Green Lessons in Higher Education

It’s that time of year again – when thousands of high school seniors around the country are frantically trying to decide which university they’d like to attend as they start the long, daunting college application process.

And now, thanks to the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, we’d like to recommend a few college campuses that recently caught our attention. For students looking for a greener education, AASHE just awarded Campus Sustainability Leadership Awards to six North America campuses.

In the community college category, Chandler-Gilbert Community College (Chandler, Arizona) demonstrated its ability to reuse water for irrigation as well as making sure all new buildings meet LEED standards.

In the category of four-year and graduate institutions with under 1,000 students, Green Mountain College (Poultney, Vermont) won for integrating environmental awareness into its curriculum. Students even installed a wind turbine to power the campus greenhouse. Other energy needs on campus are met by electricity generated from methane from local cow manure.

As for four-year and graduate institutions with 1,000-7,500 students, Middlebury College (Middlebury, Vermont) won for its pledge to be climate-neutral by 2016, as well as for its Step It Up 2007 program launched by alumni.

Michigan State University (East Lansing, Michigan), a four-year institution with over 7,500 students, has committed to a two percent annual reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, the campus’s Office of Campus Sustainability has an intricate recycling program and funds student sustainability projects.

Evergreen State College (Olympia, Washington) and the University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, California; Stanley Hall pictured right) both received honorable mentions.

AASHE also keeps profiles of other green campus. Be sure to check out the Worldwatch Institute’s Campus Greening Initiatives or Kiwi Magazine’s Green College Report for more North American colleges that are changing their school colors to green.

Photo: Robert Canfield, www.berkeley.edu