IU earns B in College Sustainability Report Card

This year, IU once again saw improvement in its grade on the College Sustainability Report Card.  

IU received a B, which is up from the B- ranking last year.

The grade, an independent evaluation of sustainability released by the Sustainable Endowments Institute, looks at nine environmental factors concerning schools around the US. Those factors include transportation, student involvement, food & recycling and more.

Data is collected from publicly available documents as well as from four surveys sent to school administrators and student leaders.

This year, 322 schools are represented on the report card, and 308 of those schools responded to at least one of the surveys sent.

The total scores from the categories determined a school’s overall GPA on a 4.0 scale. Brown University, Dickinson College, Oberlin College, Pomona College, University of Minnesota–Twin Cities, the University of Wisconsin and Yale University received the highest grades this year.

Bill Brown, IU Office of Sustainability director, said in 2007 the University received a D+ but has climbed up ever since.

It was in 2007 that the school created the Task Force on Campus Sustainability and in 2008, the Office of Sustainability. Bill Brown joined as director in 2009.

The office is currently overseen by the Campus Sustainability Advisory Board, which features officials from numerous departments.

“We’re improving,” Brown said. “We started an internship program and the office. More people got involved. We’re making improvements.”

Since 2007 IU has had more than 100 sustainability interns, and the student sustainability council has 22 student groups involved. IU also has a Sustainability Issues Thematic Community for freshmen.

“One area we got an A this year was ‘Student Involvement,’ which we are very proud of,” Brown said.

However, Brown said the University must focus on areas they did not receive A’s on.

“We won’t rest until we get on top,” he said.

— Margaret Ely