Foundation News

Sierra magazine, the official publication of the Sierra Club, released its eighth annual “Cool Schools” ranking of America’s greenest colleges. Each of the universities ranked in the top 10 have displayed a deep and thorough commitment to protecting the environment, addressing climate issues, and encouraging environmental responsibility.

Sierra magazine’s top 10 schools of 2014 are:

1. University of California, Irvine (Irvine, CA)

2. American University (Washington, DC)

3. Dickinson College (Carlisle, PA)

4. Loyola University Chicago (Chicago, IL)

5. Lewis and Clark College (Portland, OR)

6. Stanford University (Stanford, CA)

7. University of South Florida (Tampa, FL)

8. Green Mountain College (Poultney, VT)

9. University of Connecticut (Storrs, CT)

10. Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA)

In addition to schools making great strides to create more sustainable campuses, students have been working to push that momentum even further from the student-led Adopt-a-Tree program at American University to movements for divestment of fossil fuel company holdings in endowments at more than 300 colleges and universities.

“The Cool Schools ranking is yet another indication of how deeply young people understand the benefits of clean energy and of how adept they are at turning awareness into action,” said Karissa Gerhke, director of the Sierra Student Coalition. “To capitalize on this power, the Sierra Student Coalition will join with students across the country this fall to launch the Campuses for Clean Energy campaign, a transformative movement that will demand 100 percent clean energy for campuses.”

The full ranking of all 173 colleges is available online at www.sierraclub.org/sierra/coolschools-2014.