard Climate Action Week conversation with Nat Keohane (HKS/FAS Ph.D. Class of 2001), President of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) and former Special Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate under President Barack Obama. Keohane will discuss the opportunities and challenges of building on recent progress in U.S. climate policy, as well as the actions that must be taken to get on track for net zero by mid-century. Professor Henry Lee (Harvard College class of '68 and HKS MPA class of ‘74), Director of the Environment and Natural Resources Program at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, will moderate the conversation. Co-sponsored by the Environment and Natural Resources Program at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, the Harvard Alumni for Climate and the Environment, and the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability.
Take Climate Action: Retirement Funds
Register here!
Join us for some perspectives on establishing or optimizing a values-aligned retirement portfolio for you, your team, and/or your organization. You will find this discussion helpful if you are trying to set up an individual retirement account for yourself, establish a group retirement plan for your organization, or encourage your employer to offer a values-aligned option. Come with questions for an extended Q&A and stay tuned for a more detailed discussion focused on implementation in the coming months.
Come with questions for an extended Q&A and stay tuned for a more detailed discussion focused on implementation in the coming months.
Georges Dyer, Co-founder & Executive Director, Intentional Endowments Network
Lucille Hu (BA ‘11), Financial Advisor, Morgan Stanley
Trevor Thompson (BA ‘11), Program Officer, Northlight Foundation
Experiences from Implementing Nature-Based Solutions
Register here.
Join HACE for an Earth Day special event! This panel discussion will explore the experiences of speakers from a range of organizations on developing, implementing, and financing nature-based solutions (NbS) projects across different scales and highlight challenges of and lessons learned from the adoption of NbS both for climate mitigation and adaptation.
Moderator
Marianne Mensah, Founder of the Climate Innovation Education Lab (CIEL)
Speakers include:
Brenden Jongman, Nature-Based Solutions Program Lead, the World Bank
Ingrid Coetzee, Director of Biodiversity, Nature & Health, ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability Africa Secretariat & Global Cities Biodiversity Center
Swapan Mehra, Founder, Iora Ecological Solutions
HACE Book Club
The book group will discuss The Overstory, A Novel (2018), by Richard Powers, winner of the Pulitzer Prize. This is possibly the best novel ever written about trees.
Members voted on the next book The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable (2017), nonfiction by Amitav Ghosh, to discuss in May (date TBD).
If you are interested in meeting other alumni concerned with climate and the environment and want to read and discuss books to chart a path for action, please sign up here. Once you have signed up (or if you have already joined the Book Club), we will send details on the book and the registration link for the meeting via Zoom.
Have you signed up and still not received emails? Please check spam. Still nothing? Contact hacebookclub@gmail.com
Monthly Networking Session
All Harvard Alumni for Climate and the Environment members and Harvard affiliates are welcome to join our monthly networking session to connect with other professionals in the climate and environment space.
You can sign up for all our networking sessions until May from this link. Don’t forget to add the invite details to your calendars.
Spring Onboarding Session
Register to attend our virtual spring onboarding session here.
Are you a new HACE member? Do you want to learn your way around HACE and find how you’d like to get involved? Then join us for Spring Member Onboarding this month! Learn about HACE and figure out what you can do to help the community flourish. Please note that we hold these sessions quarterly, so the next session will be in June.
Food Security in an Age of Disruption
Register here.
Given that the projections of disruptive events from climate change and biodiversity loss – from extreme weather to pests and diseases – are expected to grow in frequency and severity, and given that we are increasingly moving into a fragmented, multi-polar world, what are the future drivers on agriculture and food and how might they play out?
Submit questions for Professor Benton here.