College Sustainability Report Card 2008 Released

The Sustainable Endowments Institute has released their "College Sustainability Report Card 2008." The report assesses the 200 public and private universities with the largest endowments. Schools were graded on eight categories: Administration, Climate Change & Energy, Food & Recycling, Green Building, Transportation, Endowment Transparency, Investment Priorities, Shareholder Engagement

According to the report, "The results clearly show a “green groundswell” on campuses, with nearly 45 percent of colleges committing to fight climate change through cutting carbon emissions. High-performance green building standards guide new construction at 59 percent of schools, while 42 percent are using hybrid or electric vehicles in transportation fleets. Notably, 37 percent of schools purchase renewable energy and 30 percent produce their own wind or solar energy. A substantial 70 percent buy food from local farms and 64 percent serve fair trade coffee."

Other key findings of the latest Report Card include:

• Carleton College, Northeastern University, University of Notre Dame, University of Southern California and University of Virginia demonstrated the greatest improvements – as much as one and a half grades.


• Twenty-five schools achieved Campus Sustainability Leader status by scoring high marks in all five campus categories (at least an “A-” average).


• Only Carleton, Dartmouth and Williams were recognized as Endowment Sustainability Leaders, with an “A-” or better across the three endowment categories.


• Schools performed best in the Food & Recycling category, with 29 percent earning “As.”


• More than one-third of schools have full-time sustainability staff, and more than two-thirds have a Web site dedicated to campus sustainability.

You can read the full report here.