15 Green Colleges and Universities

As Vinod Khosla pointed out during a recent Caltech renewable energy summit, economic factors will hasten the adoption of the green ideas that research generates.

The Mission statement is:
"It is the mission of Prescott College to educate students of diverse ages and backgrounds to understand, thrive in, and enhance our world community and environment. We regard learning as a continuing process and strive to provide an education that will enable students to live productive lives while achieving a balance between self-fulfillment and service to others. Students are encouraged to think critically and act ethically with sensitivity to both the human community and the biosphere. Our philosophy stresses experiential learning and self-direction within an interdisciplinary curriculum."

Anyways, I felt a little let down when reading this article at the crossraods center, which was constructed using eco-design practices and outfitted with solar panels that bring energy back to the grid. Maybe next time grist will pick a college of 500 people that fits into a town, not expands it ,such as ASU.

The table generated quite a lot of interest in the British media, with the Guardian and Independent running stories, and it was published in the Times Higher Education Supplement.

I helped to select some of the parameters for the table and developed the original Go Green campaign, to improve universities' environmental performace, for P&P.

I'm surprised that the South Carolina Sustainable Universities Initiative has not been mentioned, nor Harvard's efforts.

• its home to the first on campus all organic restaurant
  
• recently purchased acres to have an organic farm run by students
  
• has a sustainable living themed house for students
  
• certified green academic buildings and is building more!
  
• students are active in embodying what it means to be sustainable while incorporating its ideas into their studies

CONGRATS to every college and university listed OR NOT.

We ALL are the solution and we ALL need to join together. It is time to reach out to other universities, colleges, and community colleges.

If you are a univeristy in the United States, get involved with FOCUS THE NATION. It is way past time.
Check out http://www.focusthenation.org/main.php

--Amelia Gulling
Chico Green Campus Program Director
Contact us at chicogreencampus@sbcglobal.net

http://blogs.calstate.edu/cpdc_sustainability/

• Began the nations first college recycling program (1973)
  
• Began the nation's first student bus pass program (1991)
  
• Funded the nation's first campus wind energy purchase (2000)
  
• Became the first student government to commit to climate neutrality for student run facilities (2007)

The top five achievers are likely, in no partucular order: Oberlin, Middlebury, UCB, UBC, and Tufts. They have all been doing it for a while. The rest in your list are great, but are probably not among the early leaders.

It is indeed difficult to cover all the good things college campuses are doing--espicially lately; but nobody in the know denies UCB has been setting the pace for decades. Please do better research in the future.

Clearly a lot of folks have advocated for their institutions with their comments, and I agree that this work is important regardless of who is among the chosen. However, I still think it's strange to omit every single one of the institutions selected last year by AASHE, which is considered the premiere national association for sustainability in higher ed.

Oh well... I was interested to learn about the initiatives at some schools I haven't even heard of!

See what else we've been doing at http://www.sustainable.ufl.edu/

Look out for the Gators next year, Grist!  We win a lot more than just NCAA National Championships!

Sustainability Committee:
UF¡¦s sustainability committee is composed of faculty members elected by the faculty senate, faculty or staff appointed by the President's designee, and student members selected by the dean of students. The director and an academic officer appointed by the provost serve as nonvoting ex-officio members.
The committee¡¦s role is to promote sustainability within the university and with the larger community and to enhance the university's standing as a global leader in sustainability. It assesses the progress of the university's sustainability efforts and pursues their implementation when appropriate. It aids in the development of policy with the Office of Sustainability.
The sustainability committee has developed three task forces to address goals within the university. Following are the missions of those task forces.
,,X    Zero Waste by 2015: to assess the university¡¦s solid waste streams and to suggest policies and create user incentive programs to dramatically reduce solid waste on campus to nearly zero by the year 2015.
,,X    Energy and Climate Change: to assess the energy system of the university, including the supply and consumption sides, for the purpose of minimizing both energy costs and environmental impacts in order to recommend measures to accomplish these goals.
,,X    Education and Research: to facilitate ideas and methods in order to integrate sustainability into the research and educational fabric of the university, using the university as a living laboratory for sustainability research and education.

Office of Sustainability
The mission of the Office of Sustainability is to make UF - in its operations, education, research, and outreach - a model of sustainability, integrating the goals of ecological restoration, economic development, and social equity.
In pursuing this mandate, the office encourages and facilitates the collaborative efforts of faculty, students, and staff to generate knowledge, acquire skills, develop values, and initiate practices that contribute to a sustainable, high quality of life on campus, in the state of Florida, and across the globe.
The office supports faculty, students, and staff in assuming leadership to transform the university¡¦s fourteen guiding principles for sustainability into practices.

Energy and Buildings
1n 2001, UF adopted the Leadership in Energy Efficiency Design (LEED) standards for all major new construction and renovation projects. In 2006, this commitment was re-confirmed and strengthend by requiring LEED-silver criteria for design and construction for all major new construction and renovation projects to deliver high performance and sustainable building design. To date we have two Gold Certified buildings, 8 certified buildings, and a number registered.  Currently, the Facilities, Planning, and Construction Department, which administers this program, is beginning a pilot LEED existing building program.
The Campus Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places; the university is committed to preservation of the campus in a manner that meets its goals for energy efficiency.   Toward this effort, UF has a Preservation of Historic Buildings and Sites Committee.

Food and Dining
Since the early 1970¡¦s, the university has administered organic garden plots on campus. These 75 plots are cultivated by some 100 faculty, staff and students year round.
UF has worked with its dining services provider, ARAMARK, to develop an action plan for implementing principles of sustainability into food service operations, including regional sourcing of food, green catering, waste management and diversion, energy conservation, transportation impacts, sustainable procurement, and communication and marketing.  To Date, two dining halls on campus are now sourcing locally grown food and offer vegan options.  ARAMARK at UF is also in the process of switching over all of its disposable service items to biodegradable and reduced waste options.

Parking and Transportation
The EPA has named UF one of the best workplaces for commuters among colleges and universities: a national list of innovative college and university employers committed to improving air quality, saving energy and reducing traffic congestion while improving quality of life for employees.
The university has committed to purchasing only hybrid or alternative fuel vehicles, whenever possible. The purchasing department maintains a listing of available vehicles to assist departments with choosing a vehicle for purchase. Additionally, the university stocks biodiesel and E85 ethanol for use in its fleet vehicles.
In 2007, Flexcar was implemented at UF.  Eight low-emission vehicles, including 3 hybrids, are available for use by anyone in the UF community. Flexcar members pay $5.50 an hour or $55 a day for the vehicle, gas, insurance, maintenance, a reserved parking space, 150 free miles per trip, roadside assistance and 24-hour customer service.
UF GreenRide,  helps commuters to campus find carpool partners by searching for other employees who live near them and have similar schedules and lifestyle preferences. It's easy to use and offers anonymity until the user decides to make his/her contacts formal. People can use your UF or Shands email address to create an account.  Users even get to see a map of the general area showing locations of potential carpoolers near them.  Registered carpool members purchase their own annual carpool decals at about one quarter the cost of a regular faculty/staff decal.
UF students, faculty, and staff can ride the RTS bus system fare free with a UF ID. Buses run 7 days a week with routes on campus and throughout the city of Gainesville. Many routes serving campus have buses that come every ten minutes or less. Several bus routes offer service after 5:00 PM, and ¡§Later Gator¡¨ routes provide service in select areas beyond midnight. Many buses have bicycle racks so riders can take their bikes with them.  Since 1998 when the unlimited bus pass for UF students became available, RTS ridership has risen from less than a million people per year to 8.6 million. Ridership continues to grow and is up 5% from the record 2006 level.
UF provides bicycle lanes on heavily traveled roads and many bike racks for parking throughout campus. UPD offers bicycle registration in order to aid in recovery in the case of bicycle theft. Student Government offers free bike repair on campus.

Land Use
In 2005 the university achieved designation as an Audubon International Cooperative Sanctuary. Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Programs promote ecologically sound land management and the conservation of natural resources through education and certification programs that are tailored to a diversity of land uses.

Purchasing
The university has instituted a sustainable purchasing policy to support the purchase of products that will minimize any negative environmental or societal impacts of university operations. UF recognizes that the purchasing decisions of its employees can make a difference in favor of environmental quality and the fair and equitable treatment of workers worldwide.

Waste
UF, through waste reduction and recycling initiatives, achieves a waste recovery rate of nearly 40%. Using a mixture of in-house and contracted resources, the University recycles over 6,500 tons of material annually. Additionally, UF strives to recycle at least 70% of its deconstruction debris.
To assure that equipment that could create environmental contamination is properly managed, UF established an Electronics Reuse/Recycling Policy as well as an accompanying step-by-step guide for disposal and recycling and a recovery program that is administered by Asset Management.

Water
UF¡¦s three million gallon a day Water Reclamation Facility enabled the shift from well and potable water to reclaimed water for irrigation. With the exception of some distal areas, over 90% of the University¡¦s campus is served by the reclaimed water system.

Social Equity
The University of Florida has set aggressive hiring and retention goals to ensure the university reflects society¡¦s racial, ethnic and gender diversity. UF also strives to ensure that all personnel are rewarded with a livable wage and benefits, including benefit packages for spouses and domestic partners of university employees. The university seeks to ensure that contractors affiliated with the university meet or exceed the wage policy established for university employees. Since 2006, the university¡¦s fulltime graduate students have been offered health insurance.

Academic Programs and Research
The University of Florida has a long-standing commitment to scholarly inquiry and the cross disciplinary academic training that defines the field of sustainability.  Beginning with the pioneering systems ecology work of Dr. H.T. Odum in the 1970s, faculty members and students have made substantial contributions in fields as diverse as solar energy, community design, wetlands renewal, and public health.  Since the late 1990s these research groups¡¦ efforts have been supplemented by programs targeting a full range of sustainable scholarship, from the education of individual undergraduate students to the development of campus-wide research initiatives.  
As part of it¡¦s mission as a land grant university, UF has combined its research capacity with its outreach and extension mission to develop interdisciplinary institutes and programs that deliver important research science to the public.
The University provost has signaled her support of an academic focus on sustainability by creating a Provost¡¦s Fellowship in Sustainability, to be funded through her office.  The Fellow will work with her to connect UF¡¦s rich and diverse current course and research offerings to create a dedicated course of study in sustainability.
The Water Institute, formalized in 2006, brings together research efforts in more than 50 existing programs to improve understanding of the physical, chemical, and biological processes in aquatic systems.  Its mission is to enhance understanding of how human activities and attitudes affect aquatic systems and to develop and promote the adoption of improved methodologies for water management and policy development.  
Additionally, the development of institutes for Integrative Land Use and Alternative Energy is underway. State government officials regularly seek advice from faculty in these interdisciplinary programs to inform policy for the sustainability of the state.
Completed in 2004 as part of the Florida Museum of Natural History, The McGuire Butterfly Pavilion is home to the second largest collection of butterfly specimens in the world and a world class exhibition of living butterflies. The museum¡¦s program teaches the public about the importance of these sentinel creatures in monitoring the quality of the planets ecosystems.  The research and collections mission of the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity serves to focus the work of a number of scientists from across campus that seek to understand butterflies and to protect them from development threats in increasingly urbanized environments.
Beyond research efforts, talented and committed undergraduate students are the great strength and pride of the University of Florida.  Over the past decade, committed faculty members have introduced students to sustainability in a variety of ways, including semester-long lecture series.  The first several series, entitled ¡§Conversations in Sustainability¡¨ fostered interest in and knowledge about sustainability.  In 2005 the series was formalized as an interdisciplinary undergraduate class entitled ¡§Facets of Sustainability.¡¨
UF currently offers more than 100 courses that emphasize a thread of sustainability, some of which are organized into graduate or undergraduate concentrations, such as those in Building Construction, Environmental Engineering, and Architecture.  With the guidance of the sustainability committee, the provost has commissioned a study of all existing coursework and degree offerings, with the goal of amplifying current strengths and finding new opportunities for student engagement in this important discipline.

Community Service and Outreach
Like other elements of the University of Florida¡¦s sustainability efforts, community outreach is simultaneously widespread and focused.  Three avenues for outreach have proved most successful to date.  First, local conferences, exhibits, performances, and storefront clinics are visible gateways which allow the larger local and state communities to engage UF¡¦s sustainability resources.  Second, individual students work within the local community, providing service as part of coursework or in conjunction with extra-curricular activities.  Third, academic programs provide enrichment to underserved portions of the local and state communities through grants and state appropriations.  UF¡¦s agricultural extension service is a particularly powerful example of the latter outreach avenue.  Examples of each type of outreach follow:
The university hosted a statewide conference on October 25-26, 20067 to coincide with national Campus Sustainability Day.  The conference, titled ¡§Campus and Community Sustainability: Sharing Best Practices and Visions for Florida¡¦s Future¡¨ focused on UF¡¦s practice of using the 2000 acre campus as a living laboratory, and also provided opportunities for members of the state¡¦s higher education community to share best practices. The conference provided an opportunity for establishing stronger relationships between institutions and their communities, and emphasized the role of higher education in creating a more sustainable future.  With the goal of empowerment through distributed leadership, UF asked the Council for Sustainable Florida to take the lead in identifying a host campus for this annual statewide conference in following years.  The 2007 conference will be held at Florida State University on October 14-16.
Service learning opportunities are a unique chance for students to engage through coursework, as individuals, or through clubs, to address issues of social equity, environmental protection, and economic development in the future, and to get involved in a real-world setting in which they observe and work to address some mix of these issues. A program to support service learning at UF exists within the Center for Leadership and Service, which helps introduce students to the value of community service and service learning opportunities, provides information to students on existing opportunities, and supports faculty in developing new service learning courses by connecting them to community contacts and current faculty teaching such courses. Students working through the Office of Service Learning provided over 175,000 hours of service in the Gainesville community during the past academic year.
Institutional outreach also occurs through academic programs.  The University of Florida is the state¡¦s land grant institution, and thus has the opportunity to provide outreach across the state.  Each of the state¡¦s 60 counties has an extension office, and many provide education and research benefits which focus on sustainable agriculture, energy efficiency, and reduced impact landscaping. The Florida Yards and Neighborhoods Program and the Program for Resource Efficient Communities are just two examples of the sustainable education provided though extension. In addition, targeted educational outreach is promoted by, among others, the College of Education, which partners with under-performing local elementary schools, and the College of Engineering, which works through grant-funded faculty to introduce children from low income families to the fields of science and engineering.

You need to seriously check out St. Lawrence:
http://www.stlawu.edu/green/

http://www.facilitiesnet.com/bom/article.asp?id=3912& ...

Sadly, my own University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill did not make the list.  And I thought they were so innovative to offer polystyrene recycling bins in the food court 10 years ago.

NoPunProductions.com ~ AmericaTheGreen.org

Other than a single Canadian university and two UK universities, there is nothing else outside the 50 states.  Is it possible that Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, continental Europe, and elsewhere have no green universities worthy of mention?  Would it be so difficult to track down such institutions?

• The Association of Higher Education Facilities Officers lists EMU as one of the three national leaders in efficient energy use out of 90 colleges and universities surveyed (Link).  
  
• They're committed to building green (Link).
  
• They switched to green cleaning supplies several years ago (Link).
  
• Recyclables across campus are picked up by bicycle (Link).
  
• A student club started the recycling program for the campus and the entire city of Harrisonburg back in the day.
  
• Last year I helped feed cafeteria scraps to several pigs.  
  
• The President is one of 86 Christian leaders to sign a statement calling all Christians to fight climate change (Link).

As a member of the Prescott College RDP program (college is indepthly described by srusso below) I urge us all instead of feeling put out by not being included, feel grateful that there are TOO many colleges for Grist to choose from.

Keep up the good work!

Northfield, MN, is home to TWO of the more green-focused colleges in the country. You gave Saint Olaf props for it's focus and mission, but what about the school-run farm(StoGrow) that supplies food to the cafeteria in season? In a kind of strange move, the Olaf chem department "greened" thier chem lab to fit the new uber-green science center that is currently under construction. Both STO and Carleton College have aptly placed wind turbines on the property and both schools are involved in on-going savannah restoration projects.

The law school at Lewis and Clarke in Portland has the nation's #1 environmental law program, but no mention here.

Deep Springs, anyone?

Just check 'em out.

http://www.northland.edu/Northland/

For those institutions that have built some internal capacity on this issue, I would encourage you to reach out to the cities and towns in which you are located to form partnerships that will help local government and its residents to step up their efforts to address climate change. Issues such as transportation, housing, purchasing, and community offset projects, are examples of common issues that are more effectively addressed by collective action. It's working here in Berkeley and is opening up additional opportunities that may not have been otherwise possible.

Tom Kelly

I attended a small Mennonite liberal arts college in my hometown that is probably greener than all of these colleges by virtue of being smaller.  You should consider true cost accounting when calculating the so-called "greenness" of something.  DUH!

This is a trend we're seeing in all industries. What's the "greenest" whatever? What's the best town to live in? These aren't definitive lists, and we'd be better off just calling them "highlights." It seems like that would still sell magazines (or get people to visit your website).

Connecticut College has worked very hard to be a 'green' campus - from "Lights Out" events, to recycling cans in every room, to buying green energy, to the 750 acre "Arbo," to the academic focus on sustainability, to the Earth House dormitory. Conn has won recognition in the Northeast for its efforts, and while there, I was so proud of my school for taking the steps many other schools wouldn't. I hesitate to say that Conn is the epitome of green schools, but it tries darn hard, and I applaud the efforts.

~A Camel Alum

The 10s of thousands of student activists working on the Campus Climate Challenge deserve some credit for their role in creating these green campuses.
Check out their work at: http://climatechallenge.org/

Also, read their stories firsthand at It's Getting Hot in Here - dispatches from the youth climate movement: http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/

Just wait for next year! We are organizing the second year of the campus climate challenge and kicking it off with Power Shift 2007 - Rising to the Climate Challenge: http://powershift07.org/

This fall, youth from across the country will convene in Washington, DC to change the climate on global warming in the United States. Together, we will create a shift in the fight for a clean and just energy future.

Guess Where? The University of Maryland!

Check out dispatches from the youth climate movement: http://www.itsgettinghotinhere.org/

Lakehead University's commitment to energy conservation is a model for North American public institutions.  Faced with aging facilities and limited capital restoration budgets, Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, ON, parlayed guaranteed energy savings into a vital source of campus renewal.  Over the course of a two-phase $23.3- million energy performance contract with Johnson Controls, Inc., Lakehead decreased its deferred maintenance liability by over $20 million.  This decrease was achieved through a reduction in electrical consumption on existing buildings dramatically by 23% and gas consumption by a stunning 43%.  With its deferred maintenance partially addressed, Lakehead University will continue to make the effort to achieve a sustainable campus.

          o Sustainability Report
          o Food
          o Investment
          o Landscapes
          o Purchasing
          o Transportation
          o Waste
          o Energy

More info at:
http://apps.carleton.edu/campus/sustainability/

Stop ripping on other schools. Every school on this list has a strong record of responsible policies and the fact that people bother to mention their schools on this message board means that these same policies are equally important at their schools.

I think the discussion should be focused on which innovations can help a school most cost-effectively. Here are my 2cents:

1. partnership with a coop, or actually having a coop on campus if land issues are not a concern.

2. wind turbines/alternative energy generators

3. campus planning .... make the campus easier to go car-free.

4. energy saving-appliances. I put this one last because I think most schools made this move in the 70s.

Nick Dobric
Nevada Wilderness Project
Northland Alumni '05

That's why AASHE (www.aashe.org) is developing a reporting framework for sustainability in higher education. The framework is the result of a multi-stakeholder, collaborative effort. It will be beta tested by institutions of representative shapes and sizes in 2008 and will hopefully be ready to launch by the end of next year.

Hurray for higher education -- we're all leading the way in creating models for a more sustainable future.

Degrees That Matter is a terrific guide for universities that want to reduce their global warming footprint. Rappaport and Creighton explain the causes and effects of climate change and present a road map based on their own successful struggle to reduce emissions at Tufts University. This is a practical handbook for faculty, staff, and students on the methods for, and the politics of, reducing emissions on campus."
--Jonathan Lash, President, World Resources Institute

I do think it's fair to say that both Carleton and Saint Olaf have been leaders on sustainability issues.

State University of New York College of Environmental Science, Forestry

Warren Wilson College

Northland College

Cornell

These schools not only have Green Programs, Green Campus and work for Greener Communities, they are all High end intellectual centers that focus on real world solutions to the problems rather than just celebrating loafty ideals..

Additionally, one commenter noted the Americanistic approach and that certain universities in other countries may be more deserving.. I agree, I just don't know any.

Finally, What were the criteria for this list?? or did you not have one??

In spring 2004, the student body passed an initiative to give themselves another fee in return for making WWU run on 100% green energy. In 2006, we were the second largest user of renewable energy in higher education, right behind Penn (http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/documents/top10ed_2006.pdf) and in 2007 are still in the top ten, despite the addition of much larger universities to the list. (http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/toplists/top10ed.htm).

We have also instituted a universal bus pass program that gives all students taking over 6 credits a bus pass and access to a student only late night shuttle, this has drastically cut single occupant vehicle trips to and from campus.

The Associated Students has an office devoted solely to environmental issues, (http://earth.as.wwu.edu/resources.php). Staffed with salaried student employees, and focusing on increasing awareness and participation in green initiatives.

Huxley also produces a quarterly magazine called The Planet (http://planet.wwu.edu/) which is also a great resource for those wishing to further our commitment to green energy.

Oh, and we've had a student run organic farm for years now (http://outback.as.wwu.edu/), as well as STUDENT-RUN recycling (http://recycle.as.wwu.edu/) and composting programs.

If anyone should be on this list, it most certainly should be Western Washington University.

You people at Grist ought to give them a call.

http://www.warren-wilson.edu/environmental/initiatives.ph ...

Es la primera institucion en Costa Rica en ser declara neutra en cuanto a emiciones de dioxido de carbono.

Tiene dos grandes reservas forestales en el campus y mucho enfoque educacional en area de conservacion del medio ambiente.

Ademas de estar situada en corazon del tropico humedo costarricense, con una gran biodiversidad y un clima muy agradable.

They are promoting sustainable lives!  Debt free students, serving others, and environmentally-friendly practices!  What more could you want?

http://www.berea.edu/sens/sustainabilityinitiatives/defau ...

This is a great website for transfer students who have committed to the efforts of sustainabilty. It makes a big difference to my college choices!

Founded in 1911, SUNY ESF is the nation's oldest and most respected school dedicated to the study of the environment, developing renewable technologies and building a sustainable future. The ESF campus occupies 12 acres in Syracuse and 25,000 acres on its regional campuses throughout Central New York and the Adirondack Park.

Founded in 1911 to "help in the solution of forestry problems" the New York State College of Forestry was founded in partnership with Syracuse  University.

As ESF heads toward its 100th anniversary, the College is at the forefront of developing the tec