College Sustainability Report Card

Alright let's face it: Western is known as a hippie school. Anyone that thinks that we are not one of the more liberal, laid back, environmentally and socially conscious schools around needs to wake up and smell the patchouli... In terms of sustainability, WWU has a lot to be proud of. Every single bit of Western is powered by alternative energy sources, and WWU is the country's 4th largest buyer of green energy (among academic institutions). Our dining services is one of the top three recyclers of food scraps in Whatcom County, and all coffee served on campus is certified as Fair Trade. WWU led the nation as one of the first universities to ever have an on-campus recycling program back in the early 70s. All of this is just a few of the examples of the constantly expanding efforts that Western applies towards being sustainable.

After learning all of this, I was curious to see how the other schools around compared to WWU, especially those in Washington State. After all, those other schools are dealing with similar environmental variables as well as the same state politics that play a factor in a school's ability to focus on sustainable programs (budget cuts... enough said). Turns out, Western is in pretty good company and I was pleased to learn about some of the efforts that our neighbors have put forth in doing their part to be sustainable.

I came across the "College Sustainability Report Card", which provides detailed information for hundreds of schools in the US. Each school has a "sustainability profile" and is assigned a letter grade based on how sustainable the college is overall. University of Washington earned an A- and is ranked as one of the leaders in the US of overall college sustainability. Washington State University had the lowest grade in the state and was ranked lower than last year with a C. Whitman College earned a B- and the University of Puget Sound had a C+. I've included the link to the site at the bottom of this post for anyone that wishes to see the details of any of the profiles. They are really quite in depth and take into consideration a number of factors such as administration, climate change and energy, food/recycling, green building, transportation, student involvement, etc.

All in all, it is nice to see that other schools around us also realize the massive impact (either positive or negative) a college community can have on the environment and are taking steps to minimize the damage. Although Western was not officially graded, by comparing our efforts to other schools, I would guess that we would probably earn an A- at this time. Pretty legitimate bragging rights... :)

Link: http://www.greenreportcard.org/