Top 5 Eco-Friendly Universities

1. Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont. With the pledge to be carbon neutral by 2016, Middlebury obviously ears their top spot in the list. Their campus-wide recycling center has a 60% diversion rate alongside the use of composted dining hall waste in campus landscaping. The campus also uses the power of a wind turbine and aims to design and construct buildings in congruence with the natural landscape. 

On and off campus transportation includes a fleet of biodiesel college vehicles as well as full bicycle racks outside of every building to encourage personal bicycle use. The campus is also equipped with a greenhouse with an organic garden. In conjunction with other locally grown foodstuffs, this garden provides food for the student body via the main dining hall. 

2. University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado. The Environmental Center at the University of Colorado is famous for its tracking of greenhouse climate change, a department supported by an overwhelming amount of student environmental organizations including the Rainforest Action Group, CU Biodiesel and Earth Education, and CU Recycling. Started in 1976 CU Recycling is in fact one of the nations oldest campus recycling groups. 

The campus also supports the “Talloires Declaration," which they signed in 1997. To support the Talloires, which stands for a sustainable environment and environmental consciousness, UC Bolder has also developed a “Blueprint for a Green Campus” aimed at making CU Bolder the leader in research and development of environmentally sustainable practices. 

3. University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont (10,750 students) The University of Vermont’s location in Burlington, Vermont, (the healthiest city in America, according to the Center for Disease Control), is just the beginning of the environmental awareness present here. 

Their Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources is host to a wealth of research projects and on campus clubs and activities including “the Greening of Akien.” In this building restoration students and faculty are able to voice their opinions on contractor and design including solar panels, a green roof, composting and waterless facilities, and energy neutrality. national award for Environmental Protection Project, 

4. Warren Wilson College, Swannanoa, North Carolina. Like most others on the list, Warren Wilson also has a number of campus sustainability initiatives alongside a promise of environmental literacy, teaching students in and out of the classroom how to live a sustainable lifestyle. Like Middlebury, the food system at Warren Wilson also consists of a campus garden and compost program as well as a College Farm in order to experiment with better green farming techniques. 

Warren Wilson has also received a number of awards since 2003 for their sustainability practices and studies including becoming the first college in the North Carolina region to convert to 100% green power by purchasing renewable energy credits. 

5. Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington. Evergreen offers an entire department dedicated to sustainability, starting with an online quiz and pledge. In addition to recognition from the Sierra Club, they have also received awards from Planet Green, The Princeton Review, the EPA, and the Washington State Department of Transportation. 

A number of conferences and seminars have led to initiates to reduce landfill waste through the use of a “Food Plus Recycling Program.” Fossil fuel waste is also being addressed through the use of a Chiller Plant and solar panel with the final goal of carbon neutrality by 2020.