University of Tennessee

College Sustainability Report Card 2008

Chancellor Crabtree of the Knoxville campus has signed the Presidents Climate Commitment and the Talloires Declaration. The university adopted an environmental policy in 2004. The Committee on the Campus Environment published a comprehensive environmental progress report in 2005 and will submit a 25-year energy plan in the fall of 2007.

The Make Orange Green campaign educates students, faculty, staff, and the community on ways to reduce energy consumption. A conservation competition between residence halls has resulted in energy savings. A Knoxville student recently completed an emissions inventory through Clean Air–Cool Planet, which will serve as the foundation for the campus’s plan to go climate neutral. The Martin campus has committed to fuel a new power plant exclusively with biodiesel produced from soybeans. For three years, the student environmental fee has facilitated the purchase of renewable energy to account for 2.6 percent of the Knoxville campus’s energy.

Organic coffee is available at the Knoxville campus and a Green Dining Day, featuring local and organic items, is held during Earth Month. Recycling programs exist at every campus and most campuses mix composted landscaping waste with horse manure for use as campus mulch. Facilities services at Knoxville is exploring the possibility of collaborating with dining services to compost food waste as well, and some coffee grounds are already composted. In addition, waste vegetable oil is collected on campus and turned into biodiesel fuel by students for use in university diesel vehicles.

The Knoxville campus just announced a policy to require new construction over $5 million and any major renovations to pursue LEED certification. The new building for the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy is expected to achieve LEED certification when it opens in early 2008. The possibility of certifying current buildings under LEED-EB is being discussed.

Facilities uses hybrid and electric vehicles and all facilities services diesel vehicles use a 20 percent biodiesel blend. Public transportation is subsidized by the university and a free shuttle connects the campus to off-campus destinations.

Endowment holdings are made public as per open records laws via an annual report. Proxy voting records, to the extent that they are available from investment managers, are available to the public at the investment office.

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 provides its investment managers with broad guidelines to determine proxy votes.