SUNY New Paltz is one of nation’s greenest colleges, says Princeton Review
SUNY New Paltz is once again listed among the most environmentally responsible colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada, according to the 2023 edition of Princeton Review’s Guide to Green Colleges.
The guide profiles institutions that share superb sustainability practices, a strong foundation in sustainability education, and a healthy quality of life for students on campus.
Princeton Review’s methodology evaluates campuses on a combination of school-reported data and student opinion, collected in 2021–2022 via institutional and student surveys.
Student survey responses included student ratings of how sustainability issues influenced their education and life on campus; administration and student support for environmental awareness and conservation efforts; and the visibility and impact of student environmental groups.
Among the College’s recent achievements and advancements in campus sustainability are:
Significant reductions in the campus’s energy use during the 2021-22 academic year; with natural gas usage down more than 10% and overall electricity usage down 6.4% compared to pre-pandemic years from 2014-2019. These reductions saved an estimated $300,000 on the College’s annual utility bill;
Updates to reduce temperatures of and scale back energy used to pump the campus hot water system that deliver carbon-use reduction and cost savings;
The creation of numerous sustainability opportunities for students, both in and out of the classroom, including the Sustainability Committee‘s new Sustainability Course Designation for students looking for courses that prioritize sustainable practices, the collaboration between the Department of Theatre Arts and the Sculpture Program to use recycled materials from theatrical sets in sculpture projects, the launch of the New York Clean Energy Workforce Training Team (NYCEWATT) to create both online and hands-on learning opportunities in working with a state-of-the-art wind turbine model, and an upgrade of Theatre Arts laundry facilities to installing microfilters heralded by a student.
The complete 2023 Princeton Review Guide to Green Colleges is available online.
To learn more about Sustainability at SUNY New Paltz, please visit the Office of Campus Sustainability online.