The Top 50 Greenest Universities in America (Sierra Magazine)

Each year Sierra Magazine ranks schools in terms of the following categories: Energy, investments, food, innovation, academics, planning, purchasing, transport, waste, and water.

Formally known as the “Cool Schools” ranking, this is one of the most widely read measurements of colleges’ and universities’ environmental standards.
To compile these lists Sierra Magazine collaborates with the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) to collect raw data. Institutions can report data using the STARS 2.0 Reporting Tool, available on AASHE’s website.

Here are Sierra’s top fifty universities for 2015:

1. University of California, Irvine
2. University of California, Davis
3. University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh 
4. Colorado State University 
5. Middlebury College
6. Oberlin College 
7. University of California, San Diego  
8. University of Connecticut 
9. Lewis & Clark College
10. University of Washington 
11. Arizona State Universit
12. Dickinson College
13. University of California, Berkeley
14. University of South Florida
15. Green Mountain College
16. College of the Atlantic
17. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
18. Portland State University
19. University of California, Santa Barbara 
20. Colby College
21. Stanford University
22. Chatham University
23. University of Pennsylvania
24. Appalachian State University
25. Emory University
26. Wisconsin–River Falls
27. University of Maryland, College Park 
28. Duke University
29. Cornell University
30. Macalester College
31. California State University, Chico
32. George Washington University
33. University of Minnesota, Morris 
34. University of the Pacific  
35. University of Arizona 
36. Pomona College  
37. Grand Valley State University
38. Pennsylvania State University
39. Colgate University
40. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
41. Harvard University 
42. Oregon State University
43. University of California, Los Angeles
44. University of California, Santa Cruz
45. University of Vermont 
46. California State University, Channel Islands  
47. University of Missouri (Mizzou)  
48. Bard College 
49. Rice University  
50. Santa Clara University 

For the full list and scores click here.

Make sure to see the article titled, “Comprehensive Green School Information and Resources.” It contains links to over 325 articles covering everything you need to know about sustainable academics, student eco-initiatives, green school buildings, and college rankings as well as a wide range of related information and resources.