The Nation Wildlife Federation has conducted the first national survey of college and university environmental practices, "State of the Campus Environment: A National Report Card on Environmental Performance and Sustainability in Higher Education."
In the report, U.S. campuses score high marks on eco-friendly practices such as recycling and energy conservation, but fail to make the grade on eco-friendly transportation and integrating the environment into the curriculum.

Area where improvement is most needed: Ensuring graduates, regardless of major, are environmentally aware and literate. Only 8% of schools reported requiring all students to take an environmental course. Unless a student is majoring in biology or environmental studies, they most likely will complete their school career without gaining basic environmental literacy.

Biggest surprise: Number of campuses developing faculty expertise and programs in environmental studies. Despite the lack of environmentally literate graduates, authors of the study found a promising trend: Half the schools surveyed have programs supporting their faculty's professional development on environmental topics and 43 percent offer a major or minor program in environmental studies.

Strongest campus environmental program: Recycling. Sixty-five percent of colleges have a recycling program in place. However, more than 70 percent of campus municipal solid waste still ends up in landfills.

Most popular transportation strategy: Bike racks. Transportation management is still poor on many college campuses, even though reducing congestion and pollution associated with travel to and from schools would improve both community relations and air quality-not to mention the advantages of reducing the need for new parking spaces. Key initiatives such as discounted bus passes, carpooling programs, and emergency rides home programs are practiced by fewer than 25 percent of campuses.

Most popular energy strategy: Installing high-efficiency light bulbs. Almost all campuses have programs in place or planned to increase the efficiency of lighting, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems. More than half the schools have developed efficiency design codes for new or existing buildings. Campuses are most likely to focus on in the future: reducing solid waste, environmentally preferable purchasing, energy and water conservation and efficiency, and design of new buildings.

Most surprising effort, despite the odds: Renewable energy. Nearly a quarter meet at least some of their energy needs from renewable sources and 12 percent power at least part of their vehicles with alternative fuels. Respondents cited a number of innovative sources for energy including waste heat, solar, and geothermal energy.

DID YOU KNOW?

U.S. campuses received the highest marks for recycling and waste reduction:

• More campuses recycle aluminum and various grades of paper than other materials.

• Almost half of all campuses also recycle glass, plastic, construction materials and compost food scraps.

• Two in ten campuses report they recycle 40 percent or more of their waste; 5 percent report they recycle between 70 and 100 percent of their municipal solid waste.

• Forty-nine percent of campuses have instituted programs to encourage environmentally sound purchasing.

• Sixty-nine percent of campuses have programs in place to reduce the need for paper hard copies.

• Fifty-five percent have material exchange programs for computers, furniture, office supplies and lab equipment; 43 percent encourage lab courses to implement micro-scale experiments.