In an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education titled “The Greenest Campuses: an Idiosyncratic Guide”, Mr. Noel Perrin named Carleton as one of the eleven greenest colleges or universities. Mr. Perrin is a member of the environmental studies department at Dartmouth University.

We believe that Carleton is moving towards being an institution of greener practices. This can especially be seen given the newly formed Environmental Advisory Committee (EAC) and the various speakers brought to campus over the past year geared towards raising environmental awareness in the student body. Following this path, we believe that Carleton should make it more possible for students to increase their ecological literacy while attending this college. In this sense, we are drawing on the college's mission statement of extensive education and environmental stewardship.

Many research projects end with the claim that “education is the key” to alleviating environmental and social problems. Indeed, we believe this to be true, and hence we propose that an ENTS requirement, major, or component, would provide Carleton students with the push they might need to learn about environmentalism, its processes, and implications. Presently, Carleton has the RAD Requirement, whereby students cannot graduate without taking a class that “recognizes and affirms differences" in race, class, and gender. Given this existing requirement, and along with education on these issues, Carleton’s mission of raising awareness and educating students should expand to include environmentalism.

Today’s world is plagued by environmental problems. Because of this, it is important that we begin to fight against ignorance, which can be seen as the source of these problems. Our research has shown that increasing and encouraging environmental education at Carleton is key to meeting the demands of both the student body and of the changing world. Colleges and universities are institutions with complex power structures and significant ecological, social, and economic impacts, given their role in student education, and subsequently, on their future behavior. In the long run, our planet will be better off if educational institutions make it part of their mission to instill an environmental consciousness in their students.