The University of California, Irvine, has been rated as the greenest college in North America for 2020.
The university is in the No. 1 spot on Sierra magazine's “Cool Schools” ranking of higher-education institutions with the greatest commitment to sustainability.
UC Irvine has been in the top 10 of the Sierra Club's list for 11 consecutive years.
The Sierra Club says 312 higher-education institutions participated in the Cool Schools rankings.
Some of the UC Irvine's sustainable efforts: Researchers are working to harness the storage potential of green hydrogen to complement their decarbonized electric grid and enable zero-carbon solutions for seasonal storage, heavy transit, and high-temperature manufacturing processes.
When learning went remote last spring, UC Irvine adapted its pantry food distribution services to continue to serve thousands of students—an online appointment system enables them to reserve weekly food boxes, and to redeem monthly produce vouchers from a local farm.
The university's Pump to Plug program has helped reduce 23,125 metric tons of commuter carbon dioxie emissions by incentivizing faculty, staff, and students to switch to electric vehicles.
The top-ranked in last year's Cool Schools list—Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia—ranked third this year.
Here are the 10 highest-ranked colleges on the 2020 Cool Schools list:
College Location Rating
1. University of California, Irvine Irvine CA 89.95
2. Stanford University Stanford CA 89.86
3. Thompson Rivers University Kamloops BC 89.63
4. Arizona State University Tempe AZ 89.31
5. University of California, Merced Merced CA 86.64
6. SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry Syracuse N 85.21
7. Colorado State University Fort Collins CO 84.68
8. University of Connecticut Storrs CT 84.68
9. University of New Hampshire Durham NH 84.30
10. Colby College Waterville ME 83.62
