Tech earns a grade of "C" on sustainability report card

A report published late last month by the Sustainable Endowments Institute revealed a "C" grade on Tech's overall sustainability. This grade is unchanged from last year. The College Sustainability Report Card 2008 is the result of a study conducted on 200 public and private universities with the heftiest endowments.

Seven divisions of the report card contribute to a university's overall score: Administration, Climate Change and Energy, Food and Recycling, Green Building, Transportation, Endowment Transparency, Investment Priorities and Shareholder Engagement. Each section is assessed separately, and the overall scores are cumulative.

For the administration section, Tech received a "C." According to the report, "President Clough has signed the President's Climate Commitment and Tech has set explicitly stated goals to reduce material consumption, water runoff, and the use of natural resources. The Institute for Sustainable Technology and Development works on both curriculum and campus initiatives to promote sustainability."

Tech earned a "B" in the Climate Change and Energy category. According to the report, "Inefficient energy equipment and systems are being replaced, and energy audits have been performed for selected buildings. The aquatic center has a solar array, and researchers are developing an offshore wind farm."

The report also states, "[President Clough] has committed the Institute to climate neutrality and the operations department has embraced sustainability by applying a multitude of energy conservation efforts."

In the area of Food and Recycling, Tech received a "C." Twenty-nine percent of the colleges and universities surveyed earned an "A" for this category, making it the area in which schools achieved highest. According to the report, "The Institute composts yard waste and has an award-winning recycling program [which] includes a regional recycling day...an annual student move-in/move-out collection and re-use program; and the publication of 'The Green Purchasing Guide.' Tech offers some fair-trade coffee and encourages its food service provider to purchase products locally."

The report also partially addressed the fate of large quantities of oil used at Brittain and Woodruff dining halls: "[Tech is] currently running a biodiesel pilot program with used cooking oil from dining services."

For the Green Building category, Tech earned a "B." According to the report, "The Institute relies on the principles of sustainability in its campus strategic plan and its campus and landscape master plans."

Additionally, the report states, "The new management building is LEED Silver, a new construction project is seeking LEED Silver certification, and ten other buildings were designed following LEED standards."

Accreditation programs and rating systems from Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) are nationally recognized standards for environmentally-responsible buildings.

Tech also earned a "B" for the Transportation section.

According to the report, "Tech operates its own transportation system that annually carries 2.1 million people and supplements the city of Atlanta's Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) mass transit system. All eight of the Tech Trolley vehicles are powered by natural gas and... [f]ourteen percent of the motor pool is electric and 20 percent of the vehicles use some form of alternative fuel." In the area of Endowment Transparency, Tech received an "F." The justification behind a failing score, according to the report, is that "the Institute has no known policy of disclosure of endowment holdings or its shareholder voting record."

Up two letter grades from last year, Tech earned its only "A" for Investment Priorities. According to the report, "The Institute aims to optimize investment return and has also made several investments in alternative energy, most of which are in venture capital funds." By comparison, twenty-two percent of schools in the study also earned an "A" for this category.

In the final section, Tech's "Shareholder Engagement" received an "F." According to the report, this grade is based on the fact that "the Institute has not made any public statements about active ownership or a proxy voting policy."

The College Sustainability Report Card obtained its information on Tech through independently-conducted research, in addition to surveys on campus sustainability policy and endowment shareholder practices.

Emory University's overall sustainability score was a "B-," while the University of Georgia received a "D." Harvard University, Carleton College, Dartmouth College, Middlebury College, University of Vermont and University of Washington all earned an "A-," the report's highest cumulative sustainability grade.

The Sustainable Endowments Institute is a non-profit organization based out of Cambridge. The Institute is "engaged in research and education to advance sustainability in campus operations and endowment practices," according to their website.

For more information, or to view Tech's individual assessment, visit www.endowmentInstitute.org/sustainability/profiles2008.html.