From rain gardens to educational water courses to a live green roof, CC’s efforts to conserve water are being noticed. In the latest AASHE Sustainable Campus Index, CC is a top performer in the water category out of approximately 280 other U.S. colleges and universities. CC posted a 47% reduction in total water use of vegetated grounds since 2008, the college’s baseline year. “Nowhere in the United States is water a more critical issue than in the West, and we’ve taken that issue very seriously at Colorado College,” says Director of Sustainability Ian Johnson. “Water is both a scarce resource and also a major expense. It’s also a cultural issue that we’ve worked hard to better educate our students, faculty, and staff around.”