World’s Greenest College (at Least According to Grist)

The envelope, please: College of the Atlantic has been named the greenest college in the world by Grist, an online publication of all things environmental.

The college had better be good at environmentalism because it offers just one major: human ecology. It was the first in the United States to pledge carbon neutrality, jump-starting the climate pledges that more than 270 colleges and universities have now signed.

College of the Atlantic has been involved in environmental issues since it first held classes in 1972. Students at that time helped pass Maine’s returnable-beverage-container bill, despite hefty opposition from the beverage industry. That spirit lives on. In 2005, the college held the first-known zero-waste graduation.

Grist’s list also gave high marks to Middlebury College and Costa Rica’s aptly named EARTH University. —Lauren Smith