Green Rankings: For Second Year, Princeton Review Names UC Among Nation s Green Leaders

Just in time for Earth Day on Friday, April 22, The Princeton Review today named the University of Cincinnati among the nation’s best “green” schools – leading in environmental practices and in preparing the next generation of green professionals.

UC is among a handful of Ohio schools named to “The Princeton Review’s Guide to 311 Green Colleges.” Partnering with The Princeton Review on the guide was the U.S. Green Building Council.

UC’s green highlights include

• Incorporating sustainability throughout university operations and classrooms.

• Studying and conducting research on sustainability issues in an urban context.

• Buildings that meet LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards.

• UC is working to reduce its environmental footprint with the ultimate goal of becoming carbon neutral.

Specific achievements and innovations mentioned in relation to UC’s green rankings include

• An introductory course on sustainability open to all majors.

• UC hosts a weekly farmer’s market every Monday through June 6.

• A UC garden was started to provide hands-on education in sustainable agriculture.

• Food served on campus is purchased from a purveyor that works with local farms whenever possible.

• UC’s Center for Sustaining the Urban Environment, which conducts research and develops innovative green solutions to urban challenges.

• A Bearcat Bike Share program was begun on last year’s Earth Day. The program allows anyone with a university ID to check out a bike and use it for up to three days to travel around the campus and community.  It’s a means for decreasing the carbon emissions produced by automobile use.

• Student volunteer efforts related to recycling on campus, specifically student-led recycling of 12,300 pounds of plastic, metal, glass and cardboard at UC’s 2010 home football games, completed with the help of vendors, athletes and fans. See more on UC’s increasing efforts to recycle: UC recycled 4,600 tons of material in 2010, an increase of 23 percent over the year before.

The nation’s 311 green-leading schools listed in the guide are not in hierarchical order. It is, instead, organized state-by-state and alphabetically.

Other Ohio schools named in the green guide are Case Western Reserve University, Denison University, Kenyon College, Mount Union College, Oberlin College, Ohio University and Ohio State University.

Other national schools named among the green elite include the University of Chicago, Duke University,  the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University, Stanford University and Yale University.

“College-bound students are increasingly interested in sustainability issues,” said Robert Franek, senior vice president, publishing, The Princeton Review. “Among 8,200 college applicants who participated in our spring 2011 ‘College Hopes & Worries Survey,’ nearly seven out of 10 (69 percent) said having information about a school’s commitment to the environment would influence their decision to apply to or attend the school.”

Download The Princeton Review’s free

Guide to 311 Green Colleges

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See other UC news related to Earth Day, including

• Find out about more UC Earth Week events online.

• Recycling Grows at UC - By Tons at a Time.(Up 23 percent in the last year.)
  

• New Efficiency Efforts Mean Economic and Energy Savings.
  

• UC Sustainability Efforts Earn Kudos.

• Earth Day Update: Bike Parade and Expansion of Bearcat Bike Share Program.