The Report Card bases its findings off a number of surveys that it sends out to prominent members of each institution. The full results of the surveys can be found online at www.greenreportcard.org and reveal a wealth of information about sustainability efforts at Amherst, much of it information that the school is usually rather unwilling to give out.
The Report Card reveals that there is a faculty and student committee on campus called the Green Campus Advisory Committee. However, other evidence of this committee is strangely lacking. A quick search of the school Web site turns up nothing; there is a faculty committee listed called the “Green Committee,” but its members are listed as TBA. This is mildly embarrassing. Virtually all of our peer institutions have such a committee, something that is integral to a strong campus sustainability program. Without a committee to drive these efforts, our progress hinges solely on the good hearts of administrators and the advocacy of students.
Fortunately, many administrators clearly do care about these issues. The Report Card surveys reveal that a large percentage of the power we do not generate in our new cogeneration plant comes from Canadian wind and hydropower. We have installed low-flow shower heads. Eighty-five percent of the fish that Valentine Dining Hall serves fall under sustainable seafood guidelines. These efforts on the part of individual departments should be lauded, but it would be better if a single committee coordinated them.
Many of the sustainability efforts at the College run into this issue; one department is fully behind them, but they do not receive the administrative support they need. To give one example, Director of Dining Services Charlie Thompson has often said that he would love to have more local food in Valentine. There are several posters extolling the virtues of buying local hanging on the wall. But the Report Card surveys revealed that only two percent of the annual budget is spent on locally grown food. Only one kind of meat served in Valentine was fed on grass, a particular kind of beef that makes up one percent of the beef served. Unfortunately, Valentine simply does not receive the funding it needs for a real commitment to buying local food.
In any case, Amherst’s high score on the Report Card is deceptive; the main reason the College scored so high is the issue of endowment transparency. Due to recent efforts, Amherst received an A in the endowment transparency category, while two other schools who received an A- overall, Middlebury and Smith, received Ds in this category. (Williams received a C.) Endowment transparency may be important, but it has very little to do with sustainability. The reason that the Campus Sustainability Report Card ascribes such high importance to this relatively unrelated issue is that it is put together and published by the Sustainable Endowments Institute, a non-profit devoted to the issue of endowment use.
When we examine some of the other aspects of the College, the news is less encouraging: we received a C in the green building category. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification is the industry standard for green building certification; none of our buildings is certified at even the lowest level; however, the director of Physical Plant believes that some of the buildings would be certified if we applied for it. We also received a B in the administration category; although our administration is somewhat committed to the environment, we have no actual staff devoted to sustainability.
Although we can and should be proud of the progress that we have made with respect to sustainability, our results on the Campus Sustainability Report Card do not mean we do not still have a long way to go.