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| Greetings from the Board |
| The Green Initiatives Fund is official! |
| Hamilton Gets a B- on Sustainability Report Card |
| Written by Peter Holzaepfel '05 |
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| GGH writes to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack '72 |
| GGH member Amara McCarthy '04 writes to Sec. Vilsack to congratulate him on his appointment within the Obama administration and to welcome him to GGH |
Hamilton Gets a B- on Sustainability Report Card
By Peter Holzaepfel '05Hamilton Receives a Higher Grade on 2009 Sustainability Report Card
The Sustainable Endowments Institute, a Boston based nonprofit organization engaged in research and education to advance sustainability in campus operations and endowment practices, released its third annual College Sustainability Report Card in September. The report card ranks 300 colleges and universities in North America with the largest endowments.
“The College Sustainability Report Card is the only independent evaluation of sustainability in campus operations and endowment investments and it has the highest response rate of any college sustainability ranking or rating,” said Mark Orlowski, Executive Director of the Sustainable Endowments Institute.
The report issues grades on an A through F scale in nine categories: Administration, Climate Change & Energy, Food & Recycling, Green Building, Student Involvement, Transportation, Endowment Transparency, Investment Priorities, and Shareholder Engagement.
Two out of 3 schools improved their grades from last year’s report. Fifteen schools received an average grade of A-, of which Middlebury College was the only NESCAC School to earn the highest mark. Hamilton earned an average grade of B-, slightly higher than the reports overall average grade of C+. Hamilton’s 2009 grade is up slightly from last year’s report in which Hamilton received an average grade of C+.
Of the 11 NESCAC schools, Hamilton ranked 9th, ahead of only Connecticut College and Trinity which both earned C average grades. Hamilton received the lowest grade of any of the NESCAC schools in the category of Student Involvement. Hamilton’s highest mark came in the category of Food and Recycling in which the College earned an A. The report points to the actions of the College’s food service provider, Bon Appetite, for purchasing items from 12 local farms and a local dairy as part of why the College received such high marks in the category. The new community garden and the College’s recycling and composting programs were additional factors.
The only category in which the College improved its score from 2008 to 2009 was in Endowment Transparency in which Hamilton raised its mark from D last year to B this year. The College’s higher grade resulted from public disclosure of its endowment holdings and its shareholder voting record. For the third year in a row, the College received an F in the category of Shareholder Engagement for failing to take an active role in proxy voting.
Since the Sustainable Endowments Institute published its first Report Card in 2007, Hamilton has received a higher overall grade average each year and has never lost ground on any category. Though there is certainly room for significant improvement, the College should be recognized for its continued effort to improve the sustainability of its operations and endowment practices.
Peter Holzaepfel is a Corporate Engagement Manager for the Climate Group (theclimategroup.org) in New York City. While at Hamilton he studied Government and Economics.
To view the complete College Sustainability Report Card, visit Green Report Card page