A Guide to Green Campuses

As the college acceptance letters start rolling in this February, there's a lot for parents and their college-bound kids to sort through when making the big decision of where to go. Here's one important question well worth adding to the list: Just how green are the schools' campuses?

In recent years, college and university campuses have proven crucial leaders in the movement to make large-scale, resource-demanding institutions more environmentally friendly. Many have implemented projects that promote alternative energies, energy efficiency, and environmental sustainability. But not everyone's jumped on the eco-bandwagon. So who's doing what? When picking the place you'll spend the next four or five years (or, for parents: the place you'll send your child and dollars), it helps to know which colleges are moving forward and which are slow to change. Here are a few questions to ask, and resources to help you answer them.

Does the college make the sustainability grade?
The Sustainable Endowments Institute, a project of the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, has turned the tables on grade-givers by handing out report cards to universities and colleges. With the College Sustainability Report Card, the institute evaluated 100 schools across the country on a litany of green factors, such as 'climate change & energy' and 'food & recycling.' More than a few universities were given an 'F' for a lack of public statements and for failing to make endowment holdings or shareholder voting records available. Only four on the institute's roster received an A- (the highest grade earned). Meanwhile, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (an association of US and Canadian colleges) is keeping a list of schools' 'campus sustainability profiles.' Check out the association's site for its annual Campus Sustainability Leadership Award winners, complete with links detailing the schools' sustainability projects.

Is the campus vegetarian friendly?
Scavenging for vegetarian items at a restaurant every so often is doable, but having to scrape together a hodgepodge of meatless items the entire four years at college can be down right difficult. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has compiled a list of colleges the group thought did a stellar job of providing vegetarian meals with diversity in mind. On the coattails of the release of that list, Slashfood added a handful of colleges that had veggie-friendly college towns to make foraging for food off-campus a bit more fulfilling for the vegetarian belly.