Harvard, Yale and Plymouth State

My father-in-law has a favorite saying;

Harvard, Yale and Plymouth State

All the rest are second rest are second rate!

Since he is my father-in-law, I won't go as far to say that he is right. But I do agree that I love Plymouth State and was recently given a new reason to love it even more.

http://www.plymouth.edu/

Plymouth State recently completed the construction of one very green residence hall. Not only is it a green residence hall, but it is the greenest state building in the state of New Hampshire. Langdon Woods received gold-level certification by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership-Energy-Environmental Design program. Pretty impressive huh?

Back when I was a student at Plymouth State College (not as fancy sounding as today's "university"), we sent our food scraps to a local pig farmer. We recycled paper and plastic and never turned the heat on until well after the first snowfall. I could do without the last energy-saving measure. Brrrr!

My hope is that green colleges will become a real trend. Students will chose to attend a certain college just to keep their carbon footprint minimal.

Maybe fraternities will switch to organic beer? Sorority houses will install wind turbines to fuel their stereos (do college kids even have stereos anymore?). Gray water systems will be the norm. Cafeterias will buy locally and keep their own organic gardens. Professors will donate their used Birks to those less fortunate. The list could go on and on...