Posted by Dave Klecha - Greenedia Editor on March 6, 2008 at 08:46:22 PM

As the green building revolution gains traction on the local level, moving well ahead of any effort on the federal level save what departments and agencies can undertake on their own, one of the unsurprising leaders in the movement are America's colleges and universities.  Even community and technical colleges appear to be getting into the act at a much higher rate than other portions of the public sphere.

A photoblog by Guy Kawasaki at How To Change The World showcases some of the green building features of a new structure on Stanford's campus which he boasts to be just as smart as the people who it houses.  Features include south-facing windows with "light shelves" that push natural light deeper into the building, wide open atriums, rooftop photovoltaic solar panels, and a rather novel flushing routine that helps to conserve water.  Stanford is one among many universities building green, not as demonstrators for cleaner techniques and technologies, but as a sincere effort to reduce emissions and provide a more sustainable environment.

On the other side of the country, the New England Institute of Technology unveiled plans to create an entire green campus in East Greenwich, Rhode Island.  Combining existing, vacant building and new construction on a 200 acre campus, the college hopes to provide a campus where the structure mesh with expanding instruction and certification in cleantech and green building processes.  The dovetailing of the physical plant and the curriculum gives NEIT a unique opportunity to provide a more robust educational experience, while also reaching for sustainability goals.
Doug Moss over at emagizine.com, online home of E/The Environmental Magazine, seems to think the university atmosphere is turning into a hothouse for environmental action and activism, prompting significant student involvement in the questions of the day.  The upside is significant, of course, but one of the immediate benefits to such enthusiasm is continued support for initiatives such as Stanford's and NEIT's to bring green building and general sustainability to campus.