Home » NKU featured in The Princeton Review’s ‘Guide to 322 Green Colleges’

NKU featured in The Princeton Review’s ‘Guide to 322 Green Colleges’

Northern Kentucky University is located in Highland Heights, Ky.

HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. (May 29, 2012) — Northern Kentucky University is one of 322 colleges and universities nationwide to be recognized by The Princeton Review and the Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council as the greenest higher education institutions in America and Canada. NKU joins the University of Louisville and Western Kentucky University as the only Kentucky schools included in the guide.

“It is a tremendous honor to be included among those institutions nationally who share our commitment to sustainability,” said NKU President James Votruba. “Many on our campus have stepped forward and taken leadership roles through academic programming, extracurricular projects and infrastructure planning. We can all take pride in the fact that our hard work to make the university more environmentally friendly has been effective and is now being recognized nationally.”

The 232-page Guide to Green Colleges offers students insights into which universities are most committed to sustainability and environmental stewardship. It is the only free, comprehensive, annually updated guide to green colleges. The guide is based on scores from surveys of administrators from hundreds of colleges in the United States and Canada. Fewer than half of the schools surveyed scored high enough to make the guide.

Like The Princeton Review’s popular Best Colleges guide, it aims at providing students with information to help them select a college. It includes institutional profiles with application, admission, financial aid and enrollment information; green highlights and facts; and a glossary of green terms.

NKU was Kentucky’s first public institution to be a part of the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, an organization that helps campuses implement sustainable practices in hopes of climate neutrality. Along with being active in the ACUPCC, NKU has expanded its recycling program; implemented a U-PASS program that allows faculty, staff and students to ride TANK buses free; and invested in energy-efficient infrastructure such as lighting, HVAC and water use systems in campus facilities.

NKU students have also taken an active role through a group called Environmentally Concerned Organization of Students (ECOS). The university’s Center for Applied Ecology partners with government agencies, non-profits and private landowners to improve environmental stewardship in the region while providing professional training and work experience to students.