Washington State University

College Sustainability Report Card 2008

President Floyd has signed the Presidents Climate Commitment. Washington State University’s Sustainability Initiative has a volunteer coordinator and an active workgroup that tackles sustainability issues and conducts an annual sustainability forum. The sustainability workgroup has drafted formal policies that will be included in the university’s Business Policies and Procedure Manual. A policy on recycling has been adopted and a paper-use policy is under review.

The university’s facilities operations department and environmental health and safety office have worked diligently to reduce energy use on campus and to find more efficient ways to provide the same level of utilities services. The university has a program encouraging the growth of renewable energy in the state of Washington and is investigating the feasibility of installing a small wind generator.

Dining services spends approximately 40 percent of its annual food budget on local products ranging from produce to beef and chicken. Some local produce comes from the on-campus orchard and farm. Dining services pulps and composts all food and paper waste to be used by the compost facility. The Waste Wise–Shared Responsibility recycling program recycles 57 percent of the waste stream from approximately 1,500 collection areas throughout campus, and when a campus-wide cookout hosted 5,400 students, only 13 pounds of waste were not recycled or composted.

Any state-funded major building or renovation projects must meet LEED Silver standards, at a minimum, per the governor’s order. Thirteen project managers within the university’s capital planning and development department are LEED-accredited. The Compton Union Building will be WSU’s first certified LEED Silver building.

The university fleet currently has five hybrid vehicles and plans to add another five this fall. A student-led project is in the process of collecting waste fryer-oil from the dining centers in order to filter and refine it; the heavy equipment unit will use the refined oil. Approximately 3,800 gallons of biofuel will be produced. The university provides a free commuter bus and public transportation system.

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 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.