At first glance, it looks like Maine colleges and universities got snubbed in the latest ranking of green campuses.

The Sierra Club published a list of its top 10 eco-minded American colleges in the November/December issue of Sierra Magazine. There are no Maine schools on the list, which is based on energy efficiency, recycliung, food choices and other factors.

Curiously missing is the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, which was ranked the greenest college in the entire world last summer by Grist, an online environmental magazine. See our previous post about that.

Sierra didn’t overlook the school, however. It just decided that including COA wouldn’t be fair to the competition. In fact, it disqualified all colleges that make up what is called the Eco League, a consortium of five environmentally themed colleges that includes COA.

“Founded in 2003, the Eco League consists of five small liberal arts institutions (Alaska Pacific University, College of the Atlantic, Green Mountain College, Northland College, and Prescott College) spread from Alaska to Maine but unified by an emphasis on environmental learning and hands-on experience” according to Sierra. “On any given day, students at Eco League schools might be on ‘lamb watch’ at a farm, reading Silent Spring, or canoeing on the Yukon River for a senior project. Students can also explore different ecosystems by spending up to two semesters at other schools in the consortium.”

Here is Sierra’s list of the best of the rest:

1. Oberlin College (Oberlin, Ohio)
2. Harvard University (Cambridge, Mass.)
3. Warren Wilson College (Swannanoa, N.C.)
4. University of California System
5. Duke University (Durham, N.C.)
6. Middlebury College (Middlebury, Vt.)
7. Berea College (Berea, Ky.)
8. Pennsylvania State University
9. Tufts University (Medford, Mass.)
10. Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, Pa.)

Watch out College of the Atlantic, the University of Southern Maine is “greening up.”

Portland-based USM may not be ready to unseat COA as the world’s greenest college (see previous post), but the Portland-based school is taking the sustainable campus movement seriously.

The school's Abromson Community Education Center in Portland was the state's first to win “Gold” certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Former President Richard Pattenaude signed a pledge this year to neutralize greenhouse gas emissions by reducing energy use and investing in environmentally sustainable practices. The school also has been working to incorporate environmental issues into courses on criminology, business and other subjects.

Now USM has created a new minor in environmental sustainability. The program, which will be up and running this fall, is intended to provide broad training to help take on the world’s toughest environmental problems.  The 19 required credits cover such subjects as science, culture, policy, philosophy and economics.
 
For more information about the new program, look here or contact Assistant Professor of Environmental Science Travis Wagner at 207-228-8450, twagner@usm.maine.edu.