The Commentator

As oil flirts with $90 a barrel, and the environment grows as political fodder, Yeshiva University is beginning to grapple with its own environmental policy.  Driven by presidential mandates from both United States President George W. Bush and Yeshiva University President Richard M. Joel, Yeshiva is taking steps to slash energy costs and limit damage to the environment.

Recently, Yeshiva saw its actions recognized while still implicitly criticized by a C- grade from the Sustainable Endowments Institute, a Massachusetts-based environmental advocacy organization which rates the environmental impact of the campus and investment operations for the top 200 endowed universities.  According to Mark Orlowski, Executive Director of the Institute and a persistent environmental activist since his days at Williams College, Yeshiva is "firmly in the middle – making good progress, but not ahead of the class, and not yet in the range where a responsible university should find itself."

Last year, in the 2007 Report Card, YU was one of five schools to receive a D-, the lowest grade received by any of the universities rated.  Last year's score included F's in all categories related to campus operations: administration, climate change and energy, food and recycling, and green building.  The new 2008 Report Card gave the university a C in all categories related to campus operations, including the new transportation category. 

The accuracy of last year's campus operations grades were challenged by Yeshiva officials, as the Office of the President did not respond to the first-time survey.  "We thought they were just fund-raising," said one Yeshiva official. 

The investment facet of the report remained unchanged from last year, with a B in investment priorities and two F's in shareholder engagement and endowment transparency.  Mr. Orlowski argued that Yeshiva should be more willing to release its proxy voting records and should use their proxy vote to bludgeon companies to be more pro-environment, but top officials at Yeshiva scoffed at the notion, claiming that it would involve onerous demands from their investment managers and create inefficiency. "We're asking our managers to take time from their own jobs to help us out; if we asked them to do this, we'd lose our investment team," he asserted.  "They're an advocacy group, and they want us to change our investment strategies."  He felt that expecting YU to change its investment approach was absurd.

While Mr. Orlowski claimed that the SEI's standards were not unreasonable, its own grading standards indicate that most colleges feel similarly to Yeshiva: 66% received an F in shareholder engagement, and 58% failed in endowment transparency.  Mr. Orlowski hoped that the number would improve in future years, and alleged that the failures reflect ignorance and indolence more than any legitimate obstacles.  "I've heard of zero cases where the investment managers have had a problem with a university's decision to control proxy voting."

Yeshiva officials were not unhappy with their campus operations grade.  "They gave us a C, and that's about where we are right now," acknowledged Jack D. Zencheck, Chief Procurement Officer for the university.  Still, the SEI wasn't an easy grader, and didn't give much of a curve.  No schools from the top 200 earned an A, and only six schools received an A-.  Mr. Orlowski acknowledged the tough standards, saying that "a responsible university should be in the B to C range."

In interviews, Yeshiva officials were heartened not only by the grade in campus operations itself, but also by their improvement from F's to C's.  However, once the fact that the university did not report its scores is considered, this year's full letter-grade improvement can be viewed in less dramatic terms.  Still, Yeshiva officials insist that they have made great strides in their environmental policy since previous years.  "Energy costs kept rising, and President Joel made it clear that he wanted to protect our energy supply," explained Mr. Zencheck.  "So we created an Energy Task Force with representatives from across the university – plant maintenance workers, members of the board of trustees – and we looked into how we could reduce spending and at the same time help protect the environment."

The task force hired a consultant, Lindsey Auden of 'Energywiz', a former Columbia University energy manager who claimed to have reduced Columbia's energy bills by $3 million a year.  Mr. Auden did a site survey of YU's campus and compared Yeshiva's buildings to other institutions.  Mr. Zencheck said the results showed that "we're doing pretty well, but it was clear there was a lot of work to be done."

Once the task force determined that there was plenty of potential for the university to reduce energy usage, it advised that YU bring in an energy manager to continue to assess the energy efficiency of Yeshiva's buildings and to ensure that the university met President Bush's voluntary climate commitment.  This past September, Michael Winkler was hired to help Yeshiva meet President Bush's voluntary Global Climate Change standards as well as eventually help Yeshiva sign the American College & University President's Climate Commitment. 

While his stint on campus has been short and has been further delayed by the "constant three-day Jewish holiday weekends," Mr. Winkler was able to point to several improvements the university has recently made to their campus.  "We've replaced the chillers on the Belfer building, the cooling towers in the Belfer and Gottesman buildings, and the burners at Zysman and Furst Hall," he explained in an animated tone.  "The old chillers were dogs – over fifteen years old and terribly inefficient.  Now we've upgraded to variable speed drive chillers and cooling tower fans."

Messrs. Zencheck and Winkler admitted that many of the gains have come from replacements ordered before Mr. Winkler's tenure as energy manager or even the existence of the Energy Task Force.  The replacement of the chillers, coolers and burners was planned by Yeshiva University Vice President of Administrative Services Jeffery Rosengarten and Director of Supporting Services Harry Yarwood in advance of the task force, and the light fixtures have been replaced with more energy-efficient versions over the past four years.  However, Mr. Zencheck feels that the creation of the position of energy manager should have a more comprehensive impact on Yeshiva, including a full audit of energy output.  He also highlighted the task force's impact on President Joel's recent decision to switch to a hybrid fleet, as well as the adoption of better water-saving toilets.

Other ideas have continued to come from outside the specific umbrella of the energy manager's office.  Several of the university's financial departments are turning towards report2web, a system which replaces paper printouts with web browser reports. Michael Bank, a financial analyst in YU's budget department, explained that YU had been printing reports up to 15,000 pages; now, each print job is limited to 100 pages.  While it cost about $50,000, he estimates that it should save $20,000-30,000 a year and thousands of sheets of paper for environmental, or as he puts it, "tikkun olam" purposes.  Mr. Bank noted that Yeshiva staffers tend to stick around for a long time, with one quarter of current employees having worked at Yeshiva in the 1980's.  In his view, while this allows for institutional stability, it also stifles innovation and the ?importing of ideas practiced at other companies and universities. Mr. Bank stressed that he held ?great esteem for these veteran staffers. ?  "There are people who have done great things for YU for a long time, and I understand the importance ?of tradition," he explained. ?  "But there's no Yiddishkeit in printing 15,000 pages.  We need to bring YU into the 21st century."

While Mr. Bank was quick to chalk up the environmental aspect to YU's emphasis on tikkun olam, and Mr. Zencheck referred to Jewish law as an important facet of Yeshiva's environmental plans, it was unclear what the guiding principles would be in settling a clash of priorities, either with regard to determining which environmental concerns should rank highest or to deciding between environmental considerations and other university interests.  "We're not that sophisticated yet," admitted Mr. Winkler.

Nevertheless, YU has conducted conversations with Kanfei Nesharim, an environmental advocacy organization with a unique twist: they aim to convince the Jewish community to "act on the relationship between halakha (Jewish law), traditional Jewish sources, and modern environmental issues."  Evonne Marzouk, Executive Director of Kanfei Nesharim, said that the she is "excited about YU's efforts on energy efficiency," and stressed YU's potential leadership role in the Orthodox community on the topic.  Although her organization focuses on the relationship between Jewish thought and the environment, they have not developed a rigorous approach to making environmental decisions based on halakhic factors, although Mrs. Marzouk mentioned plans to discuss those issues.  Kanfei Nesharim is exploring partnerships with major organizations in the Orthodox community, including the Rabbinical Council of America, and hopes not only to develop their educational outreach but also to establish more firmly the philosophical connection between Jewish tradition and contemporary environmental decisions.

Mr. Zencheck hopes that YU will continue to collaborate with Kanfei Nesharim to link Jewish law and environmental policy, but his strategic focus is on improving the techniques of YU's energy efficiency and report card grades.  "I want our long-term focus to be on getting in the B range in campus operations."  Mr. Winkler was more optimistic: "In the long term," he said, "an A is doable."

At this point, though, what they all agree upon seems to have been best encapsulated by Mr. Newman: "It's all about trying to save trees and cash."

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