The Princeton Review Reveals "Green Rating"

By Broadside News Editor Asma Chaudhary

The Princeton Review will unveil a new rating system for colleges in its annual guide, which will be available in 2009 during the summer. In collaboration with ecoAmerica, a “Green Rating” will be given to colleges that exemplify eco-friendly behavior and follow through with environmental planning.

Approximately 600 colleges will receive the new rating, which will be featured on their Web site, located at PrincetownReview.com. In order to receive the “Green Rating,” a college must provide an environmentally responsible atmosphere, which also shapes students for the future. At this point, there is no confirmation about the colleges that were selected and it may be of interest to George Mason University for the future. Currently, Mason is making numerous efforts to reduce carbon emissions within the next few years and to embrace more sustainable practices.

With this new rating, The Princeton Review hopes to encourage more universities to become responsible for carbon emissions and sustainability. In doing so, communities will be built and raise more awareness to change campus policies.

According to an e-mail sent out on Earth Day, which was last Tuesday, The Princeton Review discussed how the data was collected during the 2007-2008 academic year and what it means on a larger scale.

The e-mail said, “The “Green Rating” is a numerical score on a scale of 60 to 99 [similar to other numerical ratings in Princeton Review's school profiles]. The criteria for the “Green Rating” cover three broad areas, which include how environmentally responsible a school's polices are, whether students have a campus quality of life that is both healthy and sustainable, and how well a school is preparing its students for employment and for citizenship in a world defined by environmental challenges.”

For the project, The Princeton Review teamed up with ecoAmerica, a non-profit organization dedicated to the environment and promoting eco-friendly behavior.

Also according to The Princeton Review, “The survey ecoAmerica helped develop for this project included 28 questions that covered everything from institutional practices concerning energy use, recycling, food sources and transportation alternatives to a college's academics [availability of environmental studies majors and courses], building issues, and action plans regarding sustainability.

Publisher of The Princeton Review Robert Franek said, "ecoAmerica brought to this project unique expertise about environmental, institutional and lifestyle issues essential to our goal of making this rating comprehensive and annually update-able. We also shared with ecoAmeria a commitment to helping students find colleges – and colleges find students – that will promote learning opportunities and lifestyle choices that will sustain our environment."