The Sierra Club has just released its third annual “Cool Schools” rankings, which judges colleges around the country on their eco-friendliness. Meanwhile, The Princeton Review has started to give each college a “green rating.”

As it turns out, UW-Madison is not on the Sierra Club’s list, and it did not receive a rating from the Princeton Review because of “insufficient data.” This suggests that the university did not respond to inquiries from these two entities.

Why would it not respond? The university should be proud to display its “We Conserve” effort, and it has a good public transit system in place thanks to collaboration with Madison Metro. However, there may be some aspects that UW-Madison may not be proud of, such as the Charter Street coal plant that ran into trouble with the DNR over air pollution a couple of years ago.

Attaining a “green” campus starts with students, who can save energy through their individual actions and push campus leaders to do more to help the environment. One way we’re trying to inform students about conservation and sustainability is the “Why We Conserve?” course, a joint effort between Energy Hub, We Conserve, and the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. Spots are still open for the Fall 2009 semester if you’d like to register. The course number is Environmental Studies 400, Section 1.