Tuesday, Apr 17, 2012
Rider University is one of the most environmentally responsible colleges in the United States and Canada, according to The Princeton Review. The renowned education services company selected Rider for inclusion in the newly released, third annual edition of its free downloadable book,"The Princeton Review’s Guide to 322 Green Colleges: 2012 Edition," which was released on April 17.
by Sean Ramsden
Rider University is one of the most environmentally responsible colleges in the United States and Canada, according to The Princeton Review. The renowned education services company selected Rider for inclusion in the newly released, third annual edition of its free downloadable book, The Princeton Review’s Guide to 322 Green Colleges: 2012 Edition, which was released on April 17.
Created by The Princeton Review in partnership with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), The Princeton Review’s Guide to 322 Green Colleges is the only free comprehensive guidebook profiling institutions of higher education that demonstrate a notable commitment to sustainability in their academic offerings, campus infrastructure, activities and career preparation. The Princeton Review chose the schools for this guide based on a survey of administrators at hundreds of colleges that the Company polled in 2011 about their school’s sustainability initiatives.
Released just days prior to Rider’s April 19 Earth Day Celebration, the guide includes profiles of the institutions that provide application information plus facts, statistics, and reporting of the schools’ environmentally related policies, practices and academic offerings.
Rider joins the ranks of outstanding universities and colleges nationwide that are leading the “green” movement through their own special programs and initiatives.
Rider pledged to meet the USGBC’s LEED standards when President Mordechai Rozanski signed the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment, directing that all further new campus construction would be LEED certified. The University’s West Village Residence Halls, which opened in fall 2009 on the Lawrenceville campus, represented the first new construction since the Climate Commitment was signed by Rozanski. They were certified LEED Silver shortly after their completion.
In fall 2011, the 21,000-square-foot North Hall academic building was also completed to meet LEED Silver certification standards. West Village and North Hall were both designed by Spiezle Architectural Group, Inc., an award-winning, full-service architectural and sustainable design firm from Trenton. Spiezle is noted for its expertise in and commitment to sustainable construction.
The Princeton Review first created this one-of-a-kind resource for college-bound students in 2010 with the U.S. Green Building Council, which is best known for developing The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standard for green building certification. In the fall of 2010, USGBC launched its Center for Green Schools (www.centerforgreenschools.org) to increase its efforts to drive change in how campuses and schools are designed, constructed and operated so that all educational facilities can enhance student learning experiences.
“College-bound students are increasingly interested in sustainability issues,” said Robert Franek, senior vice president and publisher of The Princeton Review. “Among 7,445 college applicants who participated in our 2012 College Hopes & Worries Survey, nearly 7 out of 10 (68 percent) told us that having information about a school’s commitment to the environment would influence their decision to apply to or attend the school. Together with the USGBC, we are pleased to make this free resource available to all students seeking to attend colleges that practice, teach and support environmentally-responsible choices. To that end, we highly recommend the terrific schools in this book.”
The Princeton Review chose the 322 schools based on a survey it conducted in 2011 of hundreds of colleges across the United States and in Canada to tally its annual Green Rating scores (scaled from 60 to 99) of colleges for its school profiles in its college guidebooks and website.
The survey asks administrators more than 50 questions about their institution’s sustainability-related policies, practices and programs. The Company tallied Green Ratings for 768 institutions in summer 2011, and the 322 schools in this guide received scores of 83 or above in that assessment. It should be noted that The Princeton Review does not rank the schools in this guide hierarchically (1 to 322) according to their Green Rating scores, nor does it include those scores in this book's school profiles.
The Princeton Review is not affiliated with Princeton University and not a magazine.