As a recent concern in our society, striving to be green has become an important issue on college campuses. Institutions now strive to have the most environmentally friendly campuses possible. With increased recycling, use of solar panels, reusable plates in dining halls, and many other improvements campuses are setting more green standards every day. According to Kate Zernike, “as colleges and universities rush to declare themselves green, some higher education officials worry that campuses are taking easy steps to win the label rather than doing the kind of unglamorous work… that would actually reduce their emissions of gr
eenhouse gases. Some campuses are changing little more than their press releases.” Colleges are more concerned about beating the competition than improving the environment. Unfortunately, this leads to the large scale use of quick surface improvements and very small amounts of long term improvements.
One example of a green technique used by colleges to improve their standings is carbon neutrality. Through buying offsets a school entrusts a company to plant trees or do some environmentally friendly activities in order to cancel out the school’s negative environmental impact. Carbon neutrality is “the environmental equivalent of paying someone to eat broccoli so you can keep consuming ice cream” states Kate Zernike. Nothing green actually happens on the school’s campus but their green ranking among other colleges has improved. Colleges should not be inspired to become green because of rankings, they should be inspired by a desire to improve the earth and improve the lives of their students.
eenhouse gases. Some campuses are changing little more than their press releases.” Colleges are more concerned about beating the competition than improving the environment. Unfortunately, this leads to the large scale use of quick surface improvements and very small amounts of long term improvements.One example of a green technique used by colleges to improve their standings is carbon neutrality. Through buying offsets a school entrusts a company to plant trees or do some environmentally friendly activities in order to cancel out the school’s negative environmental impact. Carbon neutrality is “the environmental equivalent of paying someone to eat broccoli so you can keep consuming ice cream” states Kate Zernike. Nothing green actually happens on the school’s campus but their green ranking among other colleges has improved. Colleges should not be inspired to become green because of rankings, they should be inspired by a desire to improve the earth and improve the lives of their students.
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