Dickinson College
PAE-18: Positive Sustainability Investments

In June 2010, Dickinson invested $3 million, approximately 1% of our pooled endowment, in the Sustainable Investments Initiative. The Sustainable Investments Initiative is a global equity fund created and managed by Investure LLC that uses a positive screen to select investments that promote long-term social, environmental and economic value. This new fund was created in response to requests from Dickinson and Middlebury Colleges and by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

Dickinson also makes other investments that promote sustainability that do not fit the narrow parameters of PAE Credit 18. Although we are exempt from paying local taxes as a non-profit educational institution, Dickinson voluntarily paid over $330,000 in local property taxes in recent years. Dickinson contributed $50,000 to the Carlisle Borough Council for a traffic engineering study that resulted in a $2.8 million state funded ‘road diet’ to make Carlisle more pedestrian and bicycle friendly. Dickinson contributed $100,000 to Carlisle’s “High-I” initiative to revitalize the historic downtown area. We provide 10,000 square feet of rent free space on campus and other support for Project S.H.A.R.E., an interfaith social service agency that provides food, clothes and nutritional education for individuals and families in need. Dickinson is working with organizations like Cumberland Valley Rails-to-Trails, the South Mountain Partnership, and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy to develop a network of bike trails in the region. Dickinson College helps support the development of wind energy by purchasing 18 million kwh of Renewable Energy Credits (RECs), equal to 100% of our annual electricity consumption. We are also investing directly in renewable energy and energy conservation on our own campus. We have installed 77 kw of solar photovoltaic arrays on campus. Our central energy plant, a new, state-of-the-art, high efficiency facility that was constructed at a cost of $5.6 million, represents a major investment in energy conservation. In 2010 we took a further step by converting the high-efficiency boilers of the plant to burn waste vegetable oil, a net-zero carbon energy source. All building projects since 2008 have been built to LEED-Gold standard. We have invested financial capital and sweat equity to develop the Dickinson College Farm, a source of healthy, sustainable food for the campus, an educational and research venue for our students, and a demonstration site and resource for the community that is actively promoting sustainable farming and land stewardship practices in the region, buy local campaigns and farmers’ markets.