Greening a campus is a relatively new concept to non-liberal arts schools. Across the country, schools varying in size from major universities to small town colleges are becoming conscious of their effect on the environment as they reap the benefits of each class of incoming students.
It’s easy to get more information on each school’s efforts. It seems just as important to build a website advertising your “greenness” as it is to put your words into action. Most of this format concerns the measures schools have taken to green their buildings and classrooms, including alternative building and lighting materials as well as innovations in efficient “smart learning” Smart technology allows professors to incorporate elements of media technology into the lesson plans.Harvard University’s site is run by their Office of Sustainability and contains articles about green campus life, waste reduction and water efficiency. Michigan State University highlights the UN Decade of Sustainability Speakers Series sponsored by their school. Alliteration aside, the university is taking a responsible role in providing awareness to their audience, inviting sustainable business owners and professors to lecture on campus.
It’s not just the big schools working for the environment either. Smaller campuses are lowering their footprint as well. In 2008, Ramapo College of New Jersey began development on an alternative energy building, decked out with a solar paneled roof, which will be used by the environmental science department from now on.
Half of the fight to sanitize this world is education. It’s great to see that some schools are pushing the Earth agenda, even if they dress it up with their own styles.
