In what's likely to be my last new post of the year — I plan to recycle readers' favorites for the next week — I thought I'd address one of the most significant choices young adults and their parents face: where to go to college.

After reading the recent AP story that College of the Atlantic has become the nation's first "net-zero" campus for carbon emissions, I began to wonder what a list of the greenest U.S. colleges and universities would look like. After a quick google search, voila, I found the list I was looking for.

From Sierra Magazine via AlterNet:

As the biggest purchasers and employers in many communities, colleges can create demand for ecofriendly services and products. High-profile schools have a bully pulpit — and the financial resources — to lead by example with their actions and investments. Research institutions are primed to develop technological solutions. And even small community colleges are educating tomorrow's leaders. If students start their adult lives in a culture of sustainability, they just might take that ethos with them wherever they go.

Here's Sierra Magazine's list of the top-10 green universities and colleges:

1. Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH
2. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
3. Warren Wilson College, Swannanoa, NY
4. University of California (all 10 campuses)
5. Duke University, Durham, NC
6. Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT
7. Berea College, Berea, KY
8. Pennsylvania State University (all 24 locations)
9. Tufts University, Medford, MA
10. Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA

Of course, there are plenty of other cool schools out there. Some 400 college and university presidents in the U.S. have signed a pledge to make their institutions carbon neutral, and students at over 500 schools in the U.S. and Canada have joined the Campus Climate Challenge. So, you see, the field of green choices in colleges and universities is much greater than just the top-10 list above.

Carbon Neutral Journal's choices are brought to you by Jorgensen Associates.

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