Some 89% of young people around the world say they can make a difference on climate change, according to a United Nations survey. Yet only 9% of youth are very confident the world will act quickly enough to address it.
A study at Iowa State University found that students appear to be interested in environmental topics, reducing their footprint, and improving the environment overall. In a world of limited resources and unlimited ingenuity, colleges and universities play an important role in preparing students to meet the sustainability challenges of the future, according to Vanderbilt University's Center for Teaching.
The criteria for this list of greenest colleges from Princeton Review is superb sustainability practices, a strong foundation in sustainability education, and a healthy quality of life for students on campus. Princeton Review uses school-reported data and student opinion, collected in 2018-2019 from institutional and student surveys. They also consider how well a school is preparing students for employment in an increasingly green economy and how environmentally responsible a school's policies are.
Some of the survey questions delve into how much of the campus food is local and organic, availability of mass transit programs such as bike sharing and carpooling, the school's waste-diversion rate, LEED buildings, whether the school has an environmental studies major or minor and the college's plans to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.
Based on the Princeton Review's rating, these are the greenest colleges in the U.S.: