Greenopia released a comprehensive environmental rating of 100 of the largest universities in the United States. You may be shocked at what colleges stacked up to being eco-friendly after all! If you are not familiar with Greenopia, they provide the market’s only independent rating and ranking of green services and products. So they are a trusted source for environment news and data.
At the top of the Environmental Sustainability list, were the University of Washington and the University of California at Santa Barbara. The top 10 greenest schools were University of Oregon, the University of California at Davis, Colorado State, Stanford, Harvard, Penn State, the University of California at San Diego, and Duke.
So how were these schools rated? Data was collected from the university itself or from other credible sources pertaining to the green building design, waste program, food selection, campus vehicle fleet, water conservation measures, climate performance, renewable energy usage, and the overall environmental transparency of the school. The data was compared to Greenopias criteria to determine the college “GREEN” ratings.
Gay Browne, CEO of Greenopia, said . “Some schools have made a tremendous effort, while others really have yet to make any significant changes to their policies.” She also claimed she found the environmental performance of each school fascinating.
I can not even imagine the effort that went into seeking out each school’s ability to be more environmentally friendly. With environmental education across schools as much as it is today, I am not sure why more schools are not trying to make a better effort to become more eco-friendly.