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Sustainable
Endowments
Institute

More than 20 years of impact

From the first independent report card on campus sustainability to the governments now setting standards for existing buildings.

Measuring

We set out to compare what colleges were doing on sustainability, on campus and in their endowments.

2005

  • Mark Orlowski founds the Institute as a special project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, opening an office in Harvard Square and hiring three summer research fellows.

2006

  • We hire our first full-time staff member and publish results from our first ESG survey, which draw national media attention.

2007

  • We publish the first College Sustainability Report Card, the first independent sustainability survey of higher education. It profiles 100 schools, with a 90 percent response rate.
  • The Campus Consciousness Tour, with the bands Guster and The Format, covers more than 7,000 miles on biodiesel-powered buses and visits more than 20 campuses.

2009

  • GreenReportCard.org goes live, covering 300 colleges in all 50 states and several Canadian provinces.

2010

  • With UNCF's Building Green Initiative, we publish the Minority-Serving Institutions Green Report, surveying more than 50 tribal colleges, Hispanic-serving institutions and HBCUs.

Financing

Our research pointed to green revolving funds, and we challenged institutions to invest $1 billion in them.

2011

  • Greening the Bottom Line finds a median annual return of 32 percent among campus green revolving funds.
  • We launch the Billion Dollar Green Challenge at AASHE's annual conference, and the Leadership in Energy Efficiency Financing network in New England.
  • The fifth and final Report Card covers 322 schools holding more than $325 billion in endowment assets.
  • We begin advising campus groups and partner organizations on the coal divestment campaign.

2012

  • Greening the Bottom Line 2012 shows campus funds growing from about 50 to about 80 in under two years.
  • About 150 leaders from higher education, business and other organizations join us at Harvard for a summit on financing energy efficiency.

2013

  • With AASHE, we publish Green Revolving Funds: A Guide to Implementation & Management.
  • We host Financing the Future of Energy Efficiency in San Diego.

Tracking

GRITS gave institutions one place to plan projects and prove what they saved.

2014

  • GRITS 1.0 launches on Earth Day.
  • We publish the first independent analysis of AASHE STARS endowment data, and move from Cambridge to downtown Boston.

2015

  • The New York Times features our work in "Investing in Energy Efficiency Pays Off."
  • The Billion Dollar Green Challenge passes $100 million in committed capital.
  • More than 150 partners, donors and friends join our 10th anniversary celebration.
  • APPA members gain free access to GRITS.

2016

  • We publish a multi-sector survey on energy efficiency tracking, covering healthcare, higher education, K-12, municipalities and corporations.

2018

  • We become an independent, mission-driven public benefit corporation after 13 years as a special project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.

2019

  • GRITS 3.5 is released, and more than 800 institutions now have access.
  • With RMI, Cadmus Group and Frasca & Associates, we co-author Revolving Funds for Sustainability Projects at Airports, a comprehensive guide funded by the Federal Aviation Administration and published by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Setting standards

We began working with the governments writing the rules for existing buildings.

2022

  • We begin facilitating a peer working group for government staff on building performance standards.

2023

  • A new Greening the Bottom Line surveys 66 institutions whose funds have financed more than $1.3 billion in projects.

2025

  • AASHE members gain free access to GRITS, whose project library now holds more than 5,500 completed projects.

2026

  • We lead the writing of a revolving fund implementation guide for local and county governments, commissioned by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy.
  • We launch a partnership with Practice Greenhealth that gives its member hospitals and healthcare institutions free basic access to GRITS for the first time.

2027

  • The first BPS Summit brings together government staff from across the United States and Canada on January 27 and February 4.