Colorado State University was one of 27 North American higher education institutions to earn a 99 – a perfect score – on the Princeton Review 2022 Green College Honor Roll.

CSU is the only school from Colorado on the list, which includes 23 American universities and four Canadian colleges. It is CSU’s eighth straight time earning the honor.

“Colorado State University continues to be deeply committed to the work of sustainability, so we’re honored to be named to the Princeton Review Green Honor Roll for the eighth consecutive year,” said Vice President for Strategy Jenelle Beavers. “We’ve built a strong foundation, but that doesn’t mean it’s time to slow down.”

Princeton ranked 696 colleges on a scale of 60 to 99. The green rating score provides a “comprehensive measure of a school’s performance as an environmentally aware and prepared institution,” according to Princeton Review.

The score includes whether students have a healthy and sustainable campus quality of life, how well a school prepares students for employment in a clean-energy economy and become world citizens in a time of climate concerns, and how environmentally responsible the institution’s policies are.

The methodology involves a panel of experts reviewing answers to key questions including food expenditures, transportation initiatives, advancing sustainability on campus, new buildings being LEED certified, the waste-diversion rate, environmental studies programs, limiting greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy and full-time sustainability staffing.

“Sustainability is a foundation of our current Courageous Strategic Transformation effort,” Beavers said, “and we are challenging ourselves to take a multidisciplinary approach to addressing challenges like climate change, loss of biodiversity, food insecurity and pandemic disease.”