Green College Grants

For one New Orleans institution, switching to recycled paper and energy efficient appliances, installing low-flow toilets and showers and storm water swales meant a full letter grade increase over last year. This college, which made this progress on campus, this year earned an overall grade of B-, as compared to last year's C-. A riverfront Jacksonville, Florida, university officially opened a new Marine Science Research Institute replete with solar panels and rain water drainage system, according to a September announcement from the institution noting that the building had also obtained the US Green Building Council's LEED certification.

In addition, a Maryland college acquires its produce from farms in the area and offers faculty, staff and students opportunities to make use of a car sharing program. A car sharing service also is available to the Biddeford, Maine campus community of a university in New England, which this year announced the receipt of $238,000 in green campus grant money. In addition to free shuttle service, students at the New England college are provided free bicycles, along with helmets and locks, when they agree to ride, rather than drive, back and forth to campus, the announcement noted. For the ultimate solution, go to the Education Connection Online website and inquire about online degree programs, they will match you up with the best on-campus and online colleges for free.

At a university in Washington, D.C., the Board of Trustees this year approved plans for a state of the art, $275 million science and engineering building that's to be built with LEED silver certification standards in mind at minimum. This institution, along with one in Chicago, this year also announced or opened green buildings. With help from an Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation grant, the Chicago school announcement noted, the institution plans to install solar panels on at least a portion of its campus.

The grades that colleges and universities receive for their green efforts might provide the institutions some inspiration. However, the benefits of making campuses environmentally friendly extend well beyond a report card, or even the educational or geographical community. Because, climate change is a global issue, anyone who does their part to help conserve water, reduce harmful emissions and more might set a positive example that can have long lasting, far reaching effects. Students that want to study a STEM or green field will find there are not only various academic scholarships, but many other scholarship programs designed to encourage and retain their involvement in these college majors.