America's Greenest Colleges and the Dirtiest

(MoneyWatch)  If you've ever wondered which colleges are the greenest in America, the results have been tabulated. The green grades are also in for the colleges and universities which are behaving more like polluting Hummer owners.

The Sustainable Endowments Institute just released its green report cards on the schools that have embraced the best "green" practices. The institute looked at the 300 colleges and universities which enjoy the largest endowments along with 32 other schools that asked to be evaluated. The 332 schools, which included 141 state institutions, enroll more than 4.2 million students.

So how did schools get to the top of the institute's compost heap? The environmental do-gooders received brownie points for such practices as instituting recycling programs, using green building design for new construction and retrofitting, providing incentives for carpooling and committing to reducing their carbon footprint.

Only 26 colleges earned an "A-" or better in all of the green categories. Here is a sampling of the 26 greenest colleges:

• Amherst College
• Arizona State University
• University of California, San Diego
• College of the Atlantic
• University of Colorado
• Dickinson College
• Macalester College
• Middlebury College
• University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• Oberlin College
• Pacific Lutheran University
• Smith College
• University of Vermont
• University of Washington
• Yale University

As for the worst green eco offenders, the following 14 institutions received a "D-" average:

• University of Akron
• Brigham Young University
• College of the Ozarks
• Duquesne University
• Howard University
• Ohio Northern University
• Quinnipiac University
• Seton Hall University
• University of South Alabama
• Southern New Hampshire University
• Virginia Military Institute
• Wabash College
• Wesley College
• Wichita State University

For all the schools stuck in the environmental hall of shame, I've got a suggestion: How about starting a compost pile?

Poppy image by photogirl7. CC 2.0.