What's News
Evergreen Ups Sustainability Ante
Evergreen is one of Planet Green's "Top 5 Green Colleges"
Evergreen Draws Acclaim for Green Practices
Evergreen Noted Among Sierra Club's Top 10 Coolest Schools for Commitment to Green Practices
National Wildlife Federation Report Card on Sustainability
Evergreen Scores 98 out of 99 on The Princeton Review's New Green Evergreen Gets 'Green' Funds
Evergreen Listed Third "Greenest" College in America
Evergreen's Organic Farm Certified Salmon-Safe
Green Prison Reform with Evergreen's Nalini Nadkarni
Team Geoduck Places Second in Bike Commuter Contest
Evergreen Ups Sustainability Ante
The Evergreen State College always has had a reputation as a college community that cares about the environment.
But students, faculty, staff members and others will be asked this school year to step it up a notch through a new sustainability initiative. More...
Evergreen is one of Planet Green's "Top 5 Green Colleges"
Whether you're heading off to college soon yourself or you've got a child about to make the big move, considering which colleges are green is important these days. More...
Evergreen Draws Acclaim for Green Practices
The September/October edition of Sierra Magazine, published by the Sierra Club, called Evergreen one of "10 that get it," and The Princeton Review, a college's ranking guide, gave the college a score of 98 out of 99 for its green practices. More...
Evergreen Noted Among Sierra Club's Top 10 Coolest Schools for Commitment to Green Practices
Organic food? Check. Solar power, biodiesel buses, and composting? Check, check, check. Colleges large and small get their green on. More...
National Wildlife Federation Report Card on Sustainability
Recently, the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) and Princeton Survey Research Associates International released their national report card on sustainability in higher education. They invited every college and university in the United States (over 4,000 institutions) to participate. 1,068 schools (or 27%) completed their survey. As you would expect, Evergreen was 1 of 334 campuses recognized for "exemplary" programs in sustainability.
Because this survey is one of the most comprehensive and widely referenced studies on nationwide trends in campus sustainability, it is worth noting their key findings. Since 2001, the National Wildlife Federation Report found three overarching nationwide trends in higher education:
- There is increased infrastructure and institutional commitment to sustainability. Indicators of this include, "increased goal-setting for improving performance, more staffing for sustainability programs, and a rise in orientation programs for students, faculty and staff on green practices."
- There is substantial improvement in the "greening" of campus operations. Indicators of this include improved energy and water conservation, increased use of clean, renewable energy to power the campus, and reduced waste.
- The amount of sustainability-related academic programs did not increase and may have actually decreased since 2001. The report stated, "Today's student is just as unlikely as in 2001 to graduate with exposure to basic ecological principles, much less with an understanding of how the human-designed economy can work in harmony with natural systems."
This last trend is deeply disconcerting. And while this is a national trend and not an Evergreen trend, it is an acute reminder of the enormous amount of work ahead of us. The challenge of living to see a more sustainable future is insurmountable if we do not teach and learn its' basic principles and concepts in our classrooms. More...
Evergreen Scores 98 out of 99 on The Princeton Review's New Green Rating System
The Princeton Review published its new Green Rating of colleges (a measure of how environmentally friendly the institutions are). The Princeton Review evaluated 534 colleges and universities and gave each institution a numerical score on a scale of 60 to 99. The Evergreen State College scored a very impressive 98! More...
Evergreen received $75,000 for solar panels on the roof of the Daniel J. Evans Library to generate power and be incorporated into the "Curriculum for the BioRegion," a collaboration of 18 regional colleges working on environmental quality and sustainability. More...
Evergreen Listed Third "Greenest" College in America
When it comes to protecting the planet, many schools have given it more than a college try. In fact, America's institutions of higher learning are some of the best incubators of sustainable solutions to myriad problems, and they are molding and inspiring the bright minds that will inherit the environment from the current generation of leaders. More...
Evergreen's Organic Farm Certified Salmon-Safe
Farming practices at The Evergreen State College Organic Farm are safe for salmon, according to a Seattle-based nonprofit conservation group. More...
Green Prison Reform with Evergreen's Nalini Nadkarni
KCTS 9 takes you behind the security gates to see how one local prison is not only reducing its massive carbon footprint but also pioneering new ways to rehabilitate prisoners. More...
Team Geoduck Places Second in Bike Commuter Contest
Congratulations to all the members of Team Geoduck! Our team placed 2nd with 4,883 miles biked for the month of May. The best part is that Team Geoduck only had half as many riders as any other team in the top four. So, on a per rider basis we did the best -- 1.5 miles per rider for every one mile ridden by members on the top team! If Team Geoduck had drove rather than biked those miles we would have emitted 3,750 lbs of greenhouse gases. Team Geoduck member, Ken Wilhelm, took first place for first time seniors (60+) for most miles (322) and for best consistency (31 days). Congratulations Ken – you are an inspiration! Also, Team Geoduck member, Bret Weinstein, took fourth place for first time adults (19-59) with an astonishing 726 miles! Awesome Bret!
Collectively, participants rode more 104,000 miles, or roughly 4 trips around the world! Riders also saved $18,000 on gasoline, and prevented the release of 92,000 pounds of greenhouse gases (CO2) into the atmosphere. Participants made 11,755 commute trips by bicycle and averaged about 114 miles per person during the month of May.
Official Results
Individual
Team