Think your campus is as green as it gets? Think again.
The University received a B+ in sustainability from the College Sustainability Report Card 2011 based on nine categories such as administration, green building and investment priorities.
The University excelled in seven categories but struggled in the area of endowment transparency. The University received an A in administration, B in climate change and energy, A in food and recycling, A in green building, B in student involvement, A in transportation, and A in investment priorities. The University had an overall ranking of B- in 2008, B in 2009, and B in 2010.
The University was included in the list of Campus Sustainability Leaders, which requires an A- or above in six categories, but did not qualify for the highest-ranking group of Overall College Sustainability Leaders, which requires an A- and above in all nine categories. Three schools in the Pac-10 — Arizona State University, Stanford University and the University of Washington — received A- or above rankings in all categories and were included in the group of 52 Overall College Sustainability Leaders. Oregon State University also received a B+ in sustainability.
The first edition of the Sustainability Report Card was released in 2006, and since then, the researchers have noticed an increase in 52 sustainability indicators in all colleges. A total of 52 indicators are used to evaluate colleges’ sustainability performance, including sustainability policies, administrative committee, sustainability staff, green purchasing, greenhouse gas emissions inventory, energy efficiency and conservation and locally grown and produced food.
The College Sustainability Report Card comes annually from the Sustainable Endowment Institute, which is based in Cambridge, Mass. The nonprofit organization, which was founded in 2005, profiles and ranks 322 colleges and universities throughout all 50 states and eight Canadian proveniences in order to progress sustainability in campus operations and endowment practices. The College Sustainability Report Card is the only independent sustainability evaluation of campus operations and endowment practices, according to an Oct. 27 Sustainable Endowment Institute press release.
In the past, the University received an F in endowment transparency in 2008 and 2009 and an F in shareholder engagement in 2008, 2009 and 2010.
This year, the University received a not-applicable ranking in investment priorities and a D in endowment transparency.
Information about endowment holdings is not made available to trustees, senior administrators or other select members of the school community. Information about proxy voting records is not available to the public.
Last year, the University received an A in student involvement and dropped to a B in this year’s rankings. This is because no students responded to the survey that was sent out via e-mail during spring 2010.
“This is our second year of being in touch with students,” Sustainable Endowment Institute researcher Rob Foley said. According to the Sustainable Endowment Institute, 81 percent of schools had a student response to the surveys.
The University has employed a full-time sustainability director since 2007. The student sustainability fund annually provides $35,000 from the University’s operating budget for supporting student initiatives to green the campus, according to the College Sustainability Report Card website.
The Office of Sustainability at the University is working on green procurement and the implementation of their climate action plan, which was finalized in the beginning of 2010.
“More and more schools are catching up with us,” Office of Sustainability Director Steve Mital said. “We’ve got to figure out ways to be more sustainable.”
The rankings are based on publicly available information and the results are from four surveys in areas of campus operations, dining services, endowment investment practices, and student activities. The data for the College Sustainability Report Card 2011 was collected from April to September 2010.
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College Sustainability Report Card bestows B+ on University
Daily Emerald
October 28, 2010
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