Conservation 101: the Compete to Conserve Blog

photo credit: cursedthing

Those who feel a keg party is a true act of eco-consciousness now have vindication. The Princeton Review has just released its annual college rankings, and two schools have made both the “Green Rating Honor Roll” and “Top 20 Party Schools”: Arizona State University (Tempe) and the University of New Hampshire (Durham).

The Princeton Review bases many of its rankings, including the Top 20 Party Schools, on surveys collected from 120,000 students at 534 colleges and universities across the United States. It worked with ecoAmerica, a nonprofit environmental marketing agency, to develop its first ever “Green Rating,” which instead relies on information provided by the institutions.

The Princeton Review began the Green Ratings in response to a growing interest in sustainability among parents and prospective students. The company reports that 63% of those surveyed in its annual “Colleges Hopes & Worries Survey” say they would value knowing each school’s commitment to the environment.

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Schools were judged by their overall commitment to environmental responsibility, how healthy and sustainable campus life is, and how well students are prepared for “employment and citizenship in a world defined by environmental challenges.” They answered questions on everything from energy use, recycling, food, buildings, and transportation to academic offerings (availability of environmental studies degrees and courses) and action plans and goals concerning greenhouse gas emission reductions.

The Princeton Review’s “2009 Green Rating Honor Roll”

The following 11 colleges (listed in alphabetical order) each received a Green Rating score of 99, which is the highest possible score:

1. Arizona State University at the Tempe campus
2. Bates College (Lewiston, ME)
3. Binghamton University (State Univ. of New York at Binghamton)
4. College of the Atlantic (Bar Harbor, ME)
5. Emory University (Atlanta, GA)
6. Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA)
7. Harvard University (Cambridge, MA)
8. University of New Hampshire (Durham, NH)
9. University of Oregon (Eugene, OR)
10. University of Washington (Seattle, WA)
11. Yale University (New Haven, CT

For details on the Green Rating Honor Roll, its methodology, and other notable schools, visit http://www.princetonreview.com/green.aspx?uidbadge=%07