Parents prefer enrolling their children in schools with vast campuses surrounded by greenery and employing green methods as it is known to provide a healthy and learning environment.
Here is the list of eco-friendly colleges and university across America.
College of the Atlantic is located in Mount Desert Island in Maine and owns 300 acres of farmland and forest. Its cafeteria prepares food produced from its farms and leftovers are dumped in the farm for composting. The college's newest dorms feature heat recovery systems, composting toilets and passive solar energy.
In order to limit the number of students in the college, it offers only Bachelor of Arts in human ecology and a Master of Philosophy in human ecology. Both degree programs stresses on environmental studies.
For its dedication towards the environment, the college ranked first on GoodHousekeeping.com's list of the 10 greenest colleges in the country and was mentioned in the 2013 Green Rating Honor Roll by The Princeton Review.
University of Connecticut is regarded as the greenest campus in the world by the UI GreenMetric World University Ranking. It is also named one of the ten coolest schools for 2012 in the Sierra Club's list.
The university officials have introduced green efforts in the areas of water conservation, environmental literacy, transportation and energy among others. It has established a no-idling policy, a LEED-certified football complex and tray less dining in its cafeterias.
University of California-Davis claimed the top spot on the Sierra Club's 2012 rankings for its many green initiatives including diverting 70 percent of its waste away from landfills. The 108-year-old college has introduced a number of natural gas powered buses and four of its building complexes have been awarded with LEED Platinum.
West Village is regarded to be the nation's largest planned zero net energy community. The university was also chosen the 17th institution on the 2012 UI GreenMetric World University Rankings.
Warren Wilson College situated in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, contains a 300 acre working farm and a 700 acre forest, both of which are managed by the students. The college's Free Store has items salvaged from the landfill and it has installed geothermal and solar energy systems part of its alternative energy initiatives.
Here, students are encouraged to take weekly lessons in sustainable cuisine. The university has extended its green efforts into its curriculum. The college has introduced several eco-friendly options such as sustainable business, outdoor leadership and conservation biology.
Lauding its commitment towards sustainable energy, the college was selected as the second institution on the GoodHousekeeping.com's list of greenest colleges in America.
Another college promoting greener living is the University of Pennsylvania.
