

Maine's 400 person College of The Atlantic, which you might remember from that time you were flipping through the Best 366 Colleges at Barnes & Noble, has reduced its total greenhouse gas footprint to zero. The school, which claims to be "life changing, world changing," is the first among the more than 450 institutions of higher learning that took the "net-zero" pledge to reduce or offset all of their carbon dioxide emissions. The school was also the first to make the pledge.

They've achieved neutrality by investing in a Portland, Oregon project that optimizes traffic lights to reduce CO2 emissions from idling cars. Carbon-neutrality is a bit of a slippery term. You can reduce emissions through using renewable energy or buy so-called offsets. In most sustainability circles, the former (making real changes) is considered preferable to offsets. So, buying them is a good first step, but as college president David Hales acknowledged, "[they] have much more to do to directly reduce our emissions."

You can't fault the school for trying though, or doubt that their commitment is real. The school is considered to be the greenest in the land, at least by Grist, an environmental magazine, .