Despite a troubled economy that has resulted in shrinking endowments
and reduced resources, many North American colleges and universities are
increasing their efforts to incorporate sustainability into campus
operations and financial decisions.
The 2010 College Sustainability Report Card, an evaluation
conducted by The Sustainable Endowments Institute, says that 26 colleges
and universities have received overall grades of A-minus for their green
practices and policies. In the 2009 report card, only 15 schools
received an A-minus.
"Colleges are now taking pride in greener campuses and
sustainability-savvy investments--increasingly important concerns for
parents and students in choosing a school,” says Mark Orlowski,
executive director of the Sustainable Endowments Institute.
The 2010 report card includes grades on 332
higher-education institutions--the 300 U.S. and Canadian colleges and
universities with the largest endowments, plus 32 schools that applied
to be evaluated. The institutions--191 private and 141 public--have a
combined total of more than $325 billion in endowment assets.
The institute says it compiles the report cards to
encourage sustainability in campus operations and endowment practices.
The assessments focus on nine main categories: administration; climate
change & energy; endowment transparency; food & recycling; green
building; investment priorities; shareholder engagement; student
involvement; and transportation.
The grade breakdown: 8 percent of schools received A-level
overall grades; 45 percent received B-level grades; 34 percent received
C-level grades; and 13 percent received D-level grades. No school was
given an F; last year, four campuses received overall failing
grades.
In the category of green building, almost half of the
higher-education institutions reported having green projects; 44 percent
of the schools have at least one LEED-certified green building or are in
the process of constructing one. Three-quarters of the schools have
adopted campus-wide green building policies that specify certain minimum
performance levels, such as achieving LEED certification on new
construction. The average grade for the green building category is
C-plus; 13 percent received an A; 32 percent received a B; 29 percent
received a C; 20 percent received a D; and 6 percent received an F.
In general, the report card executive summary says, the
level of campus sustainability initiatives far outpaces that of
endowment sustainability activity. Colleges and universities perform
best in the categories of administration and food & recycling. The
findings concluded that more than two-thirds of higher-education
institutions have full-time staff dedicated to sustainability
issues.
Almost half of the schools have signed the American College
and University Presidents Climate Commitment; 40 percent have purchased
at least some renewable energy, and 45 percent have on-site wind, solar
or geothermal energy production.
Colleges and universities are weakest in the categories of
shareholder engagement and endowment transparency. For shareholder
engagement, 41 percent of schools received an F; in the endowment
transparency category, 26 percent of schools received an F.
Taking part in the report-card process has helped some higher-education
institutions strengthen their commitment to sustainability.
"Some administrators indicated that gathering such detailed
data about sustainability at their school motivated them to reassess
their commitment to sustainability or to rethink the metrics they use to
measure their own progress," says Orlowski.
More details about the sustainability report cards are on
the web at www.greenreportcard.org.
by Mike Kennedy
