I read a very interesting article in the Boston Globe last week, which discussed the rising tide of “green” initiatives at colleges and universities across the country.
The article, titled “Not to be out-greened: Colleges grow more Earth-conscious to lure students,” focused on the increasing importance of universities’ environmental stewardship programs to college students, and how they can have an impact on their application decisions. According to the article, Julian Dautremont-Smith, the associate director of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, said, “The current generation of students wants to go to schools that take their environmental responsibility seriously.”
Campus green initiatives have become so mainstream that even The Princeton Review has started rating schools on their respective commitments to the environment. For more coverage on the Princeton Review survey and commentary on the explosion of green campus initiatives at colleges, please see an article from the most recent Education Life section in the New York Times.
The Education Life section (published Sunday, July 27) had several other articles on green topics that may be of interest to you. Here’s a link to the section itself.
A key takeaway I had when reading these articles was that even if a school has a sterling commitment to the environment, if it does not clearly communicate its good work to the community it large, the impact on its applications, donations and goodwill generated will be muted. Therefore, it is critical that schools get the message out to their constituents (through their websites, social networks, and printed marketing materials, among other channels) that they are firmly committed to sustainability. Whether the printed versions of these materials are made with wind power or printed on post-consumer recycled paper, it is important that these green initiatives are translated onto the printed page.
For more on green printing recommendations, please see a post I wrote earlier this year.
Sustainable Ink 
Both print and digital media are dependent of flows of energy, materials and human effort. At present neither print nor digital media are sustainable, but they can both be if advertisers and marketers make sustainable and secure media supply chains a priority.
For a comprehensive view of how advertisers and marketers are addressing the sustainability and security of print and digital media save the date and plan to attend SustainCommWorld: The Green Media Show in Boston on October 1-2, 2008.
http://www.TheGreenMediaShow.com