Princeton Review Recognizes NJIT's Sustainability Success

For the fourth straight year, NJIT made Princeton Review’s Guide to Green Colleges, joining a select group of universities and colleges in the U.S. that stand out for their green initiatives. Each is listed alphabetically.

NJIT earned a green rating of 91 — high on the scale of 60 to 99 that Princeton Review uses to make its selections. The number is calculated from surveys of students and administrators on the policies, practices and programs tied to sustainability at their schools.

Key sustainability outcomes in the past 12 months include:

• Installing solar panels on the Wellness and Events Center. Those panels can supply half of the building’s energy, according to Prabhakar Shrestha, assistant director of sustainability.
• Achieving a 26% recycling rate, while diverting 17.7 tons of electronic waste and 19 tons of organic waste from landfills. Each number is a record high for NJIT, Shrestha said. 
• Planting 41 trees on campus with a grant from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
• Completing the conversion of all lights to LED. 

NJIT has made the green guide six times since its inception in 2010. Since then, Princeton Review has seen “dramatic growth in the number of colleges committing to sustainability practices — from sourcing food locally and constructing LEED-certified buildings to making commitments to becoming fossil fuel-free,” Editor-in-Chief Rob Frankel said. “We are proud to shine our light on these exceptional schools and to recommend them to students who want their ‘best-fit’ college to also be a green one.”

The recognition comes a month after NJIT ranked top 100 globally for three Sustainable Development Goals in Times Higher Education’s annual Impact Rankings. The goals, among 17 established by the United Nations, are clean water and sanitation; industry, innovation and infrastructure; and sustainable cities and communities.