Cornell has received a mixed review on sustainability, but the university's sustainability coordinator thinks that could be a good thing.

The annual College Sustainability Report Card published by the Sustainable Endowments Institute gives Cornell high marks for its administrative efforts, green buildings, energy conservation and recycling programs and lists the university as one of about two dozen "Campus Sustainability Leaders."

But the institute also wants to see universities invest and manage their endowments in environmentally and socially responsible ways. The group rated positively institutions that factor social or ecological considerations into investment decisions, work to positively influence companies whose shares they hold, and make public information about their investment process.

Because Cornell's investment portfolio is not open to the public the institute gave it an automatic "F" grade in these categories, bringing its overall grade in the report down to a B-minus.

"I think getting a low grade is a really effective conversation starter," said Cornell sustainability coordinator Dean Koyanagi. "This group is trying to push colleges and universities to the next level," he explained. "Theirs may not be the most scientific measurement, but it gets people talking about what we could be doing better and thinking more creatively about new strategies. When it comes to sustainability there's always room for improvement."

The report is based on surveys and publicly available information, he said, and "Cornell doesn't disclose what investments comprise our endowment." (One exception was the public announcement last year that Cornell would bar investments in oil companies currently operating in Sudan or in obligations of the Sudanese government, as a response to the genocide in Darfur.)

Cornell's B-minus is the lowest grade given to any of the Ivies (Harvard was highest with an A-minus), but it is not really a fair assessment, according to Katherine McEachern, vice president of the student organization Kyoto Now!, which works to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. "It's nowhere near what we would have gotten in the early '90s when we were the first university to agree to follow the Kyoto protocols," she said.

But she agreed with the institute's goals. "I think there are a lot of investments we could make that would be beneficial both financially and environmentally," she suggested, adding that student involvement in investment decisions would help to train future business leaders.

The Sustainable Endowments Institute, founded in 2005 and based in Cambridge, Mass., is a special project fund of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors engaged in research and education on the sustainability of higher education endowments.

Koyanagi concluded, "Efforts like the Sustainable Endowments Institute, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education and the U.N. Decade of Education for Sustainable Development are creating tools, like this report, that help colleges and universities learn from each other as we try to figure out how to be better stewards of all our resources."