Despite Eco-Sense's efforts to make the campus 'greener,' AU received a B- from The College Sustainability Report Card in its 2009 evaluation.
The College Sustainability Report Card is a Web site from the Sustainable Endowment Institute that grades universities on their sustainability practices. The organization bases their rankings on publicly available data and surveys the group sends out to school administrators, according to the organization's Web site.
The organization grades schools in various categories, averages the grades and then produces an overall grade for the school's sustainability. AU scored lowest in both the student involvement and the endowment transparency categories, receiving respective grades of C and F.
Lindsay Madeira, AU's sustainability coordinator, said she was curious about where the organization got its information about student involvement.
"[Student involvement] should be one of our highest categories," she said. "I would say it's our strongest environmental sustainability resource."
Madeira said neither she nor Eco-Sense received a request for information from The College Sustainability Report Card, and that if they had, they would have responded.
Madeira and Eco-Sense members agreed with the organization's other grades.
"All the other grades [the report had] are actually correct," said Madeira. "I wouldn't say we are an A in any of the other categories. I would agree with the Bs. I think what they missed is that it is students that are driving the other categories."
Casey Roe, an Eco-Sense member and senior in the School of Public Affairs and the College of Arts and Sciences, said that compared to organizations at schools where the student involvement grade was better, AU's Eco-Sense is much more organized.
"I know that other schools did better [in the] student involvement [category]," she said. "We actually work with other schools and we know they aren't as organized as us."
Roe said Eco-Sense has worked to improve sustainability on campus through several different projects, and for the most part the B grades are on target.
Students on AU's campus were unaware that the sustainability report card existed and that AU received a B- this year.
"It makes me a little sad [that AU got a B-] because you see those signs that say, 'the American dream is green,' so I always thought AU was a little greener," said Alexandra Nemeth, a sophomore in the School of International Service.
Nemeth said she thought AU could be greener if people were more conscientious.
"I think if we recycle, and with our green SIS building, that may help," she said.
Alana Kalmbach, a sophomore in the School of Communication, said she did not agree with the report's grade on student involvement.
"I'm kind of confused as to why we are getting a C for student involvement," she said. "It's strange; Eco-Sense is such a big group."
Kalmbach said although the student involvement grade should be higher, the report was fair and there is always room for improvement.
Ever since AU President Neil Kerwin signed onto the College and University President's Climate Commitment, AU has been collecting information to see how sustainable the campus is, according to Madeira and Roe.
"Right now the biggest phase we are in is the info gathering phase," Madeira said. "We don't know what our water or energy consumption is in specific places, so we are tracking it."
AU's B- grade is an improvement from last year, when the school received a D+. AU's overall grade this year is the same, if not higher, compared to other D.C. area schools. Howard University, Georgetown University and George Washington University received overall respective grades of F, B- and C+.
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