 Are you considering higher education? Have you considered how environmentally responsible the schools are that you are considering?
Fortunately, colleges were some of the very first institution to adopt green, beginning with recycling paper. Now many will even recycle batteries and electronics! This piece will offer you some tips for a better, greener choice for higher education, as well as few green how-tos for when you arrive on campus.
When embarking on research to select a green college, the following things will help clue you into how eco-conscious colleges are:
- Look for schools with courses on renewable energy, like Chicago’s Graduate School of Business’s course in Innovation in Energy Markets and Opportunities in Renewable Energy.
- Look for schools with majors and programs of study in environmental studies or something similar.
- Look for campuses with green buildings (particularly LEED certified), solar panels, and living roofs.
- Choose a school who is making efforts to reduce their carbon footprint by doing things like serving local and organic fare in dining facilities, cultivating organic gardens and farms, and using non-toxic materials for cleaning, painting, etc.
- Choose a school that has a walking campus where you can walk and bike to get from end of campus to the other to reduce your carbon footprint.
- Choose a school that values (and enforces) conserving water and energy, particularly in buildings like dormitories, libraries, and recreation centers that are open up 24/7, e.g., use of CFL (compact fluorescent light bulbs).
- Look for a school that has green-focused clubs and volunteer programs who do activities like tree planting, recycling drives, education on reducing carbon footprint, etc.
To help you in your quest for a greener, better, higher education, the following are the greenest colleges in the United States:
- College of the Atlantic (Bar Harbor, ME)
- Warren Wilson College (Swannanoa, North Carolina)
- Evergreen State College (Olympia, Washington)
- Oberlin College (Oberlin, Ohio)
- Middlebury College (Middlebury, Vermont)
- Berea College (Berea, Kentucky)
- University of California (10 campuses across California)
- Harvard (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
- Duke University (Durham, North Carolina)
- California State University, Chico
- Arizona State University (Tempe Campus)
- Bates College (Lewiston, ME)
- Emory University (Atlanta, GA)
- Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA)
- State University of New York at Binghamton
- University of New Hampshire (Durham, NH)
- University of Oregon (Eugene, OR)
- University of Washington (Seattle, WA)
- Yale University (New Haven, CT)
The Princeton Review also offers Green College Guides online comparing green rankings and with other characteristics like quality of life and economics
Once you have made your choice, taken the plunge, and have cracked open a textbook or two, be sure to keep up your green student attitude and lifestyle by:
- Joining green clubs, volunteer groups, or committees on campus to continue forging forward with your green efforts.
- Buying green school supplies, like notebooks made from recycled paper, and encouraging your friends, classmates, and roommates to do the same.
- If you are living on campus (or not), be sure to outfit your room with CFL bulbs (and turn things off when you aren’t there or not using them!).
- Carpool, walk, bike, or rollerblade to get yourself around campus.
- Organize your schedule in such a way, if you can, that you are not driving back and forth from campus multiple times in one day.
- Recycling! Just as you would at home, recycle your tin, plastic, Styrofoam, glass, and paper. Post-it notes are even recyclable!
- If rooming with others, try to find a roommate(s) who is equally green-minded. This will cut down on tensions if one of you is an energy-hog and the other is a recycling-light-turning-off-fanatic.
If the school and education of your dreams isn’t so green when you set foot on campus, make that change happen yourself! Get involved and influence change for an eco-friendly education!
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