College Students: Pick Schools According to their Eco-Friendly Practices

College students, you’ve now got a great new tool at your disposal: a website that can help you choose a sustainable school. You may be wondering what exactly makes a school ‘sustainable’, and why you’d be interested in that information. The Daily Green has it:

Colleges can be as large as small cities, and therefore use a tremendous amount of resources, plus they have strong potential to mold the minds of the next generation of leaders.

In 2007 Grist released an editorial ranking of top green colleges, and this year the Kentucky-based Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education launched a pilot program to rate 90 U.S. and Canadian colleges on environmental impact.

It’s called Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS), and is designed to be a voluntary, self-reporting framework for gauging progress toward sustainability. It is associated with the group’s Chill Out Competition to reduce global warming contributions, and the comment period ends May 30.

Until that ranking becomes available, prospies may want to check out this informative post on the blog of major student loan lender NextStudent. It’s a summary of 12 of the greenest colleges in America, including many that have been honored in the past by other groups

Among the top sustainable colleges are College of the Altantic, Middlebury College, Evergreen State College, Oberlin College, Harvard University and Warren Wilson College. Highlights of their eco-friendly practices include solar panels, energy efficiency programs, waste reduction, composting and organic farming. If you’re interested in a ‘green collar’ career or just want to be part of an institution that promotes earth friendly initiatives, this info could be really helpful.

Link [Daily Green] + [NextStudent]

Photo credit: Warren Wilson College

Related Posts:

Green College Spotlight: Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, NC
Green College Spotlight: Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont
Green College Spotlight: Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio
College Spotlight: The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington
More Info for College Students: Princeton Review Adding Sustainability Ratings to their College Rankings