Mark Orlowski is doing his part to ensure a brighter future. The nonprofit organization he founded in 2005, the Sustainable Endowments Institute, engages in research and education to advance sustainability in campus operations and endowment practices. Its “College Sustainability Report Card,” which rates colleges on their “green” practices, is attracting media attention and encouraging colleges to take a closer look at how they can maintain more environmentally friendly campuses and invest responsibly. The organization provides interactive sustainability profiles and grades for 300 schools with the largest endowments, ranging from approximately $150 million to $35 billion. The institutions of higher education rated include Ivy League schools, liberal arts colleges and large state universities. Here, Mosaic asks Mark about his work and how his days at GBRSS may have influenced him.
Mosaic: How is the Report Card affecting colleges and students?
Mark: Making a commitment to sustainability, ranging from local food sourcing in cafeterias to renewable energy investments, is no longer a priority of only environmentalists. These types of innovations are capturing the attention of everyone, from college trustees to admissions applicants. In a poll by the Princeton Review, for example, 63 percent of more than 10,000 college applicants polled said that a college’s commitment to the environment could affect their decision. Schools can’t ignore this growing awareness.
Mosaic: What sorts of practices does the College Sustainability Report Card rate?
Mark: The Report Card helps schools and students compare how the different institutions measure up on issues such as food and recycling, green building, student involvement, transportation, climate change and energy, endowment transparency, investment priorities and shareholder engagement. We also show trends across policy categories. We hope that this not only helps applicants, but also allows the schools to learn from each other. For example, in the transportation category, car-sharing programs at schools have more than doubled over the past year. This is a healthy trend.
Mosaic: How might your experience at the Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School have influenced your career path?
Mark: I had a great eight years at Steiner, starting in first grade with Mr. Eurich. I learned at my own pace and, after eight years, still had a passion for learning and creativity—and an ability to think outside of the box. My home life also affected my sensibilities. My parents believed in environmentally friendly living and lots of natural light. At the Steiner school, too, the classrooms are inviting and filled with natural light, and there’s an appreciation for nature, with recess outside in the fields and woods. It keeps you connected. And Mr. Eurich had a multi-dimensional way of teaching that included auditory, kinesthetic and visual elements. This allowed me to get a strong grasp of the material and go on from there with confidence.
Mosaic: Where did you attend college, and what was your focus?
Mark: I started out at Berkshire Community College and then finished at Williams College. I ran a computer consulting business simultaneously. After getting my associate’s from BCC, I underwent an intense transfer process and was one of five students accepted to Williams out of 150 applicants. I majored in political science and environmental studies.
Mosaic: So you must have hit the ground running when you graduated.
Mark: I started the nonprofit organization right after graduating. At Williams, I chaired the Campus Environmental Advisory Committee and served on the Committee on Shareholder Responsibility. Through this involvement, I learned that there was no coordinated mechanism to find out what other schools were doing. The information available was anecdotal and fragmented. There was a need for a reliable, independent tracking mechanism for what was happening on campuses in New England and nationally. I am deeply involved in the research, of course, and now we have a summer research fellows program through which undergraduate and graduate students engage in research.
Mosaic: How did you get the organization going, and how do you fund it?
Mark: John Chandler, former president of Williams College, encouraged me to get the organization off the ground and now serves on our board of advisors. The organization is a special project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, which takes care of our accounting, legal and bookkeeping needs, and receives funding from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and a number of other foundations. I personally do all of the fundraising for the organization. One of the first seed grants we received was from the Rudolf Steiner Foundation.
Mosaic: What are some of the media outlets that have taken an interest in your work?
Mark: We’ve received attention from the New York Times Magazine, CNN, Money, Business Week, Forbes, PBS and the Chronicle of Higher Education, as well as from many local and campus presses. This kind of coverage is important. All too often, there’s terrific research out there, but no one knows about it. It’s reminiscent of an old riddle, “If you publish a great piece of research and no one knows about it, does it have an impact?” But we are having an impact, and people are interested. Since the beginning of 2007, more than 250,000 visitors have come to our website to look at research.
Mosaic: What other activities does the organization engage in?
Mark: We give out Champions of Sustainability in Communities Awards and Sustainability Innovator Awards to noteworthy schools. We look at things like resource efficiency or reduction of resource use, educational impact, creativity and uniqueness of solutions, and how well an approach is adaptable to other schools. These awards recognize successes and, we hope, bring attention to what progressive schools are doing so that other schools will be inspired to follow their leadership.
Mosaic: Thank you, Mark. You’re doing some valuable work in the world.
To learn more about the Sustainable Endowments Institute, visit endowmentinstitute.org. More about the College Sustainability Report Card can be found at greenreportcard.org.
