Green Fund

From Sustainability

Welcome to the MIT Green Fund Wiki Page. We are a team 4 MIT Sloan students (Michael Baffi, Michael Iger, Bala Venkatrao and Matt Weiss) working on plan for an MIT Green Fund. We are currently working to present this plan to senior MIT officials and the Energy Research Council in an attempt to make this Fund a reality at MIT.

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What is the idea for the MIT Green Fund?

Goal: To support MIT’s energy initiatives by reducing energy emissions and costs on MIT’s campus and generating above-market returns.

Investments:

  • Capital and operating projects
  • Implementation of new technology research
  • Educational outreach programs

Fund Characteristics:

  • Revolving loan fund to invest in sustainability initiatives on campus
  • Involvement from students, faculty, alumni, administration and staff
  • Managed by investment professional, overseen by advisory board, tremendous student involvement
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Why does MIT Need a Green Fund?

Growing Trend:

  • Harvard Green Campus Loan Fund (started 2000, 30% ROI)
  • Yale Green Fund (started 2002)
  • Duke Green Fund (started 2006)

MIT Campus/Community Facts:

  • Generated 250,000 tons of CO2 in 2006
  • Expected to generate over 350,000 tons in 2015
  • MIT generates ~50% more GHG emissions per student than Harvard

Currently, there is no direct source of funding for energy saving initiatives and departments have little incentive to risk their own funds on projects that do not yield returns to their own budgets.

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Investment Criteria

Each investment will be evaluated using 5 criteria, each of which will be scored using the following predetermined metrics:

  • Emission reductions
  • Cost savings
  • Innovation
  • Goodwill
  • Public Relations

The Green Fund will NOT invest in any routine maintenance activities or code-compliant initiatives. We will, however, fund the gap between code-compliant and more sustainable alternatives.

Retrieved from "http://sustainability.mit.edu/Green_Fund"