SUNY Oneonta received two prestigious recognitions for its leadership in sustainability this month: The university was selected for inclusion in The Princeton Review Guide to Green Colleges 2025 and earned an award from the New York State Association for Reduction, Reuse and Recycling (NYSAR3).
The newly released Princeton Review Guide to Green Colleges: 2025 Edition features a profile of SUNY Oneonta with an 88 Green Rating on a scale of 60-99 measuring the school’s performance as an environmentally aware and prepared institution. Specifically, it rates a campus’ quality of life that is both healthy and sustainable; how well a school is preparing students for employment in the clean-energy economy of the 21st century; and its environmentally responsible school policies.
Also, this month SUNY Oneonta was honored with the NYSAR3 Leadership Award in the Educational category for its innovative Student Move-In Program.
“As a result of our Move-In program, student ambassadors collected 4.6 tons of cardboard, 250+ pounds of polystyrene and 1 full bale of plastic film for recycling during student move-in days,” said Rachel Kornhauser, associate director of sustainability at SUNY Oneonta. “Before this program, all of these materials were sent to local landfills.”
The award-winning program uses SUNY Oneonta’s first-year and transfer student move-in days as an annual opportunity to illustrate the campus’ core value of sustainability by collecting cardboard, polystyrene and plastic film for recycling. This initiative, in its fifth year, is a collaboration between the SUNY Oneonta Office of Sustainability and custodial staff to streamline the collection of packaging material and divert it from landfills. Previously, recycling dumpsters were contaminated, and residence hall recycling rooms were overflowing with packaging material. Through this program, students hired as Recycling Ambassadors communicate about waste reduction and recycling with new students and their families, and support the custodial staff in collecting cardboard as an uncontaminated recycling stream, in addition to polystyrene and plastic film to be recycled locally in partnership with the Otsego ReUse Center, a project of The Arc Otsego.
SUNY Oneonta will be recognized for its achievement at the NYSAR3 Annual Membership Meeting/Awards Luncheon on Nov. 21 at the Otesaga Hotel in Cooperstown, N.Y.