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Written by Laura Li
Thursday, 10 January 2013
Green Colleges
Many people say the future of our nation, and even the world, lies in the hands of the new
generation the students. These are our future doctors, lawyers, scholars, and leaders.
Growth of this next generation is not only fostered by self-determination and hard work, but
also by the environment and community in which students live and interact. In order to have a
progressive generation, the students must be educated in ways that will ensure knowledge
and awareness of our planet and its current and future needs. This is where the notion of a
green university was born! There are many ways for a college or university to be green,
and some universities are quicker than others. Although many universities have taken steps
to become greener to educate the students of tomorrow, many universities have already
showed great results in promoting and creating green lifestyles. There are many ways to do
this, so lets explore the universities of tomorrow!
Environmental Programs
More and more colleges and universities are
starting to offer environmental courses and
majors. In terms of environmental education
programs and majors, a few schools stand out.
Yale Universitys School of Forestry and
Environmental Studies
1
, one of the oldest
environmental institutions, was founded by
Gifford Pinchot and Henry Graves to promote
forestry as a sustainable career for men. It has
now evolved into an institution aimed at
teaching and creating leadersboth men and
womenarmed with knowledge to tackle
environmental issues at local, regional, and global levels.
2
Although Yale pioneered the
study of forestry, many other universities are known for their excellent environmental
programs. The University of California, Berkeleys College of Natural Resources
3
provides
both social and science based majors that focus on the environment and its many aspects.
From Molecular Environmental Biology to Environmental Economics and Policy, Berkeley
provides an opportunity for students to build upon sustainable values to create a bright
future. These and so many other schools
4
like Stanford University,
5
the Evergreen State
University,
6
and Cornell University,
7
just to name a few, have excellent programs or mini-
colleges that allow brilliant green minds to grow and flourish. Although it is important to help
great ideas and passions grow in college, it is also important to build sustainable lifestyles
that students can carry with them for the rest of their lives. For additional eco-college
suggestions, read here .
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You will save 100 pounds of carbon
for each incandescent bulb that you
replace with a compact fluorescent
bulb (CFL), over the life of the bulb.
14

Sustainability on Campus
There are many aspects of an environmentally friendly college lifestyle that must be
addressed. First, sustainable eating habits are hard to build cold turkey, so some schools
have made it easier to dine with the environment in mind. The University of California,
Berkeleys CalDining
8
is proud to be one of the first university dining services to be 100%
certified organic . Beyond that, they also offer great choices for vegans and vegetarians
, allowing more people to possibly explore those lifestyles. The University of Washington
9
also provides local and organic foods to promote a healthy and green eating style. Both
Berkeley and UW use compostable and recyclable containers and provide specific bins for
compost, recycling, and trash. Convenient separated bins are becoming a trend in many
green universities on campus as well. The University of California, Los Angeles
10
has one of
the most extensive recycling and waste management programs out there. They recycle
or compost anything they can, including building materials, lab water, and food
leftovers. The University of Colorado Boulder
11
was the first to create a student-run recycling
center in 1970 and has since continued its efforts to become more and more sustainable. Its
buildings also are in compliance with LEED Gold standards, as are many buildings in
Willamette University
12
and other colleges.
All of these aspects of green universities are extremely
important and add a great deal to student quality of life at
each college or university, but no real effect can happen
without the most important factor the students
themselves. A university cannot be sustainable or
environmentally friendly without the help and passion of
students that also care about these issues. Many
campuses put the innate competitive nature of college
students to good use by having competitions within, for
example, the Greek community (Sororities and
Fraternities), Residential halls, different departments, and
even amongst student groups themselves. UC Berkeley
has a program called Greening the Greeks,
13
creating
competition amongst sororities and fraternities to display the most sustainable practices. This
usually means changing all the lights in the house to LEDs and minimizing use of power
and water. Simple competitions like this take place in the dorms as well because there are
many different residential halls. There are also many Earth Week or Earth Day festivities held
on campuses all over the world. These events allow environmental awareness to spread and
hopefully reach more people. Student groups in many campuses work very hard to spread
awareness throughout the year and to not only affect policies in their universities, but
also in their surrounding communities.
Fostering the health of our environment is a collective responsibility, and universities across
the world are becoming noted for their green efforts. University of Greenwich
15
in London
was named the greenest university in 2012 by The Guardian.
16
This ranking was based on
many criteria, including being fair trade, engaging students and staff in activities and
curriculum, renewable energy, and water and carbon reductions. To name another, EARTH
University in Costa Rica
17
focuses on sustainable development in the tropics. With students
from over 20 different countries, this university brings together green minds to instill an eco-
ethic in everyone on campus.
18
The trend is on and college campuses have taken
measures to maintain our planet so that the generation of the future can share it with even
further future generations.
Universities across the world have taken steps to educate the minds of the future in a
manner that promotes the welfare of the future. Hopefully one day, sustainability will not be
something abnormal in the college community. Sustainability is for the future, and college
students are the future!
Browse all Greeniacs Articles
_______________________________________________________________________________
1
http://environment.yale.edu/
2
http://environment.yale.edu/about/mission/
3
http://cnr.berkeley.edu/site/index.php
4
http://www.treehugger.com/culture/10-of-the-best-college-
environmental-programs-in-the-us.html
5
http://woods.stanford.edu/
6
http://www.evergreen.edu/about/home.htm
7
http://cals.cornell.edu/
8
http://caldining.berkeley.edu/environment_natural_organic.html
9
https://www.hfs.washington.edu/abouthfs/Default.aspx?id=869
10
http://map.ais.ucla.edu/portal/site/UCLA/menuitem.3f8e7342ad4ca217b66d4ab4f848344a/
?vgnextoid=2790768d38571110VgnVCM200000ddd76180RCRD
11
http://www.colorado.edu/sustainability
;
http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2010/06/25/renovations-cus-
andrews-hall-cross-finish-line-leed-gold-certification
12
http://www.willamette.edu/news/library/2010/02/ford_hall.html
13
http://www.calgreeks.com/ifc/sustainability/greening-the-greeks/
14
http://c1greenbuildingelementscom.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/files/2012/02/LEED-logo-images.jpeg
15
http://www2.gre.ac.uk/
16
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/may/28/
university-green-league-greenwich-environment
17
http://www.earth.ac.cr/?lang=en
18
http://grist.org/article/colleges1/
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 10 January 2013 )
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