Brooklyn College says it is “pleased to announce” that it is one of the nation’s most environmentally responsible colleges, according to The Princeton Review Guide to Green Colleges: 2022 Edition.
Brooklyn College (BC) News said the guide “highlights colleges where students have a campus quality of life that is both healthy and sustainable.
“It also shows how well a campus is preparing students for employment in the clean-energy economy of the 21st century, as well as for citizenship in a world now defined by environmental concerns and opportunities, and how environmentally responsible a school’s policies are,” it said.
“We are proud of this recognition of our work to enhance sustainability on campus, as we seek to expand and deepen green practices and become more environmentally friendly,” said President Michelle J. Anderson.
She said Brooklyn College, along with other CUNY campuses, accepted former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s challenge to reduce its carbon footprint by 30 percent between 2007 and 2017.
BC News said the college continues these efforts with the governor’s BuildSmart2025 program and other projects to improve energy efficiency on campus and help reduce CUNY’s carbon footprint.
In addition to offering a bachelor’s degree in urban sustainability, along with many sustainability-focused academic course offerings, Brooklyn College has established a 10-Year Campus Sustainability Plan that considers several operational areas: energy, water, transportation, waste management/recycling, procurement, food and nutrition, education and outreach, and buildings and grounds, BC News said.
To date, it said the college has implemented several changes aimed at increasing its sustainability.
In April 2019, it joined the REV Campus Challenge and was recognized as an “Achiever” member for its initiatives and efforts to improve energy efficiency and conservation, BC News said.
It said achiever-level members are committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and have dedicated staff to focus on clean-energy investments.
Also, BC News noted that the college’s newest edifice, the Leonard & Claire Tow Center for the Performing Arts, is LEED-certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), “a designation that has come to be the gold standard in the industry for sustainable buildings.”
The Tow Center opened in 2018 with low water-use toilets, highly efficient HVAC and lighting systems, and recycled construction materials, BC News said.
It said the Princeton Review chose the 420 schools in the guide based on its survey of administrators at 835 colleges in 2020–21 about their institutions’ commitments to the environment and sustainability.
The company’s editors analyzed more than 25 survey data points to select the schools, BC News said.
It said this rating, on a scale of 60 to 99, provides “a comprehensive measure of a school’s performance as an environmentally aware and prepared institution.”
Colleges that earned a Green Rating score of 80 or higher were chosen for the Guide to Green Colleges, BC News said.
Of the 420 schools, it said 391 are in the United States, 26 in Canada, and one each in Ecuador, Egypt and Greece.
The schools are listed alphabetically in the guide and not ranked overall from 1 to 420, BC News said.
“We strongly recommend Brooklyn College to students who care about the environment and want to study and live at a green college,” said Rob Franek, The Princeton Review’s editor-in-chief. “Brooklyn College offers excellent academics and demonstrates a commitment to sustainability that is exemplary on many counts.”
# # #
