Raising Your Grades

Ivy is not the only thing that makes a college green. Released in September, the 2009 College Sustainability Report Card evaluates the 300 institutions with the largest endowments in North America, rating them for their success at "meeting the needs of the present" without compromising future generations. The newest crop of sustainability leaders includes Oberlin College in Ohio, Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, and the University of Colorado. (Yes, Harvard makes the top 15.)

Each school was graded from A to F according to nine criteria: the administration's efforts to implement sustainable university practices; energy use, conservation, and emissions reductions; food and recycling; green building; student involvement; transportation; accessibility of information about endowment investments; investment priorities; and shareholder engagement (how involved the school is in shaping the sustainability mission of the companies in which it buys shares).

In this year's report, 91 percent of the schools surveyed said they bought local foods, while nearly half said they had made a public commitment to fighting climate change. Since the ranking system was instituted in 2007, four out of five schools on the list have improved their overall grades. Future high school seniors considering their options can start by comparing the scores of their prospective choices at greenreportcard.org.