It's not easy being green

Penn's campus may look a little greener from the other side.

A Jan. 24 report evaluating environmental consciousness on college campuses gave Penn a B for its overall greening efforts, but student environmental group leaders argue that the report fails to recognize numerous existing problems.

After six months of research, the Cambridge-based Sustainable Endowments Institute graded 100 colleges on the quality of their environmental policies across seven subject areas, including how the schools draw from their endowment funds to improve the environment.

Though Penn, whose endowment fund is $5.3 billion, received an A in categories such as food and recycling - which assessed the University's use of organic foods and recycling facilities - the University received an F in endowment transparency and a C in investment priorities.

But according to environment-friendly student leaders, even the top marks were not merited.

"It gives us too much credit for the few things Penn does right," said Penn alumnus Michael Gulinello, who is co-chairman of the Penn Environmental group and a former Daily Pennsylvanian sports reporter. "They gave us a B for our green buildings policy, but we have zero green buildings."

In the meantime, however, University leaders are concentrating on the areas in which Penn actually received poor marks.

"We have more to do though, because we have systems in place that can be used a lot more than they are now," said Daniel Garofalo, senior facilities planner for Penn, who added that the study highlighted some important areas for improvement.

Officials unaffiliated with the University echoed these sentiments.

Mark Orlowski, executive director of the Institute, said that "the University is hitting a lot of the key areas, but it doesn't mean their performance is impeccable."

In particular, Penn's refusal to disclose information on how it is investing its endowment resulted in its especially low grades - C and F - in the two categories, said Orlowski.

"Schools like Dartmouth make information about investment holdings available for the public," he said. "One of the questions we should ask is, why has Penn taken a different approach?"

And with such high grades, Gulinello said he is afraid the report may make administrators complacent.

"It's been frustrating how long some of these things have taken," he said. "Administrators need to decide that this is a priority."

At its meeting on Feb. 14, University Council - a group of students, faculty and administrators that meets monthly to discuss campus issues - will discuss the environmental proposal presented by the Undergraduate Assembly and Penn Environmental Group, said UA member and College sophomore Lisa Zhu.

The plan urges the administration to develop uniform policies on recycling and energy use, but inadequate resources may stall reform, Zhu said.

Newer Penn officials are likewise recognizing the need for environmental reform on campus, College senior and Environmental Club co-chairman Nishi Shah said.

"We used to be adversaries, but we now have a more collaborative relationship with the administrators," she said.

Garofalo added that Facilities and Real Estate Services will look at prototype recycling units for buildings and will publicize existing recycling programs this semester.

Four schools, including Harvard University and Dartmouth College, earned an overall A in their own reports, and 21 other colleges earned a B.

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