University of Iowa

College Sustainability Report Card 2007

The University of Iowa is one of only five institutions of higher education that are members of the voluntary Chicago Climate Exchange. Members are required to achieve a 6 percent reduction below the 1998-2001 baseline by 2010. The switch from burning coal to oat hulls helped the University to surpass its 2006 emissions reduction requirement well before the year was over. The energy conservation program of the facilities management department has been working with the multidisciplinary Energy Conservation Advisory Council to further campus sustainability with efforts such as LEED-certified buildings, a possible wind farm, and an annual Energy Expo.

In 2001, Quaker Oats offered to donate excess oat hulls to the University's power plant to be used as biofuel for the campus boiler. The oat hull project has reduced campus emissions by 20 percent, which easily satisfied the University's 4 percent emissions reduction target for the 2006 period under the Chicago Climate Exchange program. The University has a cogeneration plant and is a partner in the Environmental Protection Agency's Combined Heat and Power system program. Students and University officials are also investigating the feasibility of a hyrdoelectric facility, installing green roofs, and constructing a wind farm on or near campus.

The University is engaged in a pilot program to serve only cage-free chicken eggs in the dining halls. Students are working on a composting program, and recycling has been institutionally supported.

The University is pursuing LEED certification for three separate buildings on campus. In addition, the University has been incorporating green building design in the area of energy, utilizing third party review.

A list of endowment holdings is made available to the university community and also to the public, and is accessible on the university website. The University of Iowa does not maintain a record of its proxy voting.

The University prioritizes investing to maximize profit and has not made any public statements about investigating or investing in renewable energy funds or community development loan funds.

The University asks that its investment managers handle the details of proxy voting.