UC Irvina Tops Sierra’s Annual College Ranking

The University of California, Irvine, for the second year in a row tops Sierra magazine’s ninth annual “Cool Schools” ranking of America’s “greenest” colleges and universities.

UCI took the top spot for diverting more than 80 percent of campus waste from landfills and using clean energy. The UC system has set a goal to be carbon neutral by 2025; UCI last year quadrupled its use of solar power, reducing its annual carbon emissions by 1,500 metric tons, Sierra says.

The magazine says each of the schools ranked in the top 20 have demonstrated their commitment to protecting the environment, addressing climate issues, and encouraging environmental responsibility.

More than 150 schools filled out Sierra’s survey about sustainability practices on campus.

Sierra magazine’s top 20 schools of 2015 are:

1. University of California, Irvine
2. University of California, Davis
3. University of Wisconsin—Oshkosh
4. Colorado State University (Fort Collins, CO)
5. Oberlin College (Oberlin, OH)
6. University of Connecticut
7. University of California, San Diego
8. University of Washington, Seattle
9. Lewis & Clark College (Portland, OR)
10. University of California, Berkeley
11. University of South Florida (Tampa, FL)
12. Green Mountain College, (Poultney, VT)
13. Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ)
14. Middlebury College (Middlebury, VT)
15. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
16. Dickinson College (Carlisle, PA)
17. College of the Atlantic (Bar Harbor, ME)
18. University of California, Santa Barbara
19. Colby College (Waterville, ME)
20. Portland State University (Portland, OR)