The Sustainable Endowment Institute (SEI) recently released its College Sustainability Report Card. According to its Executive Summary, the Report Card “seeks to encourage sustainability as a priority in college operations and endowment investment practices by offering independent yearly assessments of progress.”

Institutions of higher education have played a significant role in SRI at least since the South African divestment movement of the 1980s. The Report Card examines both the investment practices of these schools and the sustainability of core university operations.

SEI finds that “the level of campus sustainability initiatives far outpaces that of endowment sustainability activity.” Responsible food-service and recycling practices, for example, earned “A” grades for 29% of schools. Only 4% of colleges achieved the same grade for their “Endowment Transparency.”

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There have been at least three interesting developments over the past month in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting by companies based in developing countries, or so-called “emerging markets”.

In late January, the Social Investment Research Analyst Network (SIRAN) and KLD launched a report on the state of CSR reporting in these countries, entitled “Sustainability Reporting In Emerging Markets”.

The report, which focused on companies in three sectors in seven countries, was meant not only as a benchmark for the level of corporate disclosure on ESG factors. It was also intended to “create an advocacy campaign to encourage further improvements in sustainability reporting”.

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Recently, I received two queries from a reporter on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and CSR reporting. These were my responses.

Query 1

“Why evaluate companies from the CSR point of view at all? What good does it serve, especially considering the many flaws in CSR research cited below?”

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On Tuesday August 7th, I joined members of KLD’s staff and summer interns to pay a visit to the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship. There, we enjoyed presentations given about the Center and its affiliate, The Institute for Responsible Investment (IRI).

The Center and IRI are closely aligned with the mission of KLD. Both are doing some wonderful work and research in the areas of socially responsible investing and corporate responsibility. IRI is working on projects ranging from emerging markets to responsible property investment. In addition, IRI is wrapping up a study on non-financial reporting and the findings should be available in the first quarter of 2008. For more information about the Center and the IRI visit http://www.bcccc.net/.

Neutral is rarely considered an optimal condition, save for scuba buoyancy and, increasingly, with respect to carbon exposure. An eclectic roster of entities have announced aspirations to achieve carbon neutrality, including HSBC, Google, Super Bowl XLI, Silverjet and the 2008 presidential campaigns of John Edwards and Hilary Clinton.

As these initiatives have attracted positive recognition in the marketplace, more entities have caught on to the reputational benefits accruing from neutrality. This has, in turn, created a virtuous cycle or a “race to the top”. Or has it? A growing chorus of stakeholders has begun to question the net benefit of carbon offsets.

In an attempt to distill truth from fiction, F&C Investments has put out this excellent Guide to Carbon Offsetting. This four-pager is well worth the read for the carbon curious, committed and skeptical.

Climate Counts is a new nonprofit organization that has developed a rating system for corporate responses to climate change.

Their corporate scorecard evaluates criteria such as a company’s greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goals and programs, its reporting on GHG emissions, and its public policy positions on climate change issues.

So far, Climate Counts has only rated a few companies and industries, but their rating system (PDF format) is a helpful starting point for:

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