By: Callie Schweitzer
USC received
a "C+" on its commitment to environmental sustainability, according to
the 2008 Sustainable Endowment Institute's College Sustainability
Report Card on Oct. 24 - more than a full letter grade improvement from
the "D" the university received in the 2007 report, released in
February.
This is the second time this year the Sustainable Endowments Institute
has published its report, which is aimed at sparking activity to
improve sustainability on college campuses across the United States and
in Canada.
Last year's report graded institutions in seven categories under the
umbrella of sustainability: administration, climate change and energy,
food and recycling, green building, endowment transparency, investment
priorities and shareholder engagement. This year's report card added
transportation as an eighth criterion. Each campus is also given an
overall rating on sustainability based on the incorporation of the
individual categories.
USC, along with Carleton College, Notre Dame, University of Virginia
and Northeastern University, showed the greatest improvement in
sustainability efforts over the past year.
USC improved by a full letter grade in every category except for
climate change and energy and endowment transparency. Earning a grade
of A in the new transportation category influenced the university's
overall performance.
Ruchika Gupta, the vice chair of USC's CalPIRG, which lobbies for
sustainability efforts on campus, and a junior majoring in
international relations global business, said she is happy the
university's largest improvement was in the green building category and
the school received an "A" grade for transportation.
For the past three semesters, Campus Climate Change, a division of
CalPIRG, has been working with TrojanTransportation and has
successfully fought for the use of biodiesel fuel in campus trams and
the phasing in of hybrid Campus Cruiser cars.
While Gupta is pleased with the improvement, she said the school has yet to prove its commitment to sustainability.
"We want to see a statement from the administration that it's a priority for USC to become sustainable," she said.
Undergraduate Student Government Vice President Max Slavkin called the
report card a "benchmark" for the school but said that other
universities have entire offices of sustainability to coordinate
sustainability efforts, whereas USC does not.
He said the "C+" is an accurate grade for USC's current level of sustainability.
"People aren't just jumping into [sustainability efforts]; they're
planning cautiously, but we have yet to see USC [administrators] say,
'We're going green,'" Slavkin said.
Slavkin cited this year's creation of the Operations Sustainability
Committee, which combines faculty representatives from 15 different
facility operation groups on campus with students interested in
sustainability, as a launching pad for positive future efforts.
"This committee rose on its own, because people are interested in it
and are figuring out why we should go green and exactly how to do it,"
he said.
Ed Becker, executive director of environmental health and safety and
the leader of the Operations Sustainability Committee, said the
Sustainable Endowments Institute report has a specific focus based on
the nature of its categories, but in the larger scheme of USC's
sustainability program, there is a lot going on right now. Becker
pointed to ridesharing among faculty and the use of alternative fuel in
campus transportation systems.
"Changes have been made and it's continuous," he said. "I visited each
department [within the 15 groups], and there isn't a single department
that isn't doing something sustainable."
USC's grade was brought down after receiving an "F" in endowment transparency.
Ruth Wernig, USC treasurer, said part of the reason the university
received an overall low score on the report card is because the school
won't divulge financial information related to sustainability spending.
"There's a lack of transparency because, as a private university, we
report to a board of trustees and they see all of our holdings and
approve the investments," she said. "This is true of any private
university."
Owen Caine, USG assistant director of community affairs and a sophomore
majoring in political science, said with help from the student body, he
is hopeful for the future of USC's sustainability efforts.
"We're past the point where students need to complain about the
deficiencies of our system, and we're at the point where they need to
help us come up with ideas," he said. "All problems have a solution in
my mind, especially when it comes to the environment. It's about
compromising and being able to see the solution for what it is."
