SEATTLE - The University of Washington and the University of Oregon have made the Princeton Review's honor roll in the new Green Rating of colleges, which measures how environmentally friendly the institutions are.

UW

University of Washington campus

The 11 schools on the Honor Roll received a Green Rating of 99 (the highest score).

The University of Washington was noted for being a signatory of the Presidents Climate Commitment, a pledge to develop policies and practices that are climate neutral.

In addition, the UW is a founding member of the Seattle Climate partnership, which requires the university to purchase power that is 100 renewable and also requires extensive measures of energy conservation.

Finally, the UW was praised for food services that emphasize local organic foods and for working toward a zero-waste goal, composting post-consumer waste, and offering compostable dishware and to-go packaging.

The Review said the University of Oregon is an international leader in sustainability, offering more than 200 sustainability related courses. T he law school's environmental and Natural Resources Program pioneered the nation's first academic curriculum in public interest environmental law. Also, the business school has launched a Sustainable Supply Chain Management Center.

This fall the university will host the first ever sustainability conference for Oregon's public universities, and UO annually hosts two international student conferences on sustainability.

The Princeton Review developed the Green Rating in consultation with ecoAmerica, a non-profit environmental marketing agency.

The institutional survey for the rating included questions on energy use, recycling, food, buildings, transportation, academic offerings (availability of environmental studies degrees and courses) and action plans and goals concerning greenhouse gas emission reductions.

"The green movement on college campuses is far more than an Earth Day recycling project or a dining hall menu of organic food. The commitment that many colleges and their student bodies have made to environmental issues - indeed, to the environment - in their practices, use of resources, and academic and research programs is truly compelling," said Robert Franek, Vice President and Publisher at The Princeton Review.

The other schools that made the honor roll are Arizona State University at Tempe, Bates College in Lewiston, ME; College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, ME; Emory University in Atlanta; Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta; Harvard College in Cambridge, MA; State University of New York at Birmingham; University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH; and Yale University in New Haven, CT.