Sustainable Endowments Institute

What Sustainable Endowments Institute does

Sustainable Endowments Institute (SEI) is an independent nonprofit research and consulting organization founded in 2005 and headquartered in Boston, MA, that promotes sustainability in higher education and adjacent institutional sectors through research, education, and outreach. SEI operates a portfolio of interlocking programs: the College Sustainability Report Card (five editions covering 300+ colleges and universities representing more than $325 billion in endowment assets), the Billion Dollar Green Challenge coalition (more than 140 institutions implementing self-managed green revolving funds, targeting $1 billion in aggregate), the LEEF Network for New England–focused cross-sector collaboration, and the BEST Fund, a pooled green revolving fund for under-resourced institutions.

The Institute's core technology asset is GRITS (Green Revolving Investment Tracking System), a secure, account-based web platform at gogrits.org that tracks project-level energy, financial, and carbon savings data for sustainability and efficiency projects and supports benchmarking across participating organizations. SEI also publishes research reports such as the Minority-Serving Institutions Green Report (2010, with UNCF's Building Green Initiative).

SEI is funded primarily through charitable donations and foundation grants — explicitly including the Barr Foundation and John Merck Fund for the LEEF Network — supplemented by a freemium GRITS subscription priced off an organization's operating budget. The team is small (founder/CEO Mark Orlowski, GRITS Director and Senior Research Fellow Aaron Karp, and Consultant Joe Indvik), and the organization serves higher education institutions, K-12 school systems, healthcare organizations, city and state governments, and airports in the United States and Canada.

Name

Sustainable Endowments Institute

Legal name

Sustainable Endowments Institute

Website

https://endowmentinstitute.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2005

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Sustainable Endowments Institute is a Boston-based nonprofit that promotes sustainability in higher education and adjacent institutional sectors through research, consulting, the GRITS tracking platform, the Billion Dollar Green Challenge coalition, and pooled green revolving funds.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Sustainability Consulting

NAICS

Environmental Consulting Services (54162), Portfolio Management and Investment Advice (523940)

SIC

Services-Engineering, Accounting, Research, Management (8700), Investment Advice (6282)

akta.pro primary industry

Sustainability, ESG & Climate Risk Advisory (BPAHAJAH)

akta.pro secondary industries

Sustainability & ESG Consulting (BPAHACAK), ESG, Sustainability & Impact Research (BPAHALAL), Sustainability, ESG & Climate Finance Risk (EDABAJAO)

Keywords

• Sustainability research
• Green revolving funds
• Endowment investing
• Energy efficiency financing
• Higher education sustainability

Headquarters

HQ city

Boston

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. GRITS Subscriptions: Free version available to many organizations through SEI partnerships. Subscription prices based on organization's operating budget.
2. Donations and Grants: SEI relies on charitable donations and foundation grants to fund operations. The Barr Foundation, John Merck Fund, and others provide support for specific programs like LEEF Network.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

SEI conducts research, education, and outreach to advance resilient institutional responses to climate change. It operates the GRITS web platform for tracking energy, financial, and carbon savings data on sustainability projects, and runs the Billion Dollar Green Challenge, BEST Fund, and LEEF Network programs to help institutions invest in and manage self-managed green revolving funds. The Institute also produces independent comparative research such as the College Sustainability Report Card for colleges and universities.

Product overview

The Sustainable Endowments Institute operates a portfolio of interconnected programs focused on advancing sustainable endowment investment and institutional sustainability practices. The core product is the GRITS (Green Revolving Investment Tracking System) platform, a secure web-based tool for tracking energy, financial, and carbon savings data. This is complemented by the Billion Dollar Green Challenge initiative encouraging $1 billion in green revolving fund investments, the BEST Fund providing pooled capital to under-resourced institutions, and the LEEF Network offering New England-focused GRF implementation support. The Institute also produced the College Sustainability Report Card, an independent evaluation of campus and endowment sustainability practices at 300+ colleges and universities.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• GRITS: A secure, account-based web tool designed to streamline the tracking and calculation of project-level energy, financial, and carbon savings data for sustainability projects and efficiency improvements.
• Billion Dollar Green Challenge
• College Sustainability Report Card
• BEST Fund
• LEEF Network

Products and services

• GRITS (Green Revolving Investment Tracking System) A secure, account-based web tool that streamlines the tracking and calculation of project-level energy, financial, and carbon savings data for sustainability projects and efficiency improvements; allows institutions to view proposed, in-progress, and completed projects, benchmark against peer organizations, and generate visual reports. Available as a free version through SEI partnerships and as paid subscriptions scaled to operating budget.
• Billion Dollar Green Challenge An institutional coalition initiative that encourages universities, city and state governments, K-12 schools, healthcare organizations, airports, and other institutions to invest in self-managed green revolving funds, with the goal of creating a combined total of $1 billion in funding.
• BEST Fund (Building Energy Savings Together) A pooled green revolving fund (GRF) that provides under-resourced institutions with the capital needed to invest in energy efficiency projects on their campuses; reinvested savings drive additional project funding. Pilot phase targeting $1-$2 million in deployed capital with plans to scale to $10-$20 million within three years.
• LEEF Network (Leaders in Energy Efficiency Financing) A New England-focused program that helps higher education institutions, healthcare organizations, municipalities, and nonprofits implement green revolving funds; provides cross-sector collaboration, peer-to-peer contact, and hands-on support for developing documentation and proposals.
• College Sustainability Report Card (The Green Report Card) The first comparative and independent evaluation of campus and endowment sustainability best practices at colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, covering nine categories including Administration, Climate Change & Energy, Food & Recycling, Green Building, Student Involvement, Transportation, Endowment Transparency, Investment Priorities, and Shareholder Engagement. Five editions were published covering 300+ institutions.

Quantifiable outcome

• Institutions using green revolving funds can save more than $350 million over the lifespan of efficiency investments
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• Vermont Energy Investment CorporationminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerVermont Energy Investment Corporation supports Vermont's participation in the LEEF Network through an existing program partnership.
• UNCF Building Green InitiativeminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerIn 2010, SEI partnered with UNCF's Building Green Initiative to publish the Minority-Serving Institutions Green Report, surveying tribal colleges, Hispanic-serving institutions and historically black colleges and universities about sustainability practices.
• Rockefeller Philanthropy AdvisorscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSEI was founded in 2005 as a special project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, which provided initial institutional support and infrastructure.
• Proxy DemocracyminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerMark Orlowski serves on the board of Proxy Democracy, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing accessible proxy information.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Second Nature: Nonprofit focused on accelerating climate action in and through higher education, including the Climate Commitments and Carbon Leadership Commitments. Closely aligned with SEI's mission to advance institutional climate responses on college campuses.
• AASHE (Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education): Operates the STARS (Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System) program, the most widely adopted higher-education sustainability benchmarking and reporting framework in North America. Directly comparable to SEI's College Sustainability Report Card in mission and customer base.

Others

• Higher Education Climate Coalition / Climate Action Networks (HECC): National coalition advancing climate action across higher education institutions. Comparable to SEI's Billion Dollar Green Challenge in coalition-building for campus sustainability, with focus on advocacy rather than tooling.

Broad incumbents

• GreenBiz Group: Media and events company covering corporate sustainability and ESG, with advisory services for sustainability-focused organizations. Overlaps with SEI's research, events, and content function but operates at broader corporate scale rather than higher-ed specialist.
• Ceres: Nonprofit sustainability advocacy organization working with investors, companies, and policymakers on climate change. Comparable to SEI in nonprofit ESG advocacy posture, but Ceres operates at much larger scale and broader mandate beyond higher education.
• CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project): Global nonprofit running the leading environmental disclosure system for companies, cities, states, and regions. Comparable to SEI's College Sustainability Report Card in disclosure and benchmarking function, but at much larger, global scale.
• U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC): Operates the LEED green building rating system and serves institutional sustainability stakeholders. Comparable to SEI in benchmarking and standard-setting for institutional sustainability, though USGBC focuses narrowly on buildings.
• Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI): Independent nonprofit working to transform global energy systems through research, consulting, and market intervention. Comparable to SEI in nonprofit sustainability research and clean energy finance focus, but at significantly larger scale and wider scope.

Regional players

• Carbon Trust: UK-based nonprofit that advises organizations on carbon reduction and sustainability strategy. Comparable to SEI's consulting and green revolving fund advisory work, but focused primarily on UK and European markets.

Emerging players

• ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability: Global network of local and regional governments committed to sustainability, with a U.S. office serving municipalities. Overlaps with SEI's municipal green revolving fund services and city/state government segment.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks4 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/EndowmentInst
• Facebookfacebook.com/SustainableEndowmentsInstitute
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/sustainable-endowments-institute

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Sustainable Endowments Institute