I recently came across this write up on the Arizona State University news site and am proud to share it. Kudos to the Princeton review for this category of rating to encourage healthy, positive competition between universities and kudos to ASU for taking some great initiative and striving to be proactive when it comes to solving some of the biggest environmental issues we are facing.

Princeton Review rating based on environmental practices, policies and course offerings

Arizona State University has been named one of the nation’s “greenest” universities by The Princeton Review in its first-ever rating of environmentally friendly institutions.

The “2009 Green Rating Honor Roll” is a numerical score on a scale of 60 to 99 that The Princeton Review tallied for 534 colleges and universities based on data it collected from the schools in the 2007-08 academic year concerning their environmentally related policies, practices and academic offerings.

The Green Rating scores appear in the website profiles of the 534 schools that posted on The Princeton Review’s site (www.PrincetonReview.com) today.

Click here to read the full article on the ASU News site.

This seems like really great news for the state and solar industry in general. Glad to see ASU putting so much effort in researching renewable energy.

Arizona State University is strengthening its commitment to boost Arizona’s economic development prospects in the renewable energy industry by establishing the Solar Power Laboratory to advance solar energy research, education and technology.

Prominent scientists and engineers are being hired to lead the endeavor to improve the efficiency of solar electric power systems while making them more economically feasible.

“The Solar Power Laboratory will further build up the university’s already formidable solar energy research and develop collaborations with the energy industry to accelerate expansion of the state’s economy,” said ASU President Michael Crow.

The effort is a major part of ASU’s response to the Arizona Board of Regents’ Solar Energy Initiative, aimed at encouraging research and development to meet future needs for renewable energy sources, Crow said.

In addition to spurring economic opportunity, advances in solar power systems will help Arizona protect its environment by enabling more widespread use of this clean-energy source, Crow said.

The laboratory will be a collaboration partnering the university’s Global Institute of Sustainability and Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering.

Read the full article at FoxBusiness

The Memorial Union at ASU’s Tempe campus was damaged by fire last November and as part of the clean up they are going to do some renovations with a focus on sustainability. This is exciting news, I can’t wait to see what it looks like when the construction is finished next Fall.

“We had to repair the fire damage. Why not use the opportunity to upgrade the building as well?” she said.

ASU spokeswoman Leah Hardesty added that many of the University’s efforts will focus on sustainability.

The University will be going for a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, certification in commercial interiors, she said.

LEED certification is given to buildings that have achieved high degrees of sustainability in terms of construction that recycles and reuses materials and buildings that make use of energy-efficient designs and appliances, among other factors.

The new dining facility is tentatively named the Starlight Terrace and Eco-Fresh Café, Lowe said.

The restaurant will make use of local organic foods and environmentally friendly practices such as recycling.

“We’re still mostly conceptualizing on the Starlight Terrace,” Hardesty said. “But we do know it will be entirely sustainable.”

[ASU Webdevil]

Looks like everyone had a good time at the UA Earth Day event and I have to say it looks like they had a lot more going on than at the ASU Tempe campus. Check out the video inside for closer look.

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The Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System (STARS) is a rating system similar to LEED that helps universities gauge their progress towards sustainability. ASU and UA are listed as participating in the pilot and while NAU isn’t listed in the pilot they are highlighted on their page for their achievements in sustainability.

Northern Arizona University (Flagstaff, AZ) is our current spotlight campus! High-efficiency LEED certified buildings, campus recycling, a food surplus donation program, reclaimed water and a master transportation plan are among NAU’s efforts to become a more sustainable institution. NAU has committed to climate neutrality through participation in the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment. Learn more

I can’t wait until these ratings come and and we can see how our Arizona schools are doing. It seems that all three are making great strides at becoming more sustainable.

Here’s an article about STARS at University of Arizona. [Click Here]

Here is the STARS site if you’d like to find out more. [Click Here]