The Sustainable Endowments Institute recently scored the University a B- grade on environmental sustainability. The University placed in the top 25 out of 200 public and private universities in the institute’s College Sustainability Report Card 2008.
The University scored an A in the categories of administration, climate change and energy, food and recycling and green building; a B in transportation; a C in investment priorities; and an F in endowment transparency and shareholder engagement.
The report praised the Lillis Business Complex as being one of the greenest business school buildings in the nation, and it gave kudos to the University for purchasing food, beef, milk and flour from local businesses and farms.

University sustainability leaders said they were pleased with the results but said the University has room for improvement. Campus environmental leaders, however, were critical of the report because of the institute’s methodology, which included collecting surveys and documents.
Karyn Kaplan, the University’s environmental resource and recycling program manager, said she was pleased to see an independent group recognize the University as a sustainable campus leader.
“I do think we have a lot of areas to work on, but this is a good indicator we’re going in the right direction,” she said.
Steve Mital, the University’s director of sustainability, was also critical of the report because of the researcher methods. Researchers collected data based on public documents and surveys sent to the University, according to the report. The data was collected from June to September 2007.
“These people are not going and doing campus visits,” Mital said. “They’re collecting information off Web sites and doing things remotely – not actually meeting students.”
Mark Orlowski, executive director of the Sustainable Endowments Institute, could not be reached for comment.
Mital said student involvement should be included in the survey.
“We have a student culture focusing around sustainability,” Mital said, pointing to the campus recycling program and the Holistic Options for Planet Earth Sustainability conference. The event is an ecological design conference managed by University students held every year on campus in April.
Mital also said the University deserves a higher grade than a B in the transportation category because students can ride Lane Transit District buses using student identification. ASUO allocates part of student incidental fees to LTD. Mital said students often walk, bike or bus because of the low number of parking spaces available on campus.
The report gave the University flunking grades in the categories of shareholder engagement and endowment transparency. It stated that the University has no known policy of disclosing endowment holding ownership or shareholder voting records, which resulted in the failing grades.
Other colleges around the country scored similar grades, with 66 percent receiving an F in endowment transparency and 58 percent scoring an F in shareholder engagement.
Mital said a private foundation, the University of Oregon Foundation, manages funds on behalf of the University.
“There’s a strong legal separation there,” Mital said. “The University can’t dictate the criteria by which the money gets invested. We have no direct control over that.”
Despite two flunking grades, Mital said he would eventually like the University in the top 10.
“Of course there’s always things to improve on,” Mital said. “Campus sustainability is still a relatively new concept for most universities. Campuses around the country are scrambling to catch up.”
Mital said students should expect to see changes and improvements related to campus sustainability in the years to come.
The University will focus on emissions reduction and find ways to conserve energy, Mital said, adding the University plans on buying more local organic food in the future.
Kaplan said she would like to see a public compost collection system on campus. She said she hopes faculty and staff practice sustainability by doing things such as turning off computers and lights when they are done being used.
“I want to make sure conservation is a daily practice and not the exception,” Kaplan said.
Tara Burke, co-director of the Survival Center and ASUO environmental advocate, said the grade was less than satisfactory. She said she wants to see more action by the University administration and wants to see administrators implementing more sustainability policies.
Kaplan and Mital said the survey provides a perspective for the University.
“This isn’t an exact science because an arbitrary outsider is passing some form of judgment,” Kaplan said, adding that the survey provides a chance to see what other schools are doing. “We can have better data and see where we should be reaching for.”
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