The college has worked hard to develop initiatives in the areas of sustainable transportation, food waste reduction, and energy. This past fall semester, a pilot initiative with Ithaca Bikeshare saw more e-bikes placed in and around campus. From August through December, more than 3,000 rides were started on campus and just under 3,000 rides arrived on campus.
Additionally, in 2023, the college’s Eco-Reps team worked with IC Dining Services to facilitate the packaging and donation of more than 3,000 pounds of leftover food and over 3,000 meals to the Friendship Donation Network, which helps to provide food to those in Tompkins County. The IC community also collectively diverted over 200 short tons of food waste from the landfill with help from Tompkins County Recycling and Materials Management and Cayuga Compost.
The college continues to produce approximately 10% of its electric energy from its solar array, located in Geneva, N.Y., and has been buying the balance of its electricity for over the last 5 years from community solar farms in Tompkins County and wind energy from outside the region.
These initiatives undoubtedly helped IC check in at 19th in the Princeton Review rankings, out of 522 colleges. The rankings were tallied based on data from surveys of administrators at colleges in the Guide as well as the Review’s surveys of students attending the colleges.
The list’s methodology factored in ten data points from the administrator survey and three data points from the student survey. Data from the student survey included student assessments of the influence of sustainability issues on their academic and campus experiences; administrator and student support for environmental awareness and conservation efforts; and the visibility and impact of student environmental groups on the campus.
