Thanks to Zipcars, locally grown produce, and energy-saving appliances, Syracuse University received a B grade in the annual survey conducted by the Sustainable Endowments Institute. The survey measures the environmental awareness on college campuses across the country.

The grade is an improvement for SU over the B-minus it received the last two years on the College Sustainability Report Card survey. In 2007, the survey’s first year, SU received a C-plus.

SU has completed several projects to earn the higher grade, but plans are in place for future improvement.

‘We were pleased to see we’re improving, but we would have liked to see an A,’ said Tim Sweet, SU’s director of energy and computing management. ‘That’s what we’re striving for.’

The independent survey covered 300 schools with the largest endowments in America and Canada, and 32 other higher education institutions. Eight percent of all the schools earned the top awarded grade, an A-minus (The highest possible grade is an A).

‘While we’re grading schools, the ultimate goal is to share information and best practices and let schools know what one another are doing,’ said Lisa Chase, a senior communications fellow at the Sustainable Endowments Institute.

Of the 23 New York schools surveyed, only two – Vassar College and Ithaca College – scored better than SU. Each school received a B-plus.

SU received an A in four out of nine categories listed in the survey: administration, climate change and energy, transportation, and investment priorities.

One of the most influential programs that contributed to the improved grade was the Flexible Work Sustainability Initiative that started in October 2008, which aims to reduce transportation costs and emissions by letting some staff work from home, Sweet said.

SU has also instituted a ride-sharing program for employees, a carpooling initiative that groups together SU employees that live near each other. Also in 2008, the university began using hybrids, electric cars and Zipcars, Sweet said.

The university received poorer grades in several other areas: a B in food and recycling, Cs in green buildings, student involvement and endowment transparency, and a D in shareholder engagement.

Next year, SU expects to improve in the green buildings category. Five buildings, including the new Ernie Davis Hall and Carmelo K. Anthony Basketball Center, will meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green standards by fall 2010, Sweet said.

SU has pledged to meet LEED standards on all construction programs in the future, including renovations on existing buildings, which could cost more than $10 million, Sweet said.

The SU community will be part of the decision-making process in helping retool existing buildings to make them more environmentally friendly, Sweet said.

To improve the student involvement grade, SU hopes its Climate Action Plan, a five-part plan for reducing carbon emissions, will get students to participate more in green projects, Sweet said.

All the categories in the survey, student involvement may be the most important to the overall grade, said Melissa Cadwell, marketing manager of SU’s Sustainability Division.

‘We’ve seen that at the schools that do really well on the survey the students are the driving force,’ Chase said. ‘(Students) can change things by putting pressure on the administration, because they are paying customers.’

jdmurp05@syr.edu

Published on October 12, 2009 at 12:00 pm