American universities are becoming more sensitive to environmental concerns, not only in what they teach but in how they operate.
Several are banding together to develop strategies for reducing waste, using renewable energy sources and adding classes about sustainable practices.
At Tufts University in Massachusetts, student dormitories compete to see which can cut energy use the most. A coalition of universities in the south has created a programme where one faculty member from each school spends a year studying environmental issues.
A group of historically black universities is working to increase the number of minorities in environmental jobs. And students at the elite Ivy League schools, such as Harvard, have launched a campaign encouraging their classmates to turn off their computers overnight.
But problems remain, among them lack of funding and resistance from some university administrators. As non-profit institutions, United States universities have traditionally been slow to respond to the attraction of a return on investment.
"There have been many colleges and universities that have done pieces of the puzzle well," said Sarah Hammond Creighton, project manager of the Tufts University Climate Initiative and author of the book Greening the Ivory Tower .
"Some have really great environmental studies programmes, some have undertaken energy conservation, others have undertaken water conservation, others have outstanding research. What is increasing is the awareness that universities have to combine these things," she said.
Nationally, officials have become more responsive as energy costs rise along with fuel prices, especially on campuses where increasingly prevalent electronic devices have been guzzling power. At Tufts, for instance, electricity use has grown 18 per cent in ten years, thanks in large part to an estimated 6,000 computers that, Ms Hammond suggested, were left on all the time.
Universities are also responding to the government's newly aggressive enforcement efforts - including large fines - which have followed embarrassing disclosures of environmental violations. "There is an increasing awareness that universities are polluters," Ms Hammond said.
Consciousness-raising efforts included a bid to train future leaders in environmental issues, said Anthony Cortese, who heads Second Nature, a non-profit organisation that works with universities to expand their environmental programmes.
"We want everybody to be taught how to function in an environmentally sustainable society," Mr Cortese said. "We want it to be second nature."
The group is pushing to make sustainable design part of the required training of architects, engineers and other profess-ionals.