The Sierra Club deemed OU to be among the greenest universities based partly on transportation, waste and water use.
The environmental organization and sustainability promoter the Sierra Club added Ohio University to its 2015 list of greenest American universities this past Tuesday.
The list names 153 institutions and is based on performance ratings in areas such as co-curricular, energy, investments, food, innovation, academics, planning, purchasing, transportation, waste and water.
OU is ranked 93rd in the list and received one of its highest scores in the investments category.
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Another Ohio institution, Oberlin College, ranks 5th in the list.
“It is unclear from the Sierra Club website, but I am guessing we received 20 points for ‘Positive Sustainability Investments’ and 20 points for ‘Sustainable Investment Policy,’ ” said Elaine Goetz, sustainability specialist at OU. “We likely received these points for our Sustainable Investment Advisory Committee student group policy and investments.”
A university news release regarding the Sierra Club list states that the OU Foundation Board established the sustainability committee in 2014 as a student-managed portfolio focussing on investments through environmental, social and governance strategies.
Goetz added that because the university disclosed its investments earlier this year, it received another 20 points in the category of “Investment Disclosure,” putting OU in the top 20 schools for investment category scores.
Schools are included in the Sierra Club’s scoring and rankings based on responses given in the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System. The system is a rating tool that measures the extent to which the university prioritizes sustainability through academics, operations, administration and planning.
According to a previous Post report, OU received a “silver rating” on the school’s STARS report this year, placing it at about near the average for higher education in the country.
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“Participating in this STARS submission was exceptionally helpful for the university as we plan the future of sustainability programming and infrastructure,” said Annie Laurie Cadmus, director of sustainability, in the news release. “We were able to identify a variety of strengths and opportunities after viewing our final score and comparing our responses to our peers.”
Goetz said that she expects to see score improvements for the next submittal of the STARS report to the Sierra Club, particularly in the “Scope 1 and 2 Emissions Inventory” category due to OU’s divestment from coal by the end of 2015, as well as the university’s purchase of new electric vehicles.
However, she said the university is still deciding whether it will submit another STARS report next year, as one is only required to be submitted every three years.
@Alisa_Warren
aw120713@ohio.edu
