For a university aspiring to reach the top tier, an average grade may seem unacceptable, but the “C” Baylor University received this week is a welcome mark.

The Sustainable Endowments Institute’s “Green Report Cards” came out this week, showing that Baylor made a slight jump, from a C-minus last year to a C this year.

Carl Flynn, Baylor’s director of marketing and communication for information technology and libraries, who is also the school’s sustainability coordinator, said though the improvement may seem small, the school is proud of the strides it has made in the past year. He added that progress is incremental, and it is nearly impossible to make a significant jump from one year to the next.

“I know in the academic community it’s hard to look at a C and feel good,” Flynn said. “But we still have areas where we can improve. We’re not Harvard or Stanford, who have been doing this for 20 years. We’ve only been doing this intensely for about 2 1/2 years, and we’re doing great.”

Baylor received high marks for the administration’s commitment to becoming more environmentally friendly and for its food and recycling programs. Flynn noted Baylor’s 24-member sustainability committee, which looks for viable ways for Baylor to go green, as a contributor to the administration’s rating. He said moves like trayless cafeterias and replacing single-use styrofoam containers with reusable to-go containers in its cafeterias and restaurants helped Baylor score high in food and recycling.

The school already had a strong recycling program, Flynn said, with students, faculty and staff having eagerly jumped on board when the campuswide recycling program was implemented nearly two years ago.

Cameron Bruns, a communications fellow with SEI, said this year’s survey was much more data-based than last year and said, “it’s very impressive that (Baylor) improved their grade,” given the requirements to attain top marks.

Flynn recognized that Baylor still has a ways to go in greening the campus and said some aspects of the campus don’t lend themselves to environmental friendliness.

For example, while Baylor has committed to building all new construction according to LEED guidelines, the standard for green buildings nationally, there are many old buildings on campus, and it is difficult to green those buildings at an affordable price.

For now, Flynn said the school’s sustainability committee is looking toward realistic goals, such as a bike-rental program — “Everybody knows it’s a good idea, but we don’t know how to implement it yet,” he said — and the committee is always listening for “that next great idea.”

No matter what the next steps are, Flynn believes that the traction and momentum the school gained just through its recycling program has helped change the culture on campus to the point where new programs and ideas will be widely embraced.

“You don’t try to throw it all out there and do it all at once,” Flynn said. “You have to start by getting the community behind it. Now that we’ve got recycling down . . . people feel a little more easy about being green.”

twoods@wacotrib.com

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