Traffic along the Commonwealth Avenue sidewalks is heavy once again as Students at Boston University begin classes this week.

Hub schools cut on energy use

As energy prices rise and global warming fears continue to grow, many  Boston-area colleges and universities are focusing on “green” initiatives, including increasing recycling, monitoring energy use and adding related courses to the curriculum.

This summer, Kaplan’s new College Guide 2009 named its top 25 Green Colleges, and three of those were local — Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Tufts University. Examples of their green initiatives include MIT’s installation of numerous solar panels on campus in recent years and Tufts joining the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative’s “Clean Energy Choice — On Campus” program, which uses money raised by the university to fund clean energy in low-income areas and green projects on campus.

Earlier this year, Harvard President Drew Faust also vowed to cut the university’s greenhouse-gas emissions by 30 percent over the next eight years.

But other universities across the region are taking steps to reduce their carbon footprint — and save money in the process.

Suffolk University’s new dormitory at 10 West St. is Gold LEED certified by the U.S. Green Building Council, while building audits and retrofits have helped reduce overall electricity use by 13 percent and water consumption at one dorm by 25 percent (700 million gallons of water) in 2008.

At Boston University, officials are installing motion and light sensors in new buildings and the  Boston University Sustainability Initiative is focused on reducing energy consumption and decreasing waste all across the campus. In addition, its dining halls have gone tray-less this year, allowing the university to save 1.5 million gallons of water annually by not washing about 16,000 trays a day.

“It’s major when you talk about the use of water,” BU spokesman Colin Riley said of the initiative. “I think people are finding out how to do this. It’s not a whole lot different than living at home when you think about it.”