Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Green Schools

The September/October issue of "Sierra", the magazine of the Sierra Club has an interesting piece on "green" colleges. This is the third annual ranking of the best "planet-preserving colleges and universities".

Sierra e-mails a lengthy questionnaire to hundreds of colleges and universities surveying eight areas: efficiency, energy, food, academics, purchasing, transportation, waste management, and administration.

I will spoil the surprise and give you the rankings:
1. University of Colorado at Boulder
2. University of Washington at Seattle
3. Middlebury College
4. University of Vermont
5. College of the Atlantic
6. Evergreen State College
7. University of California at Santa Cruz
8. University of California at Berkeley
9. University of California at Los Angeles
10. Oberlin College
11. Harvard University
12. University of New Hampshire
13. Arizona State University at Tempe
14. Yale University
15. University of Florida at Gainesville
16. Bates College
17. Willamette University
18. Warren Wilson College
19. Dickinson College
20. New York University

If your looking for a regional school, you should know that an honorable mention goes to University of Pennsylvania for giving 800 gallons of cooking grease annually to biodiesel makers. Also, their cafeterias use only biodegradable cups and packaging.

Sierra spoke to a number of admissions counselors who say that the a school's environmental policies are becoming frequent points of inquiry by prospective students. It goes without saying that means that K-12 educators must be making their students more socially conscious.

1 comment: