Many colleges and universities have responded to their students’ passionate concerns over environmental challenges such as global warming by pledging to become carbon neutral and taking other environmentally responsible steps. Sierra magazine recently looked at the nation’s colleges and picked Ten Schools That Do It Right, based on everything from clean-energy purchases and green-building policies to bike facilities and dorm food.

Picks included huge statewide systems such as the University of California (number 4) known for traffic woes at ten locations that serve 214,000 students. In spite of current commuter hassels, the University of California has pledged to increase its use of low-to zero-emission vehicles by half by 2010. On the small but significant end of the impact scale is Warren Wilson College (number 3) that provides 850 students with opportunites to experience a campus that runs a “sustainably managed farm, garden, and forest that provide food and lumber for the campus; streetlamps that reduce light pollution; and community service as an integral part of the curriculum.”

Author Jennifer Hattam stresses that colleges and universities are in a key positions to make a difference. She states, “High-profile schools have a bully pulpit and the financial resources to lead by example with their actions and investments. Research institutions are primed to develop technological solutions. And even small community colleges are educating tomorrow’s leaders. If students start their adult lives in a culture of sustainability, they just might take that ethos with them wherever they go.”

Read the “Go Big Green” article here.

View “Ten Schools That Do It Right” here.