After receiving an “A-” grade on its Sustainable Report Card, the UW is rolling in the green — but not the monetary kind.

In the results of a nationwide survey issued by the Sustainable Endowments Institute, “A-” was the highest grade awarded to any school.

“It’s a select group,” said Norm Arkans, director of media relations for the UW. “We’re honored to be a part of it.”

The nonprofit institute was founded in 2005, a special project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors that is “dedicated to research and education promoting sustainability in campus operations, and endowment practices,” according to its Web site.

The institute judges the 200 universities (limited to the United States and Canada) with the largest endowments by their performance in eight categories. For the report card, the institute defines sustainability as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

The UW was one of six institutions recognized as a College Sustainability Leader for receiving an overall “A- or better.” The UW was also named a Campus Sustainability Leader, a distinction only achieved by 24 other institutions for receiving an A- or better in five operations categories.

The eight categories judged were administration; climate change and energy; food and recycling; green building; transportation; endowment transparency; investment priorities and shareholder engagement.

The University received six “A” grades and two “B” grades.

“It’s just a measure of the seriousness with which the University takes its responsibilities as a responsible user of energy, and as a sustainable institution,” Arkans said.

Up from a “B-” last year, the UW made strides in both the “endowment transparency” and “shareholder engagement” areas, in which it received an “F” last year. This year the UW raised those areas to a “B” grade. Additionally, a “C” in “investment priorities” from last year was raised to an “A.”

Alex Gwozda, a Sierra Student Coalition member, said he thought transparency helped facilitate improvement of environmental responsibility, but didn’t think that it was an improvement itself.

For both years, the University received an “A” in administration because of the Environmental Stewardship Advisory Committee (ESAC) and the University’s formal policy on sustainability, both of which were adopted in 2004 by then-incoming President Emmert, according to the ESAC Web site.

In Feb. 2005, the student senate passed a resolution in support of “High-Performance Green Building at UW” [R-11-15], which called on UW regents and administrators to “support state legislation that requires all new University construction projects and major renovations achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) ‘silver’ certification or better.”

Gwozda said he heard about the legislation through an ESAC member and thought it was important.

Last year, the scores were determined by both independent research and a campus sustainability policy survey. The UW was estimated to have an endowment of $1.8 billion. This year, data was compiled, along with efforts used last year, a dining services survey and an endowment shareholder practices survey. As of June 30, 2007, according to the SEI, the endowment size of the UW is $2.1 billion.

The institute found that more than two of three schools (68 percent) improved their overall grade, and 13 percent of schools improved by at least one full letter grade (i.e. from “C-” to “B-“). In addition, a new category, transportation, was included.

“The A- score is very likely an accurate representation relative to other universities,” Gwozda said. “I really appreciate all the efforts so far, which make UW a leader in the nation. [However,] I do not believe the A- is relative to UW’s full potential.”

Arkans said the UW isn’t resting on its laurels.

“It’s good that [our efforts have] been recognized,” he said. “We’ll continue to use our resources wisely and continue to be an ecologically responsible organization.”

[Reach reporter Chris Paredes at the news@thedaily.washington.edu.]

Jeff Tripoli contributed to this report.