The Sustainable Endowments Institute released the 4th edition of its annual College Sustainability Report Card 2010, also known as the Green Report Card on Wednesday.

Founded in 2005 and supported by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, the Institute supports the advancement of sustainability in higher education. It boasts that its college ranking project had a response rate of 96 percent in 2009, giving the Green Report Card the highest response rate of any college sustainability ranking or rating service.

The Green Report Card graded 332 universities on a scale of 1 through 4 on their performance in nine categories:

• Administration
• Climate Change & Energy
• Food & Recycling
• Green Building
• Transportation
• Student Involvement
• Endowment Transparency
• Shareholder Engagement
• Investment Priorities

Twenty-six schools received a 4.0:

• Amherst College
• Arizona State University
• Brown University
• University of California – San Diego
• Carleton College
• College of the Atlantic
• University of Colorado
• Dickinson College
• Harvard University
• Luther College
• Macalester College
• Middlebury College
• University of Minnesota
• University of New Hampshire
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Oberlin College
• Pacific Lutheran University
• University of Pennsylvania
• Pomona College
• Smith College
• Stanford University
• University of Vermont
• University of Washington
• Wesleyan University
• Williams College
• Yale University

Out of the 26 schools that earned a 4.0, 20 belong to the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC).

“We believe that report cards like this offer important opportunities to raise public awareness and apply pressure to schools to improve their sustainability efforts.  However, there are other useful considerations too, such as membership in the ACUPCC, whether the school is working towards climate neutrality, and what sustainability courses and research the school is providing,” stated Gina Coplon-Newfield, director of communications and outreach for Second Nature.

The total endowment value of the schools surveyed for this year’s Green Report Card is $325 billion. While the average endowment value dropped 23 percent in the last year, schools are not making cuts in sustainability. In fact, they are using sustainability to their advantage.

“Surprising the skeptics, most schools we surveyed did not let financial reversals undermine their green commitments,” said Mark Orlowski, executive director of the Sustainable Endowments Institute, in a statement. “New financial realities encouraged saving money by adopting environmentally friendly innovations.”

“Colleges are now taking pride in greener campuses and sustainability-savvy investments—increasingly important concerns for parents and students in choosing a school,” Orlowski said.

The Green Report Card allows a person to compare up to 10 schools at a time, filtered by more than 100 categories, such as geographic region, athletic league, environmental studies majors, sustainability jobs on campus, renewable energy use and many other factors.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

The Philadelphia Phillies are still trying to close out the World Series, but the team has already been declared winners off the field. The National League Champions were among the winners cited in the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2008 Green Power Leadership Awards. The announcement was made at the the National Renewable Energy Marketing Conference in Denver, Colo.

EPA’s Green Power Partnership is a voluntary program helping to increase the use of green power among leading U.S. organizations. The program encourages organizations to purchase green power as a way to reduce the environmental impacts associated with conventional electricity use. The EPA says the program has hundreds of partner organizations buying billions of kilowatt-hours of green power annually.

According to the EPA, the Philadelphia Phillies are the first Major League Baseball team to join the Green Power Partnership. The baseball club buys 20 million kilowatt-hours annually from wind and biomass resources, enough to power 100 percent of the annual electricity use for Citizens Bank Park.

Here is the complete list of the 2008 EPA Green Power Purchaser Award winners:

On-Site Generation

• Kohl’s Department Stores
• Lundberg Family Farms

Green Power Purchasing

• City of Houston, Texas
• The Estee Lauder Companies, Inc.
• ING
• Merritt 7 Venture, LLC
• Oregon State University
• PepsiCo, Inc.
• The Philadelphia Phillies
• Powdr Resorts
• U.S. Air Force

Green Power Partner of the Year

• Bellingham, Washington Community
• Cisco Systems, Inc.
• Intel Corporation
• University of Pennsylvania
• WhiteWave Foods Company

DOE Green Power Supplier Awards

New Green Power Program or Company

• AmerenUE

Small Residential/Commercial Green Power Program or Supplier of the Year

• City of Palo Alto Utilities

Large Commercial/Institutional Green Power Program or Supplier of the Year

• 3Degrees
• Sterling Planet

CRS Market Development Awards

Green Power Beacon Award

• Portland General Electric
• Honorable Mention: Detroit Edison

Green Power Pilot Award

• Energy Action Coalition
• Honorable Mention: Green Mountain Energy

Green Power Pioneer

• Dr. Jan Hamrin

Related link:

• The Green Power Network –  U.S. government web site provides green power market information

The 2008 Green Power Leadership Awards were presented in conjunction with the National Renewable Energy Marketing Conference, held October 26-29 in Denver, Colorado.

Partner of the Year

The University of Pennsylvania buys nearly 193 million kilowatt-hours of wind-generated renewable energy certificates (RECs), an amount equivalent to 46 percent of its total purchased electricity use. The purchase is large enough to have placed Penn on both EPA’s National Top 50 and Top 20 Colleges and Universities purchaser lists.

The University is funding its wind power purchase with savings achieved through aggressive energy conservation. Over the past few years, the University reduced peak electricity demand by 18 percent. Penn’s long-term commitment to buying green power helps support developing new wind generation facilities, including a 12-turbine, 20-megawatt Pennsylvania wind farm. In 2007, Penn’s President became the first in the Ivy League to sign the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment. As a result, Penn formed the Environmental Sustainability Advisory Committee comprised of faculty, students and staff working across multiple disciplines to research and write a long range plan for reducing Penn’s carbon footprint. In addition, Penn formed the Green Campus Partnership as an umbrella group to promote Penn’s commitment to sustainability and advocate for enhanced policies at Penn.

EPA recognized the University of Pennsylvania as a Green Power Leadership Award winner in 2002 and as a Green Power Partner of the Year in 2003.