How important is it that your college be "green?"

<p>What a great question!!! I hope our young society feels as strong about their environment as my tenth grader does. Everyone needs to realizes it's more important then ever to be aware of how much we can make a difference. Once we are ready to scale down, house wise ,it's very important to our family that we build green. Maybe more builders out there will start to go that direction. I'd love to know what colleges are GREEN. Anyone know?</p>

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It makes me want to vomit when schools feel the need to bring up how green they are in every piece of literature.

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Yes, it's a shame they are proud of being environmentally conscious. </p>

<p>Cramming a few more references to Ivy league status or bragging about being the "first university" (Penn, I'm looking at you) is obviously a better use of paper. Non-recycled paper, of course.</p>

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I'd love to know what colleges are GREEN. Anyone know?

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According to a ranking done by the Sierra Club, </p>

<ol>
<li>Oberlin </li>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Warren Wilson </li>
<li>University of California system</li>
<li>Duke</li>
<li>Middlebury</li>
<li>Berea</li>
<li>Penn State</li>
<li>Tufts</li>
<li>Carnegie Mellon</li>
</ol>

<p>ASU, Bowdoin, Carleton, Emory, Northern Arizona, Northwestern, Stanford, and Yale received honorable mentions. </p>

<p>Cool</a> Schools: Ten That Get It - November/December 2007 - Sierra Magazine - Sierra Club</p>

<p>A school that didn't show any initiative on taking responsibility for their impact on the environment would've definitely turned me off. This was not a huge factor for me, but greener schools would've definitely given off a better "vibe" than schools that didn't encourage a more sustainable lifestyle.</p>

<p>I was planning to attend Harvard, but then I found out they weren't green enough...</p>

<p>IBClass06: see Smug</a> Alert! - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia! if you don't understand what I mean... mainly the last paragraph of the plot summary.</p>

<p>Two</a> Days Before the Day After Tomorrow - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</p>

<p>I go to midd, and it wasn't even a consideration for me</p>

<p>I am looking at becoming a teacher, but I don't know what to look for in colleges. What does it mean" Is your college is in the green"?</p>

<p>Selecting a college based upon its environmental consciousness is just silly, as 'greenness' does not have anything whatsoever to do with an institution's ability to educate you.</p>

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<p>However, if environmental issues are important to you, you'd like to get involved in environmental groups, or you want to take classes in/major in environmental studies, a college that is environmentally aware and active could be a part of your decision.</p>

<p>not a factor for either of my sons in the past two years--although if a school had pushed its "green" efforts, it likely would have been a negative factor.</p>

<p>It had no influence on the decision. If my university wasn't in one of the most polluted cities in my state, I mean, it might matter. I like the idea of my university caring like that (if it did!). But, since I'm disregarding the environment AROUND it for the most part, na.</p>

<p>I do not think my D considered it as one of her college selection criteria. She is definitely not a wasteful individual, drives a small car, carpools whenever she can and keeps a recycling basket in her room. What we found during our tours of small LACs was that one potential way for a college to become "greener" was to use lots of local produce in their cafeterias, which usually translated into much tastier and healthier food and fewer leftovers to dicard.</p>

<p>The quality of classes is not related to the environmental consciousness of the school itself. Equating a school's 'greenness' to the strength of its environmental program is akin to equating a school's buildings to the quality of its architecture program. Quite silly, frankly.</p>

<p>Very marginally. It two colleges are exactly the same, I might choose the environmentally friendly one, but in the vast majority of cases its not enough to sway my decision over numerous other factors.</p>

<p>nah, it had no place in my decision process. I try to help the environment when possible/feasible/reasonably convenient, but I would definitely not choose a college based on its green-ness. it's not as if my decision not to attend would have any impact on their environmental policies!</p>

<p>Environmental sustainability is often tied to economic sustainability, and even a sense of entrepreneurship. You may think it's tree-hugging and hippyism, but think about the fact that the cost of living due to energy prices will probably be skyrocketing in twenty to fifty years -- living in an environmental dorm may be in fact be cheaper than living your own home. I suppose not now -- but if your school is conducting environmental efforts -- then it's likely that it's engineering department is innovative and ecologically-minded.</p>

<p>Environmentalism and sustainable economics go hand-in-hand. Perhaps in 30-50 years, energy prices will make conservation science the new i-banking.</p>

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although if a school had pushed its "green" efforts, it likely would have been a negative factor.

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</p>

<p>Why so? Innovative engineering students are a bad thing?</p>

<p>The negative factor that pushed me away from this state school that had such efforts was its trying to market the "local Maine" factor to me (The "You can enjoy spas and gyms in full view of the forest!" sorta thing turned me off.)</p>

<p>I was impressed that many of its environmental initiatives were the product of its engineering department, which is the pride of the school -- to the extent that historically, many of my high school's "top ten" who were engineering-minded considered it over other schools, and for them it might have been a pushing factor. </p>

<p>I suppose another factor is that my state's economy is highly dependent on eco-tourism and rich folks [you know, the kind of family with a long tradition of enrolling students in prep schools and where the question of 'where do you summer?' is a source of prestige] who visit the state for its natural environment. In this sense, choosing schools that focussed themselves on a subject so vital to the sustenance of the state economy might actually be a sensible idea? </p>

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Equating a school's 'greenness' to the strength of its environmental program is akin to equating a school's buildings to the quality of its architecture program. Quite silly, frankly.

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</p>

<p>Except a school's architectural/engineering department is unlikely to design much of the historical architecture. Now if you were talking about the beauty of modern campus additions that the school's engineers had a hand in designing, then it might make for a pretty convincing case ... </p>

<p>There's also a "practice what you preach" factor as well...</p>

<p>Don't know about it being a "plus", but we were definitely turned off by a couple of schools that our kids had shown NO interest in, but kept pursuing them via weekly glossy brochure mailings. Think of the trees!</p>

<p>Whats the difference between a university and a college</p>