In making the plans for the GTC leaders say they must keep in mind the unique feature of Harvard's organization: the decentralized relationship between the various schools and the central administration.

"We really need to approach this with a broad sweeping strategy, but respect the [University's] decentralized goal," Sharp says. "There is no way we can dictate or command and control."

Sharp says that she realizes that she must work with the schools to get their support for the initiative and specific proposals, as the schools make individual decisions on their operations and infrastructure. However, she says that she has received very positive responses so far.

"There is an interest there at the moment to go forward voluntarily," Sharp says. She says the main hold-up in such attempts is a lack of information and expertise on environmental issues, which the GTC initiative will in the future be able to fill.

Members of the central administration share this belief in the initiative being a cooperative effort with the schools, not an effort to centralize University operations.

"The idea [of GTC] is not to take away prerogative," says Assistant Provost for Interfaculty Programs Sean T. Buffington '91. "What we'd like to do is to create a situation where there is an awareness of sustainability."

Buffington says that the GTC initiative is actually an example of exactly the role the central administration plays best: gathering the resources and information for the individual schools to take advantage of. Additionally, schools will be able to learn from each other with the joint participation in GTC.

Sharp expects as part of GTC to give financial and personnel support to the schools to compensate for the extra time and money required to include environmental concerns in plans. The initiative also will probably include several central staffers to coordinate efforts.