An annual national survey rating campuses for green initiatives,-released Oct. 7,-changed VCU’s green report card to a B, a grade higher than last year.
The Sustainable Endowments Institute issued grades for environmental sustainability efforts made by universities and colleges.
VCU was awarded as a Campus Sustainable Leader in the 2010 College Sustainability Report Card.
According to the green report card Web site, the College Sustainable Report Card is the only comparative evaluation of campus and endowment sustainability activities at colleges and universities in the United States and in Canada.
VCU was a part of the 80 out of 332 institutions to earn the distinction of “sustainability leader.”
As VCU’s first director of sustainability, VCU’s Jacek Ghosh’s job is to lower green house gas emissions.
“We started out at a C- a couple years ago,” Ghosh said.
In 2008 our GHG emissions VCU produced were an estimated 137, 000 metric tons of carbon, since then the number has decreased, Ghosh said.
“We went down a little bit,” Ghosh said, “but we actually added 15 to 25,000 square feet of building.”
If the VCU campus is expanding while the GHG emissions are shrinking then VCU is heading in the right direction, Ghosh said.
VCU increased the grade of four categories out of the nine graded in the report card. The categories for administration and climate change and energy received A’s, up from the D’s of two years ago.
According to the green report card Web site, the College Sustainability Report Card and greenreportcard.org are initiatives of the Sustainable Endowments Institute.
The institute is a nonprofit organization for research and education of advanced sustainability in campus operations and endowment practices.