Seven New England Colleges on Princeton Review's Top 15 Greenest Schools

Seven out of fifteen ain't bad. That's how many New England schools made the Princeton Review's "green honor roll" of the greenest colleges in America by receiving as-close-to-perfect-as-possible green rankings of 99 points.

Bates got props for LEED buildings and Zipcar on campus, while the College of the Atlantic's exclusive focus on human ecology helped it make the list. Harvard's recycling rate of over 50% and its low driving rate (perhaps helped by its location) boosted it to the top, while Middlebury was praised for attempting to go carbon neutral by 2016. Northeastern may be falling apart, but the Princeton Review liked the school's composting program and LEED building plans. The University of New Hampshire's sustainable commencement this year got it some attention, as did its public transit system and energy sourcing (landfill gas is the source of up to 85% of campus energy). Yale's sustainability programs and research aided it into the top fifteen.

None of these colleges is perfect, but at least all are working toward the important goal of sustainability, for which they should be commended. Other schools should follow these institutions' lead. The full list of "green honor roll" schools:

Arizona State University at the Tempe campus
Bates College (Lewiston ME)
Binghamton University (State Univ. of New York at Binghamton)
College of the Atlantic (Bar Harbor ME)
Colorado College (Colorado Springs CO)
Dickinson College (Carlisle PA)
Evergreen State College (Olympia WA)
Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta)
Harvard College (Cambridge MA)
Middlebury College (Middlebury VT)
Northeastern University (Boston MA)
University of California - Berkeley
University of New Hampshire (Durham)
University of Washington (Seattle)
Yale University (New Haven CT)