2008 College Sustainability Report

Grist ranked musicians, but what are universities doing to go green?
Surprisingly, only 15 schools earned an A-. I was surprised my school earned a C in the category of student involvement...

University of Illinois overall grade:
B-

Administration
B
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has a new sustainability office and a sustainability council that is chaired by the chancellor of the flagship campus. The sustainability coordinator, located in the facilities and services department, develops and leads a coherent, campus-wide sustainability program.

Climate Change & Energy
B
UI has an energy policy with goals of reducing energy consumption 10 percent by the year 2011 and 20 percent by the year 2016. The campus has performed a range of efficiency upgrades, and a new building includes a solar array. The university is pursuing the purchase of a utility-scale wind turbine, which will meet roughly 1 percent of campus electricity needs.

Food & Recycling
B
A local dairy processes milk from the university farm and sells it back to dining services. In 2008, UI diverted nearly 50 percent of its campus waste, including paper, cardboard, scrap metal, landscape waste, and pallets. Dining services donates all excess food to local shelters and waste cooking oil is used for biodiesel production for campus vehicles.

Green Building
A
UI's facilities department standards require projects over $5 million to be LEED Silver-certified, at a minimum, and projects under $5 million to comply with LEED Silver requirements to the greatest extent possible. The Business Instructional Facility, which opened in August 2008, is expected to achieve LEED Gold certification.

Student Involvement
C
The student sustainability committee is empowered to allocate funding from a clean energy technology fee and a sustainable campus environment fee. Campus administration and the facilities and services department work with students to implement their approved projects. A pilot energy-reduction competition is in development for the residence halls.

Transportation
B
The UI campus is fully integrated into local municipal transit networks, including trains and private carriers. All students, faculty, and staff ride city buses for free. There is a pilot bike-share program, and all unclaimed, impounded bicycles are donated to the Bike Project cooperative.

Endowment Transparency
A
The university makes a list of endowment holdings and its shareholder voting record available to the public as per open records law. Information is sent to individuals upon request.

Investment Priorities
C
The university aims to optimize investment return and has not made any public statements about investigating or investing in renewable energy funds or community development loan funds.

Shareholder Engagement
F
The university has not made any public statements about active ownership or a proxy voting policy.

Check out rankings at http://www.greenreportcard.org/.