Top green colleges
Looking for a "green" college to attend (or to send your pride & joy)? The Princeton Review, the college prep outfit, has named 15 schools to its "2010 Green Rating Honor Roll."
It doesn't garner as much media attention as the annual ranking of top party schools, but it's worth a look for those who want something besides a hangover with that oh-so-expensive diploma.
None of the greenest schools is in Maryland - the closest to Baltimore would be Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA. Harvard and Yale make the green grade, but so do Georgia Tech and a number of less posh institutions. One curious note - East Coast schools dominate the honor roll; I would have thought there'd be more out West.
The ranking, prepared in conjunction with ecoAmerica, a nonprofit environmental group, features eight private and seven public schools.
Here's the full list, in alphabetical order:
Arizona State University, Tempe AZ
Bates College, Lewiston ME
Binghamton University (State University of New York at Binghamton)
College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor ME
Colorado College, Colorado Springs CO
Dickinson College, Carlisle PA
Evergreen State College, Olympia WA
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta GA
Harvard College, Cambridge MA
Middlebury College, Middlebury VT
Northeastern University, Boston MA
University of California, Berkeley CA
University of New Hampshire, Durham NH
University of Washington, Seattle WA
Yale Univeristy, New Haven CT
Schools were rated on campus living, their curriculum and overall institutional commitment to sustainability. Scoring looked at a school's energy use, recycling, food, buildings and transportation, environmental studies degrees and course offerings and campus commitment to greenhouse gas reduction.
And here's a tip if you or your offspring want to have a good time while going green -- Arizona State, which boasts the first-in-the-nation School of Sustainability, also made the top party schools list, at No. 20. For profiles of the green campuses, go here.
Comments
They're not on the list, but Flashpoint Academy, a private college in Chicago, was the first LEED certified educational institution in the city. It's nice to know that environmental innovation is on the rise in education. It's about time.
Posted by: Kristin Hertko | July 28, 2009 3:00 PM
That's nice about "Flashpoint Academy" but it isn't an accredited institution nor approved by the US Department of Education. Enroll at your own risk.
Posted by: Bob | July 29, 2009 7:02 AM
Northeastern University, got the best green college award in 2009.
Posted by: bible college | August 28, 2009 5:55 AM
To Bob's point -- This is true, FPA is not yet accredited due to its being only 2 years old, but they are on their path to accreditation. The US Department of Education does not accredit educational institutions and/or programs (http://www.ed.gov/admins/finaid/accred/accreditation.html#Overview), but Flashpoint is approved by the Illinois State Board of Education.
The bottom line is that Flashpoint students are going on to great careers and, during their time at school, learn that you can be both green and technologically progressive at the same time. I for one think this is a great thing.
Posted by: Kristin Hertko | September 23, 2009 12:28 PM