I Am So Popular: Break Up Camp For Big Girls
Austin Woman’s Club, "Historic Downtown Austin Assets" Among Preservation Texas' Most Endangered Places 2010
Giveaway: Justin Townes Earle @ Stubb's
![_Heat Things Up With <em>Desire</em> at the Blanton [Art Preview]](http://austinist.com/assets_c/2010/02/minter-thumb-110x110-478584.jpg)
Heat Things Up With Desire at the Blanton [Art Preview]
Excellent Show Alert: Bowerbirds & Julie Doiron at Mohawk
The University of Texas received a grade of B-minus on The College Sustainability Report Card, published Wednesday by the Sustainable Endowments Institute. According to the institute, the report card is the only independent sustainability assessment of campus operations and endowment investments. It grades universities with the 200 largest endowments in the areas of administration, climate change and energy, food and recycling, green building, transportation, endowment transparency, investment priorities and shareholder engagement.
“The overall grade of B-minus puts the university in the top third of schools in the report. And also, it should be noted that it’s improving from a C-plus last year, so it’s one of the schools that’s really making strides in the right direction,” said Mark Orlowski, executive director of the Sustainable Endowments Institute.
The improvement is due in part to the addition of a transportation category this year, which UT received an A in. The institute cited student and faculty’s free access to the city bus system and the large number of routes that serve campus in the report.
UT also received an A in the endowment transparency category. The Texas Public Information Act requires that information about the university’s endowment be available, but UT emails reports directly to anyone who asks for them.
The only failing grade that UT received was in shareholder engagement, which evaluates how effectively schools use their endowments to encourage sustainability practices at the companies they invest in.
“I think the university is making good progress in a lot of the campus sustainability areas. I understand that they’ve hired some additional staff to focus on sustainability recently,” said Orlowski.
In addition to hiring new staff, UT has formed a presidential task force on sustainability. UT students are also beginning to organize around these issues with the creation of a campus-wide group, the UT Sustainability Network
“It’s a real patchwork right now. There are all sorts of environmental groups on campus. This year there’s been a really big push to unify it,” said Jason Fialkoff, a member of the LBJ School Student Sustainability Working Group.
The LBJ group originally formed to ensure that green building practices were used in the renovation of the LBJ School building, but are now working with other groups on a wide variety of campus issues.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
UT's transportation grade ought to be a C - yes, lots of free buses, but they're crapping all over themselves trying to build more parking garages and have been downright bike-hostile the last five years.
I don't see that...they are building up, increasing density on the Forty Acres, removing surface lots, and building dense, pay-to-park garages. It is a heck of a lot bigger pain in the ass to park at UT now then it was when I was there at LBJ back in the mid 1990s.