Although there isn't much green adorning the Gothic Wonderland this time of year, a report released Wednesday puts Duke in a distinctly "green" light.
The Sustainable Endowments Institute gave Duke an overall "B" rating on its College Sustainability Report Card and recognized the University as one of the 26 campus leaders in environmental sustainability, said Mark Orlowski, founder and executive director of SEI.
"Duke should certainly be proud of a job well done," Orlowski said.
The College Sustainability Report Card-developed by SEI, a Massachusetts-based company founded in 2005-evaluates the 100 colleges in the United States of America and Canada with the largest endowments.
The report evaluates schools in seven categories-four of which focus on campus-sustainability practices and three of which focus on the University endowment's effect on sustainability.
The University received "A"s in all of the campus-related categories and one endowment-related category.
Duke, however, did not perform as well in the endowment-related categories, receiving ratings of "D" and "F" in Shareholder Engagement and Endowment Transparency, respectively.
Shareholder Engagement evaluates the involvement of shareholders in deciding how the endowment is invested.
Schools that have a shareholder sustainability committee-through which students, faculty and staff can make recommendations on how endowment funds should be allocated to encourage sustainability-received high ratings in this category, Orlowski said.
Duke, however, is not alone in its low Endowment Transparency rating, Orlowski said, noting that SEI gave close to 70 "F"s in this category.
Other institutes-such as Dartmouth College and Williams College-are disclosing basic information on endowment investments and received an "A" in this category, Orlowski said.
"The ratings regarding the endowment reflect the transparency of the investment-not the quality of those investments from a sustainability perspective," Anne Light, assistant director of administration, wrote in an e-mail. "As a matter of policy, Duke doesn't disclose information about the investment of its endowment."
Under the Investment Priorities category-which evaluates the quality of investments-Duke received an "A."
Orlowski encouraged the University to, "continue to innovate and be a leader in the southeast."
Despite Duke's low performance in the endowment-related categories, the University scored highly in other areas, due to its campus environmental policies.
"Duke signed an environmental policy statement in 2005, making a commitment to environmental responsibility and to the community," said Tavey McDaniel, environmental sustainability coordinator at the University. "There was considerable administrative support for the policy."
The University is currently working on a number of new sustainability issues for the future. They include incorporating sustainability into the new Central Campus, creating a campus sustainability vision, drafting new green-dining guidelines, formulating an energy-management plan and extending the recycling program into the Duke Health System, Light said.
"We are extremely proud of our efforts in sustainability," McDaniel said. "There is always room for improvement, and that is definitely something on our radar screen."
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