Sustainable design projects offer academic communities the opportunity to make the design and operations of their campuses part of the larger lessons of social and environmental responsibility that are integral parts of higher education. In no place is that demonstrated more clearly than in New England, with its long commitment to environmental stewardship. A design process that engages the campus and the broader community gives students the opportunity to participate in community dialogue and a collaborative planning and design process. Increasingly, college campuses are seeking ways to ensure that the campus itself and the buildings in which students live and learn reinforce the institution's commitment to sustainable design, operation and education. The authors contend that by taking a strategic approach to student engagement in an institution's sustainable design and operation decisions and practices, campuses can turn their socially responsible policies into competitive advantage. When making college choices today, prospective students weigh an institution's commitment to social, economic and environmental leadership. A campus that presents students with an environmental classroom in the largest sense of the word offers them an academic community in which they can fully learn, live and engage the changing world that awaits them.