College Sustainability Report Card Released

CAMBRDGE, Mass. — The College Sustainability Report card for 2011 was recently released, naming the leaders in climate change and energy, food and recycling, and green building, among other categories.

 

Brown University in Providence, R.I.; Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa.; and Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, were named the top three universities with the best overall grades, according to the report published by Cambridge, Mass.-based Sustainability Endowment Institute, a nonprofit organization aimed at promoting sustainability practices at universities.

 

Additional categories included food and recycling, transportation, and administration, among others.

 

Key findings of the study showed that more than half of the 290 universities earned an overall grade of “B,” or better.

 

Fifty-two schools were named overall college sustainability leaders, based on campus operations and endowment practices that received an overall grade of “A-.”

 

Though only 35 universities received an “F” overall, the report found 109 with “F”s in their endowment sustainability activity and engagement category and 41 “F” grades in the endowment transparency category.

 

The shareholder engagement category examines how colleges conduct shareholder proxy voting, while the endowment transparency category evaluates the extent to which universities release information about their endowment investment holdings and shareholder proxy voting records, according to the institute.

 

The report also found that three-fourths of the colleges have full-time staff dedicated to sustainability, and saw increased attention to climate change reflected in aggressive carbon reduction commitments.

 

“With the urgency of confronting climate change receiving increasing attention, almost half the schools have made a commitment to carbon reduction,” according to the report. “More than half the schools have committed to achieving carbon neutrality in the long term by signing the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment.”

 

38 percent of universities have purchased some renewable energy, while 52 percent have on-site wind, solar, or geothermal energy production.

 

For further details more, visit: http://www.greenreportcard.org/