Green Campus Loan Fund

Harvard's $12 million revolving loan fund is used to help bridge the gap between capital and operating budgets. Schools and units can borrow money for energy conservation measures and payback the loan as they realize the utility savings, making the project have effectively no impact on the operating budget until the capital is paid for and the savings begin to be realized by the operating budget. More information on the loan fund can be found here. As we look to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, I've plotted the ROI and absolute savings for all GHG reducing loan fund projects (excluded projects with savings from water or increased recycling) . To date, the 144 projects have borrowed $10,517,000 in capital and are saving $3,772,000 (35.9% return on investment) and 22,647 MTCDE annually. Note that occupant behavior requires an annual commitment of capital while the other loan types require capital funding only once (until the end of the item's useful life). Also, this graph only includes full-cost loans. We also have cost delta loans that are part of major capital projects (fund the cost delta between standard efficiency equipment and premium efficiency equipment).