Sierra magazine names UC campuses among the nation’s greenest
Sierra magazine has named UC Irvine, UC Davis and UC Santa Cruz among the top 20 colleges “doing the most to save the planet,” in its annual Cool School rankings, released Sept. 6.
All nine of UC’s undergraduate campuses made the top 100 of the 2016 Cool School rankings, which Sierra compiles based on an assessment of university sustainability practices.
Irvine placed third out of more than 200 universities around the country, becoming the only university to score in the top 10 for seven consecutive years.
Sierra lauded UC Irvine as an “eco-leader,” noting that the campus uses less energy today than it did in 2008, and that it excels in offering earth-friendly transportation options, a category it called “tough to conquer in car-crazy Southern California.”
“UCI provides a wide range of ways for Anteaters to keep their commuting footprint negligible—bicycling resources, mass transit, the option for many to telecommute, and bike and car sharing,” Sierra editors wrote. “More than a third of the school’s vehicles are all-electric, and another third are plug-in hybrids.”
The magazine noted that UC Davis is a mainstay every year among its top 10, in part because its students live such a green lifestyle: 83 percent of Aggies commute to class sustainably, either by walking, biking or taking public transit.
Read full article about how UC campuses rated on the Cool School rankings.
Sierra 2016 Cool School rankings of UC campuses:
- UC Irvine – 3
- UC Davis – 8
- UC Santa Cruz – 18
- UC San Diego – 24
- UC Riverside – 27
- UC Berkeley – 29
- UC Santa Barbara – 30
- UCLA – 62
- UC Merced – 84