Rutgers University–New Brunswick

College Sustainability Report Card 2010

Rutgers employs a full-time energy conservation manager and facilities sustainability coordinator who work with the Facilities Advisory Committee on Sustainability to oversee initiatives on campus. The university has developed a green purchasing policy, and buys exclusively biorenewable cleaning products and electronics that meet EPEAT standards. The university is also a signatory to the Talloires Declaration.

The university has conducted a greenhouse gas emissions inventory and has committed to matching the New Jersey Energy Master Plan by reducing its emissions to 2 percent below 1999 levels by 2020. The university has already slowed the growth of its emissions. The Livingston Campus acquires 10 percent of its electricity from photovoltaic cells. A campus lighting audit was recently completed.

Rutgers' dining services purchases fair trade-certified coffee and local dairy products. Postconsumer food waste is given to a local pig farm, and the university recycles its used cooking oil. Dining services has achieved a diversion rate of 87 percent. The university recycles all of its landscaping waste and has achieved an overall campus diversion rate of 65 percent.

Rutgers follows LEED standards when designing new buildings. Two buildings on campus meet LEED-EB criteria. The university has achieved a diversion rate of 60 percent for nonhazardous construction waste and has also installed low-flow showerheads, toilets, and urinals to reduce water consumption in its existing buildings.

The university began an inter-campus energy conservation competition in 2008. Rutgers has 14 different student groups that work on issues related to environmental sustainability, ranging from the organization Rutgers University Students for Environmental Awareness to the Cook Organic Gardening Club and the Forestry and Wildlife Club.

Students receive a 25 percent discount on public transportation passes. The university provides a free bus around campus that makes several nonacademic stops. Rutgers' campus fleet includes electric and natural gas vehicles.

The university makes a list of all holdings available to the public at the investment office or sends information to individuals upon request, per open records law.

The university aims to optimize investment return and is exploring, but not currently invested in, renewable energy funds or similar investment vehicles.

The university does not have the ability to vote proxies, as the entire endowment is invested in mutual funds or other commingled funds.