For the second year in a row, SUNY-ESF has earned the No. 2 ranking in the Princeton Review’s annual list of the top 50 green colleges. With hundreds of schools surveyed, the rankings take into account the environmental and sustainability efforts of colleges across the world.

While this is no new title for the environmentally focused school, Mark Lichtenstein, executive director of sustainability at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, did not downplay the significance of making it back to a top-two ranking.

“This year — to stay at No. 2 — it’s almost even more noteworthy because there are more institutions just in the last year who have been doing great work in sustainability,” Lichtenstein said.

He added that he thought the competition was going to make it harder for the university to maintain the No. 2 spot.

With increased competition in sustainability efforts, SUNY-ESF has maintained a steady advantage over other schools because of a curriculum that is centered around environmental awareness, Lichtenstein said.

“We get high rankings on our curriculum and our scholarships and our research, so that’s very helpful, whereas other schools might not have that focus,” he added.

To determine its ranking, the Princeton Review took into account accomplishments including the availability of transportation alternatives that SUNY-ESF has provided for students, the percentage of the university’s food budget spent on local food and its public greenhouse gas inventory plan, according to a release available on the SUNY-ESF website.

Two of the more significant efforts that the school has made in the past year are the hiring of an energy manager and the creation of a college-wide sustainability committee, Lichtenstein said.

The energy manager helped SUNY-ESF save money on energy usage in unconventional ways, including fixing infrastructure in buildings that can be made more efficient, he said.

The college-wide sustainability committee, which includes SUNY-ESF faculty, staff and students, is broken up into several working groups that bring ideas regarding sustainability to the administration.

“We rely on that committee a lot,” Lichtenstein said, crediting the students for coming up with creative ideas to help reduce energy usage. “These sustainability rankings are going to want to know how you engage your broader community, so that was a big first step, just getting everybody together.”

Lichtenstein said he hopes other schools will follow SUNY-ESF’s lead in the sustainability programs it’s established.

This includes neighboring Syracuse University. Lichtenstein said SUNY-ESF has both benefited from SU’s sustainability efforts and and contributed its own sustainability ideas to the university. Specifically, SU’s divestment from fossil fuels has “upped our ranking substantially,” Lichtenstein said.

“We want to be an engine to show others and develop the best management practices here that other institutions can deploy as well,” Lichtenstein said. “For us, it’s not just about ESF being environmentally sound, but it’s what role can we play to help others.”

Published on October 22, 2017 at 9:43 pm

Contact Gabe: gkstern@syr.edu | @gabestern326