SUNY-ESF ranks No. 9 on Princeton Review list of Top 50 Green Colleges for 2021

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The Princeton Review ranked SUNY-ESF ninth in its list of Top 50 Green Colleges for 2021.

SUNY-ESF, which paid for the “featured” banner that appears in the ranking according to the Princeton Review, was judged on a combination of reported data and student opinion collected throughout the year via surveys. 

The Princeton Review invited nearly all four-year colleges and universities to participate in the surveys, a panel of experts in higher education green practices created, the review’s website said. 

The schools’ responses to the surveys gave the basis for a “Green Rating”, or a measure of a school’s performance as an environmentally aware institution, which the Princeton Review factored into the ranking. The Princeton Review collected ratings from 835 colleges in total.

Key elements of the surveys included the health and sustainability of campus quality of life, level of preparation for student employment in a clean-energy economy and environmental responsibility of a school’s policies, the website said. The rating was on a scale of 60-99, although this number was not published on the ranking of the schools.

SUNY-ESF was joined by fellow upstate New York institution Cornell University in the top ten, while College of the Atlantic in Maine was judged to be the “greenest” of the surveyed schools.

“We’re so proud of the work led by our faculty, students, and staff to address today’s most pressing environmental issues,” said Joanie Mahoney, president of SUNY-ESF, in a news release. “ESF continues to be a leader in integrating and prioritizing sustainability in our academic courses, in our research and on campus, which are increasingly important factors for prospective students.”