We have to start thinking about colleges for my son. He’s looking into visiting some schools and I got to thinking, how are colleges and universities doing with keeping their campuses “green”. I know… there is a bigger and more pertinent criteria to contend with when we are choosing a school, like the programs they offer for his education, but I was curious as to which ones are greener than others. After all, he’ll be spending four years in the institution, may be longer if he decides to pursue a graduate degree, where his habits will be dictated by his surroundings; I’d like his four years to be environmentally responsible.
One particular school’s website led me to this list by Nov/Dec 2007 issue of Sierra Club’s Magazine’s article, “10 that get it”. Here is the list of ten most “green” schools in 2007, according to the article and links to their sustainability programs.
1. Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH
2. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
3. Warren Wilson College, Swannanoa, NC
4. University of California, Ten Locations, CA
5. Duke University, Durham, NC
6. Middlebury College, Middlebury VT
7. Berea College, Berea, KY
8. Pennsylvania State University, 24 Locations, PA
9. Tufts University, Medford, MA
10. Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Honorable Mentions
* Arizona State University
(Tempe, Arizona, 61,000 students)
* Bowdoin College
(Brunswick, Maine, 1,730 students)
* Carleton College
(Northfield, Minnesota, 1,900 students)
* Emory University
(Atlanta, Georgia, 12,000 students)
* Northern Arizona University
(Flagstaff, Arizona, 20,000 students)
* Northwestern University
(Evanston, Illinois, 14,000 students)
* Stanford University
(Palo Alto, California, 6,700 students)
* Yale University
(New Haven, Connecticut, 11,400 students)
Of course, since the list is from 2007, the rankings might have changed since then, but I’m sure you can get a pretty good idea what the universities are doing.
A student I know sent these pictures from Carnegie Mellon University. These pictures are from just one of the buildings from campus.
Can you imagine having these ten recycling bins in your house?
[...] important as academic rankings is the sustainability ranking. In fact, I posted an article about green colleges and where some of the colleges we visited last spring were on the prestigious Sierra Club’s [...]