The green revolution marches on in higher education.

A report out today from the Sustainable Endowments Institute says that two-thirds of the colleges and universities with the 200 largest endowments in the United States received better grades on their commitments to sustainability, compared with last year.

The proportion of institutions committing to reducing carbon emissions more than tripled, from 14 percent last year to 50 percent this year. More than two-thirds of colleges and universities have “green” building policies, and more than four-fifths are buying at least some food from local farmers and producers.

The report, now in its second year, tries to tie universities’ commitment to sustainability to how they run their endowments. The report assesses the transparency of endowments’ investment policies. Also, when a college endowment holds stock in a public company, the report tracks whether it casts proxies in favor of policies that are good for the environment.

Colleges, so far, don’t do so well in those categories. The average grade in endowment transparency was a D. In what is called “shareholder engagement,” the average grade was a D-. —Martin Van Der Werf