Leith Sharp

Leith Sharp has worked with universities for the last 15 years to achieve organizational change in pursuit of campus environmental sustainability. Leith was recruited by Harvard in 2000 to found and direct Harvard's Green Campus Initiative and has worked for the last 8 years to build Harvard's program up from a staff of one in 2000 to over 25 professional staff in 2008, providing Harvard with one of the largest, most effective and self funded green campus organizations in the world. As a result, in 2008 Harvard received the highest green campus rankings from the Sustainability Endowments Institute, the Princeton Review, and the Sierra Club. These rankings reflect substantial success in fostering the engagement of the Harvard community in greening its campus, with more LEED projects than any other university in the USA (50+), a proliferation of onsite renewable energy projects, local and organic food in dining halls, alternative fuels in its fleet, wide scale engagement in occupant behavior change, environmental purchasing practices, and significant sustainability and GHG reduction commitments being formally integrated across the entire campus. By combining an entrepreneurial business approach with a range of organizational change management approaches Leith has developed a model to transcend financial, political, human resource and organizational barriers that commonly get in the way of achieving innovation and continuous improvement towards sustainability.

Leith has a Bachelors degree in Engineering (Environmental) from the University of New South Wales, in Sydney Australia, and a Master of Education in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University. She is a LEED AP and a member of the Advisory Council for the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, a member of the Steering Group for the North East Consortium of Sustainable Campuses, a co-chair of the International Sustainable Campus Network Awards Group and an active member of the Ivy Plus Sustainability Working Group. In 1998 Leith was awarded Young Australian of the Year, NSW Environment Category, for her work in establishing the Environmental Management Program at the University of New South Wales, Australia. In 1999 she was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to research best practice in university environmental management throughout Europe and the USA. In 2002, Leith was awarded most outstanding paper for her contribution to the International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. Leith has presented at many conferences and events across the US, UK and Australia and has provided strategic sustainability consulting support to over 40 different universities and organizations including Citibank, the US Capitol, University's in the USA, Australia, Canada, Honk Kong and the UK.