The College of Charleston is one of the most environmentally responsible colleges in the U.S. and Canada, according to The Princeton Review. For the first time, the College is included in the just-released second annual edition of its free downloadable book, “The Princeton Review’s Guide to 322 Green Colleges: 2012 Edition.” The free guide was released in conjunction with the April 22 celebration of Earth Day and can be downloaded at www.princetonreview.com/green-guide.
“This national recognition is an important milestone for sustainability at the College,” says Brian Fisher, director of the Office of Sustainability. “As we begin to develop more metrics and baselines, we will have hard empirical measures of our progress for institutional sustainability. Beyond that, we must continue to work on social dimensions of sustainability and contributing to the resilience of the Charleston community. But The Princeton Review is recognition that our first steps have been significant ones.”
“The Princeton Review’s Guide to 322 Green Colleges: 2012 Edition” is created in partnership with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). It is the only free, comprehensive guidebook profiling institutions of higher education that demonstrate a notable commitment to sustainability in their academic offerings, campus infrastructure, activities and career preparation. The Princeton Review chose the schools for this guide based on a survey of administrators at hundreds of colleges that the company polled in 2011 about their school’s sustainability initiatives. The company tallied Green Ratings for 768 institutions in summer 2011. The 322 schools in this guide received scores of 83 or above in that assessment.
“After establishing the Office of Sustainability, our first initiative was to cultivate a sense of connection between people, culture and place as the foundation for building a resilient and ultimately sustainable community,” Fisher explains. “We are actively engaged in learning from and contributing to global scales of sustainability, and feel our role as a liberal arts educational institution provides a unique opportunity to research, learn, and evolve within this larger community.”
“College-bound students are increasingly interested in sustainability issues,” said Robert Franek, Senior VP/Publisher, The Princeton Review. “Among 7,445 college applicants who participated in our 2012 ‘College Hopes & Worries Survey,’ nearly 7 out of 10 (68%) told us that having information about a school’s commitment to the environment would influence their decision to apply to or attend the school,” he added. “Together with USGBC, we are pleased to make this free resource available to all students seeking to attend colleges that practice, teach and support environmentally responsible choices. To that end, we highly recommend the terrific schools in this book.”
The Princeton Review first created this resource for college-bound students in 2010 with the U.S. Green Building Council, which is best known for developing the LEED standard for green building certification. In the fall of 2010, USGBC launched its Center for Green Schools (www.centerforgreenschools.org) to increase its efforts to drive change in how campuses and schools are designed, constructed and operated so that all educational facilities can enhance student learning experiences.
For more information, contact Brian Fisher at fisherb@cofc.edu.
