Newsweek's Campus Magazine, which is titled Current, recently named Washington College in Maryland as the "Sexiest in Sustainability." Do you know why?

Green Student U was contacted by Shannon Holste, one of the chief operators behind the George Goes Green sustainability program, and she gave us this article about the green efforts at Washington College:

"George Goes Green (G3) started in Spring 2006, though Washington College (WC) students have been pushing the college to go green for years and years. However, at that time, it became official. If George Goes Green, you can bet the rest of the college will catch on.

So what’s all this about? At WC we constantly refer back to our founder and namesake, George Washington himself, who was one of the first figures in the nation to promote a “green” way of life, instituting composting at Mt. Vernon and promoting better agricultural practices even as he built a new country.

Here in Chestertown, MD, we carry on the spirit of George all year round with our George Goes Green campaign for campus sustainability.

So is this a mysterious conspiracy of the administration to save money on electric bills? No, not really. It doesn’t hurt the cause, but G3 was, and is, primarily student driven. It’s all about students getting involved and, George forbid, learning something in the process.

“Like what?” you may be asking. Well, believe it or not, you won’t be living in dorms forever. One day you will be out on your own, in a nice little apartment with a TV and a fridge and lamps and all the rest, and one day, after you’ve moved in and hooked up your cable, you will get your first electric bill.

Wherever you live, I can guarantee one thing: It won’t be pretty. Especially if you are unfortunate enough to have outdated heating or are running the AC nonstop. And you know what you will wish you had learned in college, right at that moment? How to save energy.

That’s only part of what G3 is about, of course- most people are smart enough to quickly figure out how to turn down their thermostat after that first bill. G3 is also trying to teach how to think about these things, from a broader perspective.

How do your every day activities effect others? How do they effect the environment? What actually happens when you flip a lightswitch?

Every year we challenge students and faculty to put what they’ve learned to use in our annual George Goes Green competitions.  This year we had another round of creative ideas for going green, as seen in on our website.

Between swimming in the bathtub to studying by cell phone, the WC campus went out of their way to go green with George!

The winners, along with more information, can be found at georgegoesgreen.com, or our blog, georgegoesgreen.blogspot.com."

Along with this great article, Shannon also sent us some pictures of students participating in George Goes Green activities. Here are the pictures with some captions:

Students demonstrate that a water-conserving showerhead reduces the amount of water outputted from 5 to 3 gallons per minute.

The staff of the student paper, The Elm, edit by the light of cellphones.

Because hot water accounts for roughly 20% of all domestic energy use, students use less by hopping in the tub together.

You can find other pictures of students involved in George Goes Green initiatives here.

And you can find the whole Newsweek story on Washington College here.

Green Student U would like to thank Shannon and everyone involved in the George Goes Green sustainability program for making their campus a green campus, and for spreading the word of environmental preservation to students everywhere.