Not too long ago, prospective college students looked for academic rankings, up-to-date technology, along with general atmosphere and extracurricular activities when deciding their institution of choice. Now, along with these factors, students are on a mission to locate campuses with lofty sustainability reports. There are other resource sites that offer reviews regarding how “green” a campus might be, but the Green Report Card, a.k.a The College Sustainability Report Card is the first interactive site that reports on sustainability initiatives for over 300 colleges and universities in The United States and Canada.
There is no doubt that major in-depth research has gone into developing, The Green Report Card. In fact, this year’s results showed that while many schools’ endowments fell during the global recession, their efforts to be both environmentally and socially sustainable increased. Colleges and universities are demonstrating that sustainability is good for the bottom line and for the environment.
According to an October 7, 2009 press release,
“More than 95 percent of participating institutions agreed to share the inner workings of their green practices, resulting in over 10,000 pages of detailed data and descriptions. Overall, the College Sustainability Report Card has the highest response rate of any college sustainability ranking or rating…. Sixty-eight percent of 12,715 high school students applying to college, who were recently polled by the Princeton Review, said that they would value having information about a college’s commitment to the environment. To help students search, the Report Card website offers comparison of up to 10 schools at a time.”
The Green Report Card is ideal for the prospective college-bound student, involved parent as well as college students, faculty and alumni desiring to improve the sustainability on their campuses. So, how does the site work? If you are wondering about a specific institutions’ sustainability rating, click the “compare” heading at the top of the home page. This will allow you to input the school you’d like to research. Here, you are also able to receive data as far back as 2007. The evaluated school displays nine categories: Administration, Climate Change and Energy, Food and recycling, Green Building, Student Involvement, transportation, Endowment Transparency, Investment Priorities, and Shareholder Engagement. If you’d like to learn what these Sustainability Categories entail, you can find an extensive explanation under the Report Card heading .
The founder of Earth Promise, Adam Berg, is a University of New Hampshire Alumni, so we put the Green Report Card to the test. (Or shall we say, The Green Report card put UNH to the test!) According to the site, UNH has received an impressive overall grade of an A- two years in a row!
The Green Report Card is an easy site to navigate. One of the (many) intriguing sections of the site invites people to apply for internships. For those contemplating a career in environmental sustainability, Green Report Card offers an exciting avenue to test the waters.
Green Report Card has a remarkable list of college and university rankings to research. Being environmentally conscious is not waning anytime soon. Add the green factor to your analysis when deciding what university to attend.
Change the way people think. Isn’t that what any movement is all about? In order for us to see a change in environmental issues, we need to modify the public’s thought process. We need to make it personal; how it will affect them. Turning off the lights in rooms in the house which are unoccupied can not only save you in energy costs, but will help reduce greenhouse gases. That hits home for many. Overall, people do want change to help make a better world. Even just a small alteration in lifestyle certainly could be a solution to our crisis of climate change. However, it can be difficult to get people to transform many aspects of their lifestyles. How about a company, then, that changes their method of running their business? Would this draw you to shop, knowing that they practice energy efficiency? How about this for a strategic plan: Your business is advised to take specific green steps to make energy-efficient changes. In exchange, a “mob” of customers on a set day will to come and purchase from your store. A set percentage of that day’s sales will go towards revamping your business to upgrade the store to adhere to the energy efficient recommendations. What a fabulous way to applaud your business based on their green practices. 
