Rochester Institute of Technology

College Sustainability Report Card 2009

Rochester Institute of Technology is committed to improving its environmental performance. A purchasing policy includes recommendations for environmentally friendly products. A full-time energy specialist has been hired and a part-time employee works on communications related to sustainability. A sustainability committee of faculty, staff, and students has begun advising the school on its environmental practices.

The institute has initiated a $38 million project to completely overhaul its heating and cooling plant for greater efficiency. In construction and renovation, facilities management services implements energy efficiency technology such as occupancy sensors, building automation systems, and temperature control.

Dining services purchases local items, including dairy products, baked goods, and seasonal produce. Last year, biodegradable takeout containers and cups were available in one dining hall. A farmer picks up scraps twice a week for composting. Used frying oil from dining facilities is reused or sold for biodiesel. The institute hopes to increase its recycling rate from 38.5 to 50 percent.

RIT has made a commitment to ensure that new construction will be LEED-certified. Existing buildings are upgraded with efficiency measures such as the replacement of incandescent lightbulbs with fluorescent bulbs, metering of thermal profiles, variable speed drives to reduce electrical consumption, water conserving devices, and temperature controls.

Students are involved on campus with the Environmental Action League, which hosts an annual campus cleanup and waste audit. The group Get RIT Environment Education Now provides awareness activities including speakers and demonstrations. The Deaf Women’s Engineering Group has served the community with environmental projects.

To decrease the amount of student auto traffic on campus, the university has eliminated residential students' access to parking permits for administrative lots. Instead, students will be required to use campus shuttle systems to access campus facilities. The institute has increased its shuttle capacity by 33 percent to facilitate the movement of people through mass transportation.

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

The institute aims to optimize investment return and is currently invested in renewable energy funds and community development loan funds.

The institute provides its investment managers with guidelines that determine its proxy votes