We have lots of great ideas for making environmental progress in our universities, so why is it so hard to create sustainable campuses?

Alumna Leith Sharp established UNSW's green campus program in 1995 before moving to Harvard University as foundation director of its Green Campus Initiative.

By 2008, under her leadership, Harvard had the largest green campus in the world and was a recognised global leader in campus sustainability, receiving the highest national green campus ratings from the Princeton Review, the Sustainable Endowments Institute and the Sierra Club.

Leith, who has a Bachelor of Engineering from UNSW and a Master of Education from Harvard, will present a public lecture at UNSW next week.

"As we have been working to drive our colleges and universities towards campus sustainability, we have been discovering that our greatest opportunities for achieving the depth, breath and pace of change can only be realised by using a systems thinking approach that addresses life cycle costs and impacts," she says.

In her lecture Leith will outline how change was achieved at Harvard, and strategies for making Australian institutions leaders in environmental sustainability.

What: Free public lecture with Q&AWhen: Tuesday 20 October, 1-2pmWhere: Law Theatre, UNSW Kensington campusRSVP by email to Alex Surace | a.surace@arc.unsw.edu.au

More information is available from the UNSW Enviro Collective.

Media contact: Denise Knight | +61 2 9385 8920 | 0405 207 685