MSU receives B grade for sustainability

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Monday marked the start of MSU’s Campus Sustainability Week, but despite the environmental focus, the university did not make the grade for its efforts to promote sustainability, according to a nationwide report.

The Sustainable Endowments Institute’s 2010 college sustainability report card was released Oct. 7 and gave letter grades to schools across the country based on their campus sustainability.

MSU received a B, something university officials said adequately reflects MSU.

Jennifer Sowa, project coordinator in the Office of the Vice President for Finance and Operations, said she anticipates the grade improving in the future, but is not disheartened by the B.

“A B is certainly not a bad grade,” she said. “It does reflect where we are.”

MSU’s grade was on par with other Big Ten schools. The University of Minnesota received an A-, one of the highest grades in the Big Ten, and University of Iowa received a C, which was one of the lowest.

Schools were graded based on various areas of campus sustainability efforts, such as student involvement, administration and food and recycling.

MSU’s lowest grade, an F in shareholder engagement, reflects the Sustainable Endowments Institute’s dissatisfaction with the university allowing its investment managers to handle voting on environmental, social and governmental issues.

MSU still is interested in investing in sustainable companies, said Glen Klein, MSU’s director of investments and financial management, in an e-mail.

“Having our investment managers handle proxy voting does not mean that MSU is not investing in sustainable companies, it simply means that our investment managers are asked to make decisions on behalf of the university,” he said.

Mark Orlowski, the executive director of the Sustainable Endowments Institute, said MSU should be proud of the grade it received.

“A B is a good grade,” he said. “The school should be proud of that grade (but) there’s also room for improvement.”

In 2008, MSU was ranked as one of the nation’s top-five campuses for sustainability, according to the National
Wildlife Federation’s Campus Environment 2008 Report Card.

“For MSU, it just really shows the good work you are doing on your campus and how infused it is across the board,” said Juliana Goodlaw-Morris, the Midwest campus field coordinator under the campus ecology program at the National Wildlife Federation.

Depending on the organization, survey results either can be favorable or unfavorable to MSU, Sowa said.

“The survey is really not necessarily going to tell you how you’re doing, (it’s) telling you how others perceive how you’re doing,” she said. “We know we’re not perfect, we know we can get better and we’re working toward these things.”

Lauren Olson, project coordinator in the Office of Campus Sustainability, said sustainability is something the entire MSU community can work on.

“For the most part, what
the research shows (is) people really want to conserve energy and want to participate,” she said. “But sometimes they’re just not sure exactly what they’re supposed to be doing. … What these activities are all about (is) trying to get people to see their role in all of that.”

MSU received a B grade in student involvement, but Sowa said student groups on campus are doing great things at the university.

“An outside institution might give us a B, but we know we have a lot of students who are doing really cool stuff,” she said.

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