October 13, 2009
Clark Brings Home High Marks on Green Report Card
Clark's environmentalism and sustainability practices continue to get high marks on the annual College Sustainability Report Card, widely known as the "Green Report Card" and released by the Sustainable Endowments Institute on Oct. 7. On the 2010 report, the University received a B+ overall, with A's in five categories.
Grading the schools entailed researching publicly available information, conducting surveys of appropriate school officials, and assessing performance with 120 questions across 48 indicators in the following nine categories: Administration, Climate Change & Energy, Food & Recycling, Green Building, Transportation, Student Involvement, Endowment Transparency, Shareholder Engagement and Investment Priorities. The top overall grades were A-minuses, the grade awarded to 26 of more than 330 researched institutions; C-plus was the average overall grade awarded.
Clark received A's in the following categories: Climate Change & Energy, Food & Recycling, Green Building, Shareholder Engagement and Investment Priorities.
"Sustainability is an important institutional commitment at Clark University. We are especially proud of the leadership and accomplishment demonstrated by our students," said David Angel, Clark University Provost. "Students at Clark bring a lot of creativity and momentum to our sustainability initiatives. Just within the last year students have led the way in creating a bike share program, launching a community garden on campus, establishing an eco-representative program in the residence halls to promote energy and resource conservation, and collaborating with neighborhood organizations in a Summer of Solutions initiative. We believe colleges and universities need to lead the way in demonstrating the real progress that can be made through sustainability initiatives and look forward to building on these accomplishments."
The Sustainable Endowments Institute is a Cambridge-based nonprofit organization engaged in research and education to advance sustainability in campus operations and endowment practices. Its GreenReportCard.org Web site is a special project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, providing school profiles and grades along with exclusive insights about sustainability in higher education.
"Surprising the skeptics, most schools we surveyed did not let financial reversals undermine their green commitments," said Mark Orlowski, executive director of the Institute. "Colleges are now taking pride in greener campuses and sustainability-savvy investments--increasingly important concerns for parents and students in choosing a school."