Furman University

College Sustainability Report Card 2008

President Shi has signed the Presidents Climate Commitment. In June 2007, a diverse group of Furman constituents was selected to serve on the Sustainability Planning Group charged with plotting the course of carbon neutrality by 2025 to 2030. The university plans to hire a full-time sustainability coordinator in 2008.

Furman is an EPA Green Power Partner, in part due to a $7,000 purchase of renewable energy credits. The physical activities center has had a 60-panel solar thermal unit since 1984. The Eco Cottage is an eight-person residence that employs energy-saving features and uses alternative energy sources. On average, it uses 70 percent less energy than a standard residence.

Furman has provided its primary food supplier with a list of sustainability requests. The partnership with the provider is leading to increasingly more sustainable practices, but being in a region where few other schools have such demands, it is hard for the supplier to meet such requests when they come from just one school. Furman has been able to procure some locally grown produce from FreshPoint of Charlotte, NC. An on-campus organic garden was created in 2006.

LEED requirements were mandated by the board of trustees in 2001 for all new construction and building renovations. Hipp Hall is the only LEED Gold building in South Carolina. Five buildings are currently registered for LEED certification, in addition to Cliffs Cottage, a residence under construction that will be carbon neutral and LEED Platinum-certified.

The campus operates over 30 electric vehicles and expects to lease/purchase a natural gas–powered bus in the near future. In the past few years, Furman has spent over $35,000 expanding its trail network, and will soon tie the trails system with a 13-mile rail/trail connecting the school to the city center. A biodiesel facility makes fuel for the lawn machines.

The university makes its list of endowment holdings available to trustees, senior administrators, and other select members of the school community. This information is available at the investment office. The investment office is currently creating a process for maintaining proxy voting records.

The university aims to optimize investment return 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.