Princeton Review Rates Top Green Colleges

The Princeton Review, known for its college profiles, rankings and reviews, reported its fourth annual Green Ratings of colleges on Tuesday.

Colleges and universities from across the country were ranked on a scale of 60 to 99, based on a survey that asked questions about academic offerings, energy use, recycling, food, buildings and transportation.

Surveys show incoming students are more concerned than ever with their prospective school’s environmental stewardship.

According to the company’s annual “College Hopes & Worries” survey, 69 percent of students said having information about a college’s commitment to the environment would impact their decision to apply to or attend a school.

Green Rating scores are now available on the Princeton Review profiles for all 768 institutions that were evaluated.

Many fared well, but only 16 colleges were awarded the coveted rating of 99 and earned their place on the 2012 Green College Honor Roll.

Some of our top picks made the list, including Warren Wilson College (in video above), College of the Atlantic and the University of California. Each made the grade for outstanding environmentally-related academic programs and inventive green initiatives.

Other universities made the list by attaining zero-waste, maintaining their own forests and wetlands and powering their campuses with alternative energy.

Here’s the full list:

American University (Washington DC)
Arizona State University (Tempe, Ariz.)
College of the Atlantic (Bar Harbor, Maine)
Dickinson College (Carlisle, Pa.)
Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, Ga.)
Harvard College (Cambridge, Mass.)
Northeastern University (Boston, Mass.)
Oregon State University (Corvallis, Ore.)
San Francisco State University (San Francisco, Calif.)
State University of New York (Binghamton, N.Y.)
University of California (Santa Cruz, Calif.)
University of Maine (Orono, Maine)
University of Washington (Seattle, Wash.)
University of Wisconsin (Stevens Point, Wis.)
Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, Va.)
Warren Wilson College (Asheville, N.C.)