'Environmentally Responsible College'

St. Lawrence University is one of the nation’s most environmentally responsible colleges. That’s according to The Princeton Review, which included St. Lawrence in its Guide to Green Colleges: 2019 Edition.

The Princeton Review chose St. Lawrence for its 10th-annual edition of its Guide to Green Colleges based on “Green Rating” scores based on a survey the company conducted in 2018–19 of administrators at hundreds of four-year colleges about their institutions’ commitments to the environment and sustainability. This rating provides a comprehensive measure of a school’s performance as an environmentally aware and prepared institution, including whether students have a campus quality of life that is both healthy and sustainable, how well a school is preparing students for employment in the clean-energy economy of the 21st century, and how environmentally responsible a school’s policies are.

Sustainability at St. Lawrence

Sustainability continues to be a virtue of St. Lawrence mission and values. One shining example is the its Adirondack Semester, which celebrated its 20th-anniversary this fall. The program enables students to study nature and human relationships with nature while living in a yurt village “off the grid” deep in the Adirondack Park.

The Sustainability Program gives the next generation of thinkers and leaders the tools to tackle the globally important challenges of sustainability.

This year, the program launched The Farm at Kirk Douglas Hall, a student-run café featuring locally grown organic produce grown at the Sustainability Farm and local sources. Students collaborate with chefs from Big Spoon Kitchen in Potsdam to create a specialized weekly "Green Café" that highlights local, sustainable, and healthy food. The project is a collaboration with the Sustainability Program, Dining and Conference Services, Seed to Table (a student-run garden on campus), and St. Lawrence's business in the liberal arts program.

The University’s Department of Environmental Studies offers stand-alone and combined degrees that focus on sustainability, while the conservation biology major places protection of the world’s biodiversity as a central tenant. Students can also gain outdoor leadership experience and course credit through the University's Outdoor Program.

Students bring an awareness to environmental issues in diverse ways, encouraging and advocating for sustainable living through waste, food consumption, reusable utensils, and most importantly educating the campus and community. The Low-Impact Living Greenhouse theme cottage and the Environmental Action Organization (EAO) student organization, for example, both aim to be catalysts for change on campus through educating students about various sustainable initiatives and healthy green living.

For more information about sustainability initiatives at St. Lawrence, visit www.stlawu.edu/green.