Dive Brief:
- Pressure to lead in environmentally friendly building design creates opportunities for colleges and universities to engage students while improving campus sustainability.
- University Business points out that students can help design the facilities, and some sustainable concepts can be incorporated into curriculum, like with vegetative roofs, for example.
- On college campuses, especially, sustainability is becoming the standard in master planning as well as construction design, with campuses approving their own green building policies.
Dive Insight:
The focus on sustainability on college campuses likely comes from two directions. Researchers who are most informed about the need for sustainable design and the best ways to achieve it are part of campus communities across the country. And students are becoming more demanding of their institutions, benefitting from increased competition in the industry — especially for full-paying students. When these students indicate a desire for their campuses to be leaders in offering organic options from food to lawn care, administrators respond. Green building design also provides a marketing tool for institutions, offering easy photo ops for campus brochures and exciting stops for campus tours.