University of Maryland

College Sustainability Report Card 2007

The Environmental Stewardship Committee was created by the provost and, together with the Facilities Council, established environmental stewardship guidelines for use in the University's 2001-2020 Master Plan.

The University has been successful in limiting year-to-year consumption growth with aggressive HVAC controls and lighting retrofits. Additional lighting retrofits are planned for the campus; they include lower wattage lamps, occupancy sensors, and LED emergency lighting, among other features. The University is currently benefiting from the state of Maryland’s requirement that retail electric suppliers meet a minimum renewable energy portfolio standard of 3.5 percent for 2006 and 2007, increasing to 4.5 percent in 2008 and 5.5 percent in 2009. Additionally, the University increased the percentage of renewable energy supply for its Type I accounts (below 60 kilowatts) to a total of 5 percent starting in June 2007.

Dining Services has retrofitted equipment and procedures to be more energy efficient models and is also working with suppliers to ensure the re-use packaging. Waste cooking oil is recycled for use as biodiesel, and a pilot composting program is now in place. The goal is to expand the composting program to cover the same percentage of campus that the recycling program currently covers.

The University's environmental stewardship guidelines require that new building be designed and constructed using the criteria established in the LEED guidelines. The University's Inn & Conference Center is LEED-certified and another project is registered for LEED certification.

The University makes neither its proxy voting record nor its list of endowment holdings public. This information is only available to trustees and senior administrators.

The University prioritizes investing to maximize profit and is also exploring renewable energy investment funds or similar investment vehicles.

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