Marquette University

College Sustainability Report Card 2008

Although Marquette does not have formal sustainability policies, it recently launched a website to promote sustainability initiatives. The university has one LEED–accredited engineer on staff, along with a half-time position responsible for sustainability activities, including recycling.

Marquette participates in the State of Wisconsin’s Focus on Energy Program. As a result of investing $7 million in efficiency improvements over the past few years, the university has reduced its annual energy use by the equivalency of 1,547,000 kilowatt-hours and annual energy costs by $350,000. Specific initiatives include replacing 40-watt fluorescent lighting tubes with 34-watt tubes and increasing the efficiency of HVAC systems. Marquette has not, however, made a formal commitment to reduce carbon emissions, nor has it purchased or made investments in renewable energy.

Marquette serves local dairy products and supports local farms and orchards through its foodservice providers. Eighty-seven percent of coffee on campus is either fair-trade or socially conscious. A discount program for using refillable mugs is in place, and all board programs use china. A comprehensive recycling program is in place for the whole university (including cooking oils, computers, and furniture), diverting over 20% of the waste stream. Nearly 400 meals a week are donated to local people in need through the Campus Kitchens Program.

The university pursues energy-efficient designs for new building construction and renovations to existing facilities. The new Discovery Learning Engineering Complex (an estimated 250,000 gross square feet), targeted to begin construction by 2009, will be designed and constructed with the goal of obtaining LEED certification. Marquette has also begun a rain garden, an innovative project that diverts rain run-off from one building away from the combined sewer system and instead uses it to irrigate a garden.

All undergraduates are automatically enlisted into the UPASS program which entitles students to unlimited access to the Milwaukee County Transit System. Forty-one employees are currently enrolled in a similar program. The university encourages carpooling by allowing employees and students to share a permit between multiple vehicles if they are carpooling. The University was a strong supporter of the Hank Aaron Trail which produced bicycle access to the area south of campus where intramurals are played and men’s and women’s soccer practice and compete.

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

The university aims to optimize investment return 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.