Stanford is among the country’s top ten greenest colleges and universities, according to a Sierra Club study covering sustainability, energy sources, food, energy efficiency, classes, waste management and other factors at US schools.
In the fourth annual “Coolest Schools” study published by the Sierra Club’s magazine, Stanford is #5.
Other San Francisco Bay Area schools don’t rank nearly as high in the 2010 report. University of California at Santa Cruz is #11; UC-Berkeley is #31. San Francisco State University is in 69th place. Mills College is #84. Find the full list of green schools here.
Sierra, the club’s magazine, sent surveys to 900 schools, and 162 responded. The findings depend heavily on the school surveys, but Sierra says it also asked follow-up questions and consulted outside sources.
Sustainability, Energy Efficiency, Food, Other Survey Criteria
Universities were given scores on ten different criteria. A campus’ energy supply/sources was the most important factor. Others were: efficiency (e.g., reclaimed water use, lights); food (organic, sustainable, sourced within 100 miles, vegetarian); academics (environmentalism and sustainability in the curriculum); purchasing [supplies); transportation (use of bikes, cars, shuttles by students and staffers); waste management (compost); administration (carbon emissions; existence of a sustainability coordinator, goals); financial investments (environmentally responsible); and "other initiatives" (outstanding students, land preservation policies).
A school that scored 100 points, the highest possible, "would be at or near 'environmental sustainability,'" Sierra says---but no school did. Green Mountain College (Poultney, VT) came the closest, with 88.6 points.
Stanford got 84.6 points. Each of the top twenty schools scored in the 80s, which shows “a great deal of hard work, but also room for improvement,” Sierra says.
Focus Shifts to Energy Sources
But the likes of Berkeley, Yale and UCLA could cry foul. In 2010, they’re not in the top 20; the previous year, they were.
What changed? Priorities. For the 2010 survey, “the Club's conservation experts…encouraged us to give more weight to each school's energy supply,” according to Sierra. (And the financial investments criterion was added).
That’s caused major upsets in both directions. Stanford is now 5th, up from an unremarkable 26th place in 2009. Sierra notes that the newly #1 Green Mountain was in 35th place just a year ago.
Maybe subconscious green bias has crept in. Think about it: Green Mountain has the highest ranking. Number 3 is Evergreen State College (Olympia, WA). Pay attention, Bowling Green State University and University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.
Sierra did highlight some special features of San Francisco Bay Area universities: Stanford’s “Green Buildings and Behavior” course, which entails rummaging through garbage; and UC-Berkeley journalism prof Michael Pollan, whose book The Omnivore's Dilemma has shaken our perspectives on food.
