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College Sustainability Report Card COLLEGE SUSTAINABILITY REPORT CARD A Review of Campus & Endowment Policies at Leading Institutions 2 0 0 8 SUSTAINABLE ENDOWMENTS INSTITUTE College Sustainability Report Card Rockefeller Brothers Fund SUPPORTERS Th e Rockefeller Brothers Fund promotes social change that contributes to a more just, sustainable, and peaceful world. Th rough its grantmaking, the Fund supports eff orts to expand knowledge, clarify values and critical choices, nurture creative expression, and shape public policy. Th e Fund’s programs are intended to develop leaders, strengthen institutions, engage citizens, build community, and foster partnerships that include government, business, and civil society. Respect for cultural diversity and ecological integrity pervades the Fund’s activities. V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation Th e V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation emphasizes environmental grantmaking to strengthen environmental research and education, and to further the involvement of an informed public in environmental decision making. In all of their grants, the trustees seek to emphasize collaboration across disciplines and among institutions and peoples. Working with the grantees, the Foundation hopes to achieve results that benefi t society, and that refl ect the integrity, seriousness and innovative spirit that were distinctive marks of Villum Kann Rasmussen. Nathan Cummings Foundation Th e Nathan Cummings Foundation is rooted in the Jewish tradition and committed to democratic values and social justice, including fairness, diversity, and community. Th e Foundation seeks to build a socially and economically just society that values and protects the ecological balance for future generations; promotes humane health care; and fosters arts and culture that enriches communities. SUSTAINABLE ENDOWMENTS INSTITUTE Th e Sustainable Endowments Institute is a Cambridge-based nonprofi t organization engaged in research and education to advance sustainability in campus operations and endowment practices. Founded in 2005, the Institute is a special project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. BALANCE DESIGN Cover Image: Watercolor of Convolvulus by Andreas Friedrich Happe (1733-1802) Of Courtesy of Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, www.ofbalance.com Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania © Sustainable Endowments Institute. All Rights Reserved. College Sustainability Report Card 2008 CONTENTS Executive Summary 4 Snapshot of School Grades 8 Sustainability Innovator Awards 10 Overview of Categories 12 School Profiles 28 Methods 228 Indicators 230 Acknowledgments 234 © Sustainable Endowments Institute. All Rights Reserved. 3 College Sustainability Report Card 2008 TRENDS As prominent institutions of higher education, these 200 schools have resources to become leaders in aligning sustainable campus and endowment practices with their educational missions. Have they made progress in this regard? For the schools that appear in both the 2007 and 2008 editions of the Report Card, the trend is generally positive: • More than two out of three schools (68 percent) improved their overall grade. More schools are taking action on sustainability measures, in part reflecting increasing concern about climate change and the realities of rising oil and gas prices. Overall school grades improved from a “C” average to a “C+” average with 13 percent of schools improving by at least one full letter grade (e.g. from “C-” to “B-”). See list on page 7 and Snapshot section on EXECUTIVE pages 8–9. • Schools are taking on climate change through aggressive carbon reduction commitments. A significant shift occurred SUMMARY in addressing climate change, with the proportion of schools committing to reductions in carbon emissions more than tripling (from 14 to 50 percent). Notably, more than 25 percent of the The College Sustainability Report Card is the only comparative schools have committed to achieving carbon neutrality in the long evaluation of campus and endowment sustainability activities term by signing the American College and University Presidents at colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. In Climate Commitment. For more details, see page 14. contrast to the academic focus on sustainability in research and • Increasing use of local food drives significant grade improvement. teaching, the Report Card examines colleges and universities, as The number of schools reporting that they buy at least some food institutions, through the lens of sustainability. from local farms/producers grew from 63 to 84 percent. The “A” Sustainability signifies meeting the needs of the present without grades in Food & Recycling almost doubled, jumping from 20 to compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own 38 percent. For more details, see page 16. needs. Are these considerations guiding how resources are managed • Green building policies are becoming more widespread. The in campus operations and endowment practices? The Report Card percentage of schools with green building policies increased from is designed to identify colleges and universities that are leading 48 to 69 percent. For more details, see page 18. by example on sustainability. The aim is to provide accessible information for schools to learn from each other’s experiences and • Endowment investments in renewable energy funds increased establish more effective sustainability policies. dramatically. The percentage of schools with current endowment investments in renewable energy funds, or similar investment Just as the grading system serves as an incentive in the classroom, the opportunities, more than tripled from 9 to 31 percent. Partly Report Card’s grading system seeks to encourage sustainability as a because of these investments, the “A” grades in the Investment priority in college operations and endowment investment practices Priorities category increased from 13 to 38 percent. For more by offering independent yearly assessments of progress. The focus is details, see page 24. on policies and practices in eight main categories: • Some schools have lower grades due to assessment of new • Administration • Transportation category and indicators. Roughly 10 percent of schools had a slight decline in their overall grades, but none dropped by a full • Climate Change & Energy • Endowment Transparency letter. The reasons for this drop varied, but in most cases reflected • Food & Recycling • Investment Priorities the increasing rigor of the evaluation indicators and the addition • Green Building • Shareholder Engagement of the Transportation category. To find out how these trends are reflected in specific schools, refer to Now in its second year, the College Sustainability Report Card covers the Snapshot section on pages 8-9, which provides a list of all 200 the colleges and universities with the 200 largest endowments in schools along with their overall grades. Arrows indicate whether the the United States and Canada, representing more than $343 billion grade has improved or declined for schools covered in both editions in endowment assets, or more than 80 percent of all university of the Report Card. endowments. It doubles the number of schools included in the first edition of the Report Card and provides insights into recent trends. © Sustainable Endowments Institute. All Rights Reserved. 4 College Sustainability Report Card 2008 KEY FINDINGS “A” GRADES BY CATEGORY In the 200 schools surveyed this year, the level of campus sustainability initiatives far outpaces that of endowment sustainability activity. Food & Recycling The chart (at right) illustrates the percentage of “A” grades in each 29% of the eight categories. For all schools in the College Sustainability Report Card 2008, key findings include: Investment Priorities 22% • Almost one in three schools earnd an overall grade of “B-” or better. The cumulative grade distribution is as follows: 3 percent Administration of schools earned “A” level grades, 28 percent earned “B” level 21% grades, 41.5 percent earned “C” level grades, 25.5 percent earned “D” level grades and 2 percent earned “F” level grades. Green Building • Campus sustainability initiatives outshine endowment 18% sustainability activity. Strong performance across all five campus categories resulted in a collective total of only 106 “F” grades. In Transportation contrast, a widespread lack of endowment sustainability activity 17% resulted in 131 “F” grades in the Shareholder Engagement category and 116 “F” grades in the Endowment Transparency category. Climate Change & Energy • Six schools are recognized as overall College Sustainability 14% Leaders. Schools whose campus operations and endowment practices merited an overall grade of “A-” qualify as College Shareholder Engagement Sustainability Leaders–our highest recognition. The schools 11% are: Carleton College, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Middlebury College, University of Vermont, and University of Endowment Transparency Washington. 4% • More than two dozen schools attained Campus Sustainability Leader status. High marks for all 5 campus categories resulted in 25 colleges and universities achieving the Campus Sustainability Leader designation. All such schools received an average grade of schools received an “F” grade, while only 4 percent earned an “A” “A-” or better for the campus categories. See sidebar on page 7. grade. For more details, see pages 22 and 26. • Only three schools qualify as Endowment Sustainability • Schools perform best in Food & Recycling category. An Leaders. Carleton College, Dartmouth College,
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