The College Sustainability Report Card is the only independent evaluation of campus and endowment sustainability activities at colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. In contrast to the academic focus on sustainability in research and teaching, the Report Card examines colleges and universities, as institutions, through the lens of sustainability.
UWMC won a 2007 Hospitals for a Healthy Environment (H2E) award at the leadership level. H2E was founded by the American Hospital Association, the Environmental Protection Agency, Health Care Without Harm and the American Nurses Association.
UWMC is the first hospital in Washington state to win the award and was one of eight recipients nationwide this year. Leadership award winners must recycle at least 25 percent of solid waste (UWMC weighed in at 27 percent) and have eliminated mercury from facilities.
Today's students are going green and the move towards a sustainable future is impacting many of their decisions, including college and career choices. In recognition of this movement, Kaplan, a premier provider of education services for more than 70 years, has focused its new Kaplan College Guide 2009 for the first time on environmentally responsible schools and green careers.
Both the University of Washington and the University of Oregon receive top marks in the Princeton Review's new "Green Rating" system.
The ranking system measures how environmentally friendly schools are. Institutions receive a score on a scale from 60 to 99 based on their policies and practices.
At the University of Washington the commitment to the environment is evident all across campus. As a result, Washington is one of only six schools to receive an A-, the highest grade attained on the 2008 College Sustainability Report Card, published annually by the Sustainable Endowments Institute in Cambridge, Mass.
The University earned an average grade of “A-” on the 2008 College Sustainability Report Card, an independent environmental sustainability evaluation of campus operations and endowment investments.
Of the 200 schools evaluated on the report card, the UW is tied for the highest average grade with Harvard University and Dartmouth, Middlebury and Carleton colleges, and the University of Virginia. The Sustainable Endowments Institute, a special project of the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, published the report in October 2007.
UW Motor Pool Operations has been recognized as one of seven Washington facilities in fighting pollution. It was awarded the 2004 Governor's Award for Pollution Prevention and Sustainable Practices.
According to manager David Carr, motor pool has many ways of minimizing harmful effects on the environment, the most important of which is not well-known.
"The single most important contribution motor pool makes to pollution prevention and sustainable practices is often overlooked," Carr said.