By Katie Perkowski

UK is just above average in sustainability.

The university scored a B- on the 2010 College Sustainability Report Card, an improvement from last year when UK received a C.

Bob Wiseman, vice president for facilities management, said four things caused the university to score higher than last year.

The adoption of a presidential appointed task force, a formal sustainability policy on campus, the process of hiring a sustainability coordinator and the negotiation of an energy savings contract to renovate buildings to be more energy efficient, are all factors in the higher grade, he said.

Wiseman said he has concerns about the methodology and categories used to grade the universities in the study.

One concern he had was three out of the nine graded categories were related to endowments.

Wiseman said the institute can be subjective and, while it has chosen criteria they believe to represent sustainability, this criteria cannot be universally agreed upon.

“This is put together by a group that wants to change how endowments are invested across the United States,” he said. “They’re seeking to change how universities are changing endowment funds.”

Wiseman said it is useful for grades to be given because it spurs the university to think what it could be doing better.

Because UK has all of its colleges and hospitals on one campus, it is unique and few institutions are like it across the country, he said.

“We’re different, we use energy differently, we have different items that make up our uniqueness,” Wiseman said.

Berea College in Berea, Ky., scored a B+ on the report. UK has more than 27,000 students enrolled and Berea has about 1,500.

Wiseman said it is difficult to compare UK and Berea because of size and what UK does differently on its campus. The hospital uses energy in a way buildings at Berea College cannot imagine, he said.

Taylor Shelton, member of the President’s Sustainability Advisory Committee, said one reason UK did better was because the Sustainability Endowments Institute (who released the report) did it differently this year.

Shelton said this year’s survey was more in-depth and was filled out by people involved in the day-to-day sustainability initiatives at the universities. In previous years, there was no student voice showing what the university was doing, he said.

Last year, UK received a D in student involvement, but received an A this year. Shelton said while the university has made improvements, the main impact was students got to show what they actually did instead of the endowment institution trying to find information.

“We kind of felt jipped last year after the report came out, especially in the category of student involvement,” said Matt Kramer, assistant recycling coordinator with the Office of Residence Life. “If it weren’t for students on campus, hardly anything would get done in terms of sustainability.”

Shelton cited three additions to UK’s sustainability efforts that helped their grade: the approval of the green fee, the hiring of a sustainability coordinator (which is still ongoing) and the newly-formed Student Sustainability Council.

UK announced its first building this week, the Digital Village, to be certified by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Land Environment Economics and Development program.

The council’s mission is to make buildings and communities sustain health and vitality of all life within a generation, according to its Web site.

A regulation was passed that requires all renovations and buildings made to be LEED certified, Wiseman said.

Sustainability also saves money, Wiseman said. UK’s centralized energy system that controls buildings can save about $1.5 million to $2 million a year, he said, and UK is seeking to improve upon this further.

Wiseman said about 26 percent of the university’s carbon footprint comes from coal use and about 67 percent comes from the electric bill.

The university is using more natural gas and less coal because of the price drop in gas, he said.

The University of Louisville scored a B+ on the report, and surpassed UK in an area that involved the American Presidents’ Commitment Letter, which presidents of universities nationwide sign stating they will reach a certain level of sustainability. The letter was signed by Louisville, but not by UK.

Wiseman said because Louisville signed the letter, it gave them points that UK did not get. He said UK did not sign the letter because a lot of the university’s activities are beyond its control.