Princeton University

College Sustainability Report Card 2008

Sustainability is being addressed in areas of operations, as well as education, research, citizenry, and communications. The purchasing department has an Energy Star purchasing policy and supports the purchase of recycled products. Students and faculty are part of the Campus Sustainability Committee, which coordinates the campus-wide sustainability effort together with the Office of Sustainability.

A Princeton class has conducted a carbon emissions inventory; a 400-kilowatt solar panel system is being installed on a campus-owned warehouse facility; and actions are underway to deliver live dorm energy performance data to students on LCD screens located in all dining facilities. The data will facilitate dorm energy competitions to coincide with national competitions such as RecycleMania. Geothermal technology, already utilized by one graduate student building, is currently being assessed for main campus use.

Dining services works with over 20 local producers to provide as much local, sustainably grown food as possible, including an entrée at each meal, and has set goals to increase this amount each year. Th e university uses reusable dishware in all dining halls, and containers at retail locations are biodegradable. Food waste is sent to a local farm for pig feed and provides green material for compost to the student-run, organic campus garden.

The university has established sustainable building guidelines that employ LEED criteria as benchmarks for assessment in the design process. A notable feature of Princeton’s guidelines is that all new buildings and major renovations are required to be a minimum of 30 percent more energy efficient than code requires.

The university has several hybrid and electric vehicles in its fleet in addition to an internal shuttle bus system. As part of campus planning, a comprehensive process is underway to assess all aspects of transportation associated with the university. The goals of the plan are to reduce the university’s carbon footprint and encourage a lesser dependence on single-occupancy vehicles.

Princeton’s proxy voting record is available in the investment office only to the University Resources Committee (URC), a subcommittee of the Council of Princeton University Community. After the fiscal year audit is completed, members of the URC can also view endowment holdings at the investment office.

The university aims to optimize investment return and is exploring renewable energy investment funds or similar investment vehicles.

Princeton currently asks that their investment managers handle the details of proxy voting. For mutual funds and proxies with social issues, a university administrator will vote.