The Princeton Review’s GUIDE TO 322 GREEN COLLEGES Presented in partnership with the U.S. Green Building Council 2012 Edition • 322 school profi les cover green highlights on the nation’s most eco-friendly campuses, featuring everything from solar panel study rooms to fair-trade fashion. • Get each school’s vital stats on sustainability, including Green majors, Green job placement, getting around Green on campus, and more. THE PRINCETON REVIEW’S GUIDE TO 322 GREEN COLLEGES 2012 EDITION PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE U.S. GREEN BUILDING COUNCIL 1 THE PRINCETON Review’s Guide to 322 Green COLLEGES 2012 by The Princeton Review, Inc. The Princeton Review is not affiliated with Princeton University. This is for personal use and not for reproduction or posting. Senior Vice President, Publisher: Robert Franek Content Director: David Soto Lead Author: Jeremy Seltzer Account Manager: Courtney Richter Editor: Laura Braswell Production: Best Content Solutions CONTENTS Introduction ..............................................................................................................................................................................5 About This Book ..................................................................................................................................................................5 Why Sustainability On Campus Matters .........................................................................................................................8 Getting Into College ..........................................................................................................................................................11 Getting Involved ...............................................................................................................................................................13 How We Produced This Book ..........................................................................................................................................14 How This Book Is Organized ...........................................................................................................................................17 Glossary ...............................................................................................................................................................................19 Lists ..........................................................................................................................................................................................21 Green Guide Schools with LEED-Certified Buildings .................................................................................................21 STARS Rated Institutions .................................................................................................................................................24 Green Guide Schools that are ACUPCC Signatories ....................................................................................................26 The Schools ............................................................................................................................................................................29 School Says ...........................................................................................................................................................................193 Index ......................................................................................................................................................................................221 Alphabetical Index ...........................................................................................................................................................221 Index by Location ............................................................................................................................................................227 3 THE PRINCETON Review’s Guide to 322 Green COLLEGES SPONSORED, IN PART, BY UNITED TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION INTRODUCTION ABOUT THIS BOOK When researching colleges, it is important to remember that you should be trying to figure out more than “What college is best, academically?” The thing is, it’s not hard to find academically great schools in this country, but you should really focus on finding a college that suits your academic goals as well as some personal pursuits. Over the past 20 years, it has been our mission to provide students with savvy and sometimes hard-to-get informa- tion about colleges so that they can find and get in to their “best fit” schools. To do that, we have authored over 200 college guidebooks, most notably, our Best Colleges guidebook series, which provides statistical data and nar- rative descriptions of the most academically outstanding institutions in the United States and Canada. So, how is the Green Guide to Colleges different, you may ask. This is a guide to 322 colleges and universities that have demonstrated a notable commitment to sustainability. While it differs from our Best Colleges guidebooks in that it does not report information based on our surveys of students attending the schools, it very much embodies our philosophy that finding your “best fit” school means looking at everything from the school’s academic offer- ings to its extracurricular options and, now, its commitment to going green. We recognize there is a rising interest among students in attending colleges that practice, teach, and support environmentally responsible choices. Among the more than 12,000 college applicants The Princeton Review surveyed for its 2011 College Hopes & Worries Survey, 65 percent of respondents said they would value having information about a college’s commit- ment to the environment. Moreover, of that cohort, 24 percent said such information would “very much” impact their decision to apply to or attend the school (PrincetonReview.com/ college-hopes-worries.aspx). Did You Know? College campuses are becoming more green every day! There is a sincere Middlebury College became the first and growing interest among students in identifying and applying to col- institution of higher education in the leges where there is a demonstrated commitment to sustainability. But United States to offer an Environmental what exactly does this commitment entail? Why should it matter whether Studies major, establishing the major in a college has practices in place that support green living? And how can 1965.1 you determine whether a school is committed to going green? While you might be able to do some online research and come up with independent evaluations of the school’s commitment to sustainability, The Princeton Review’s Guide to 322 Green Colleges differs in that it’s not about grading schools. Nowhere in this book will you find a hierarchical listing of the “greenest” colleges or the ones with the “best” sustainability practices. The point begs repeating: THIS BOOK IS NOT A RANKING. Rather, our aim is to highlight 322 campuses which, based on our survey of their school administrators, demon- strate a strong commitment to sustainability. Some of them are just in the beginning stages of defining sustain- ability priorities while others are reaping the rewards of a long-term commitment to green. A holistic approach to sustainable living on campus binds these schools together, covering everything from procurement and building guidelines to green academic programs and preparation for sustainable careers, and a willingness to be account- able for their green commitments. Just as there is no such thing as a perfect college (just a perfect college for you), there is not one way to be green; a school surrounded by a wildlife reserve will have different sustainability pri- orities than one in the middle of a giant metropolis, and what is actually achievable for each may not be the same. That’s why, in this book, we take both a quantitative and qualitative look at a school’s sustainability efforts in areas we’ve identified as most important to students: 1) whether students have a campus quality of life that is both healthy and sustainable 2) how well a school is preparing students for employment in the green economy 3) how environmentally responsible a school’s policies are. We invited 2,000 schools to take our survey in order to come up with the 322 profiled here. In addition to earning the highest Green Rating (which you’ll learn more Did You Know? about later), the green initiatives of these institutions enhance students’ Biodegrading in a landfill takes: academic experience and quality of life in ways that truly merit • 90 years for an aluminum can recognition. • 700 years for a plastic bottle • 1 million years for a glass bottle2 1. Source: http://community.middlebury.edu/~enviroc/aande.html 2. Source: http://www.sustain.ucla.edu/handbook/article.asp?parentid=3465 5 THE PRINCETON Review’s Guide to 322 Green COLLEGES More and more students are going to college now than ever before, so educational institutions are busy accommo- dating this growth with new academic buildings and dorms while ensuring that existing facilities are running as efficiently as possible. The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) helps provide a layer of accountability for college campuses seeking ways to make their green building projects, both old and new, as environmentally responsible as possible. USGBC’s LEED green building rating system is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, con- struction, and operation of green buildings. Many