Green grade commendable

By Staff Editorial     10/8/09 7:00pm

It may be ironic that we espouse the merits of sustainability on a dead tree, but please, bear with us. Our intent is sincere. We would like to commend the university for its improvement upon last year's score, delineated on the Sustainable Endowments Institute's Green Report Card (page 6).While we are not yet to the level of some other universities - our B grade certainly leaves room for improvement - the jump from last year's B-minus shows marked improvement. One need look no further than McMurtry College and Duncan College, the most environmentally-friendly colleges on campus, to recognize the university's attempts at decreasing its carbon footprint.

The grading scale is interminably difficult, and, we believe, unduly weighted toward the transparency (or lack thereof) in certain aspects of our endowment. Pressuring certain companies in which we hold stock into eco-friendly performances is obviously a goal - but its effect on our score is a bit heavy. After all, if Stanford only received an A-minus, should we really be upset by our final grade?

Recent efforts and future projects have shown that Rice has an eye toward the environment, and we will support the worthy efforts at maintaining and bettering our efforts at sustainability.

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