Wednesday, sustainability day was going to be “dedicated to encouraging and promoting Columbia’s recent environmental stewardship initiatives and pressuring them to do even more,” complete with such accoutrements as a mountain of trash, a PrezBo speech, and giant displays. Unfortunately, it rained. Sustainability day will be rescheduled!

Well, the rain didn’t stop Columbia’s sustainability report card from coming in. Despite its best efforts, Columbia failed to improve, staying at the “B” grade it received last year. It was, however, easily in the top third of the 200 schools graded by the sustainable endowments institute. Most of the other Ivies did better, with Dartmouth and Harvard coming in as “Overall Sustainability Leaders” and Yale racking up a “Campus Sustainability Leader”‘ recognition. Only Princeton, with a B-, did worse. To be fair, New York City seems like a tough place to be sustainable: after Columbia, the next best Big Apple school was NYU with a C+. Schools were graded in a variety of categories, including food, transportation, and investments. Food and Recycling was the easiest class, with 29% of the students making an A. Endowment Transparency, on the other hand, seemed to be a tough cookie, as only 4% of schools got the “A” grade.

 Ivy grades
 NYC grades

Dartmouth A-                                            

Harvard    A-                                             

Brown   B+                                               

Yale  B+                                                 

Columbia  B                                             

Cornell     B

Penn        B

Princeton B-

Columbia     B

NYU           C+

Rockefeller  C

Yeshiva       C-

Fordham     D