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Ah, August. Where does the time go? No one will be asking this question with more desperation than students, who have only a month or so left before heading back to their institutions of learning in an effort to soak up knowledge like, well, sponges dried by summer's rays. For some students this will mean going to college either for the first time or returning to a campus they know and love. 
A lot goes into choosing a college, and the list of criteria can vary widely for each prospective student. One factor that seems to gain more ground with students every year has to do with each school's sustainability, and rightly so. What better place than to implement a green routine than what it likely to be a student's first crack at independent living? According to a recent article in USA Today more and more students are looking at colleges' commitment to sustainability in the form of what majors they offer and what environmental policies the school has in place.
Both the College Sustainability Report Card , or Green Report Card as it's commonly known, by the Sustainable Endowments Institute and the Princeton Review have offer their own rankings of colleges across the nation and are worth a look.
But as previously stated a lot of factors go into choosing a college and sometimes environmentalism is nudged out by other factors such as cost, area of study, proximity to family, etc. For students whose chosen schools aren't as green as they would like to be this is a perfect chance to not only get involved but also to develop some leadership qualities that will be useful after gradation no matter what field of work they wish to pursue. Most colleges have some sort of student group that champions green causes, and if not generally colleges have very simple rules for starting student-run organizations. The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) also offers helpful resources in their Green Campus Campaign complete with a link for students on how to start their own USGBC group . With all this information available on how to make colleges an incubator for sustainable action every student should claim green as one of their school colors.
