Green Report Card: Colleges Excel at Food/Recycling Sustainability

Of the 300 colleges and universities examined by the College Sustainability Report Card, 91 earned A grades in the Food & Recycling category, the second highest rate of A grades of any category. The Sustainability Report Card’s 2009 annual report, published by the Sustainable Endowments Institute, a special project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, assesses the 300 public and private colleges and universities in the United States and Canada with the largest endowments and provides an independent sustainability evaluation of campus operations and endowment investments.

Among key findings in the Food & Recycling category:

• more than four in five schools buy at least some of their food from local sources,

• almost three in ten have a community garden or farm on campus,

• three-quarters offer fair trade coffee and other food items,

• approximately half compost food or landscape waste,

• around two thirds offer vegan options on a daily basis, and

• about a third make biodegradable to-go containers available.

Fifteen schools received an overall A- grade across all categories, the highest grade earned. They are Oberlin College, the University of New Hampshire, the University of British Columbia, Columbia University, Dickinson College, Harvard University, Middlebury College, the University of Washington, Brown University, Carleton College, the University of Colorado, Dartmouth College, the University of Pennsylvania, Stanford University and the University of Vermont.

The full report is available at www.greenreportcard.org.