Cornell’s overall grade in the College Sustainability Report Card — an independent evaluation of more than 300 schools’ sustainability efforts across the country — has dropped from last year’s “B+” to a “B” this year, a grade that Cornell’s sustainability coordinator disputed as an inaccurate reflection of the University’s efforts.

The results of the annual report — compiled by the independent Sustainable Endowments Institute — were announced yesterday, less than a month after Cornell unveiled its ambitious plan to make the University carbon neutral by 2050.

The report grades Cornell’s sustainability performance in nine areas. While the University’s administrative efforts and investments in renewable energy funds earned Cornell two “A’s” in those categories, it received a “C” in the categories of “Green Building” and “Shareholder Engagement.”

“At SEI, we prefer to think of this as an ‘opportunity for improvement,’ if a school’s grade has fallen from the previous year,” Lisa Chase, a spokesperson from the SEI, said in an e-mail. “A ‘B’ grade is still very good of course, but I’m sure Cornell will want to evaluate what it’s changed as far as sustainability practices from the previous year. For example, Cornell fell slightly in the ‘Climate Change and Energy’ and ‘Food and Recycling’ categories, so it may be helpful to look in detail at how the school’s policies and practices have changed in those areas.”

But sustainability officers from Cornell, along with several other Ivy League institutions, have questioned the accuracy of the sustainability grades, according to Dan Roth, sustainability coordinator in Cornell’s office of environmental compliance and sustainability.

“Many [officers from other Ivy League schools] noticed changes in the grade that they don’t understand,” Roth said. “We [at Cornell] have been doing more in the last year in climate and energy, but the grade went down. There was not a logical change that we could see between last year’s grade and this year’s grade.”

Roth also said that it is extremely challenging to compare universities across the country as they all have unique attributes and characteristics.

“Just to have a letter grade to represent the totality of the situation is not just inaccurate, but oversimplifies the efforts,” Roth said.

Despite some inaccuracies and misinterpretations, Roth applauded SEI’s efforts and maintained that the report has enabled universities to compare sustainability practices and learn quickly about other schools’ initiatives.

While Cornell has provided information to SEI, it has chosen to opt out of this year’s surveys because the institute did not provide a clear methodology in the grading system. On the other hand, two student groups — the Sustainability Hub and KyotoNOW! — have jointly replied to the SEI's survey a few months ago.

“I am definitely disappointed [by the overall grade],” Christina Copeland ’11, president of the Sustainability Hub, said.

Despite the financial recession, the report finds that many schools have held onto their commitment to sustainability in a time of crisis.

“Surprising the skeptics, most schools we surveyed did not let financial reversals undermine their green commitments,” Mark Orlowski, executive director of SEI, stated in a press release. “New financial realities encouraged saving money by adopting environmentally friendly innovations.”

This commitment is echoed at the Cornell campus and top administrators at Cornell have publicly stated that sustainability will still be on top of Cornell’s agenda, according to Roth.

“The Reimagining Cornell initiative has left a lot of people unsure about the future, but everyone I have talked to has confirmed that sustainability will remain a top priority,” Roth said.

Fil Eden ’10, president of KyotoNOW!, commented that the overall grade is fair. While Cornell has done a lot in terms of sustainability, he said that Cornell’s budget cuts may have forced the University to compromise some sustainability measures for saving money in the short term.

“To some extent the grade drop is about priority,” Eden said. “I don’t think it’s an economic issue; it’s a priority issue. For the economic viability of the University and the health of the planet, it’s crucial for Cornell to prioritize sustainability in the years ahead.”

“It’s a bit of a wake-up call,” he added.