Dive Summary:
- The Sierra Club released its seventh annual rankings of the nation's greenest universities, an extensive list of 162 schools.
- The University of Connecticut topped the list with close to 600 sustainability-related classes, a 15% drop in water use since 2005, 13 buildings retrofitted to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, trayless dining halls and even some campus-sourced food items.
- The full list is as follows:
- The University of Connecticut - Storrs, Conn.
- Dickinson College - Carlisle, Pa.
- University of California, Irvine - Irvine, Calif.
- University of California, Davis - Davis, Calif.
- Cornell University - Ithaca, N.Y.
- Green Mountain College - Poultney, Vermont
- Stanford University - Palo Alto, Calif.
- Georgia Institute of Technology - Atlanta, Ga.
- American University - Washington, D.C.
- University of California, Santa Barbara - Santa Barbara, Calif.
From the article:
... Only a few universities actually gauge whether their environmental curriculum makes a difference after students graduate. But the anecdotal evidence is heartening: Story after story confirms that the environmentalism surrounding students during college sticks with them.
A single class or professor can turn a life verdant. Spending four years in a place that grows its own organic food, runs on alternative energy, composts, limits cars, and pursues goals like becoming carbon-neutral or zero-waste leaves an imprint. Meanwhile, community colleges and vocational schools are bulking up the green-collar workforce. ...