The Greenest Colleges: Sierra Magazine List

How green is your college? Do you ride your bike to class? Do you eschew textbooks for e-books? Is your cafeteria trayless?

The folks at Sierra magazine have determined which American schools sparkle a shining emerald through an extensive surveying process. Sierra's lifestyle editor Avital Binshtock explains:

Each year since 2007, we at Sierra magazine have sat in our offices for weeks doing the detailed, quantitative work to rank U.S. universities on their greenness. To derive this year's numbers, we asked the Sierra Club's conservation experts to help us rejigger our 12-page questionnaire to reflect the Club's most pressing priorities. We e-mailed surveys to 940 schools and carefully sifted through the 118 responses we received. We corresponded with many of the colleges' devoted sustainability officers, and we lamented that those at several campuses — including some in last year's top 20 — declined to fill out our survey. Meanwhile, we dispatched writers to Bali, Utah, and the Adirondacks to report on schools where teachers work to make sure that the graduates they send out into the real world actually know what that place looks like.

See below which schools ranked the greenest, and check out Sierra for the full list. Share your green-school stories in the comments section!

1 of 11

University of Washington

1 of 12

First Slide

Previous Slide

@

FAMU Hazing Case: 2 Band Members Plead No Contest

College Commencement: The Drinking Game

The Shoes of Lynn's 2012 Commencement

Employers Target Liberal Arts Majors And College Grads Who Had Internships: Survey

Fortune 500 CEOs: Which Universities Did They Get Their Degress From?

2012 College Grads Enter Improving Job Market

comments(31)

Total comments: 31 | Post a Comment

1 of 12

Rate This Slide

Rank #2  |  Average: 4

Black Green!

• 
  1
• 
  2
• 
  3
• 
  4
• 
  5
• 
  6
• 
  7
• 
  8
• 
  9
• 
  10

Current Top 5 Slides

loading...

Choose your Top 5 Slides

UserName

 | Become a fan

Picked These as the Top 5 Slides in the Slideshow

loading...

Top User Slides

← Prev|Next →

 | Become a fan

Picked These as the Top 5 Slides in the Slideshow

loading...

Users who voted on this slide

← Prev|Next →

loading...

Comments

[OkieMon]

08:28 AM on 08/19/2011

university of central oklahoma in edmond ok is a sprawling campus to 20 thousand full and part time students....100% of electricity on campus is from wind....only one in the country....has to be on this list...

[BrookeMSpencer]

06:33 PM on 08/18/2011

Hi. I went to UCSD. This is a picture of USD. Sorry. Lol. Someone has made a booboo.

[armstrong st]

09:30 AM on 08/18/2011

It's important for colleges to make sure they have green trees and bushes around. It's good for your health.

Steve from www.essaytask.com

[saurabh pandey]

04:15 AM on 08/18/2011

I think its a great idea for global warming so thanks for giving us.

[Jamie Agius]

12:26 AM on 08/18/2011

GO Anteaters!
UC Irvine also has a very cool twenty-week (two-quarter) Sustainability Certificate Program taught by Professor Richard Matthew. Lectures from guest speakers on topics ranging from The Psychology of Sustainability to Conflict in the Developing World.

Very cool stuff going on, on the UCI Campus! See the lectures here:
http://www.cusa.uci.edu/programs/sustainability_series_2011.html

[Moose Luck 99]

02:58 PM on 08/17/2011

Speaking of GREEN ;)

UNH HAS SO MUCH HOMEGROWN THEY DRY IT AT THE LAUNDRYMATT!!

[Moose Luck 99]

02:55 PM on 08/17/2011

Well at least UNH did not make the #1 party college list for a few years.

The UNH idea of GREEN is stealing the solar hot water modules and using them for barley fermentation!!

[ricchh]

02:50 PM on 08/17/2011

Dumb

[darth geekboy]

11:49 PM on 08/17/2011

dumber.

[JStading]

01:24 PM on 08/17/2011

ASU?  Massive biking population, huge solar projects throughout the campuses, and a sustainability institute.

[22Keys]

12:46 PM on 08/17/2011

Way to go UC!

[RobertOliver]

12:31 PM on 08/17/2011

Ummm, why is UCSB not on this list? Think 95% of students living within walking distance of campus, 7 miles of bike paths on campus, and almost no cars or parking...

[Kenz300]

12:23 PM on 08/17/2011

As the price of oil continues to rise we may all be dusting off our bicycles and using them more.

We need more safe places to lock up bicycles at store, schools and businesses. We also need more safe bicycle paths that connect work, schools, and business.

[FrankSchnurJr]

12:06 PM on 08/17/2011

Universities can also work on making their business travel more sustainable. They can start by working with Green Hotels Global, its a Carbon Disclosure Project -type solution for individual hotel properties to measure and disclosure their carbon, water and waste footprint (www.greeenhotelsglobal.com).

[Rich Hawkins]

12:06 PM on 08/17/2011

Butte Community College (Chico, CA) should be at the top of this list. They just completed a solar installation making it the first educational institution to be 'grid positive' in the US (generate all and a little more solar power than they use).

[runjohnrun]

12:00 PM on 08/17/2011

This is the best photo of UC Davis you could find? I don't know what that is, but it's not even a shot of the campus.

[cathode]

12:13 PM on 08/17/2011

The UC Davis drainage ditch?

[neurogrl]

12:49 PM on 08/17/2011

I was thinking the same thing.