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UC named one of America's Top 10 "coolest" schools

October 25, 2007

Sierra Magazine has named the University of California system
one of America’s Top 10 “coolest” schools for its efforts to stop
global warming.

UC ranked No. 4 on the Sierra Club magazine’s inaugural listing
of the nation’s greenest campuses (

http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra), which hit newsstands today
(Oct. 25).

UC was the highest-ranked public university - and the only
California institution - on the list, which was led by Oberlin
College. Harvard University was second and Warren Wilson College
was third.

“The University of California system is honored that Sierra
Magazine has recognized the significant impact that our
sustainability policy is making,”

said Matthew St.Clair, UC’s systemwide sustainability manager.
“Our sustainability policy has been a model for other universities,
and each of our 10 campuses shares their strengths with one another
to improve the university’s environmental practices across the board.”

UC’s sustainability policy officially began covering green
building design and clean energy standards in 2004. It expanded in
2006 to include sustainable transportation practices and greenhouse
gas emissions reductions. This year, climate protection practices,
green building renovations, sustainable operations and maintenance,
waste reduction, and environmentally preferable purchasing were
added to UC’s menu of green business strategies.

Sierra Magazine highlighted several actions UC has taken to make
itself greener:

  • The UC system has pledged to generate 10 megawatts of renewable
    power (enough to power about 7,500 homes) by 2014, increase use of
    low- to zero-emission vehicles by 50 percent by 2010, and achieve
    zero waste by 2020 at its 10 campuses;
  • UC Davis has improved its agricultural sustainability and
    conducted environmental educational outreach to local junior high
    school students;
  • UCLA has fought pollution-producing gridlock with its bicycle
    master plan;
  • UC Merced has received kudos for its green building; and
  • UC Berkeley has a certified organic kitchen at one of its
    dining halls and a new major in society and the environment.

“When such a large and important educational institution takes
such significant, systemic steps toward addressing global warming
it can’t help but influence the thinking of many tens of thousands
of students,” said Bob Sipchen, the magazine’s editor-in-chief. “If
students carry these strong environmental values back to their
communities and into their careers, UC’s initiative will
reverberate globally.”

Indeed, UC students have played a key role in promoting green initiatives.

For example, UC Santa Cruz student Tommaso Boggia, who graduated
in June, led the effort for the campus to buy green energy by
passing a student fee to pay for the purchase. As a result, UC
Santa Cruz purchases renewable energy credits equivalent to 100
percent of its electricity consumption and was recognized by the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as the sixth-largest “green
power” purchaser among campuses nationwide.

“When students wanted organic foods in the dining halls, they
worked with the staff and the community to make it happen,” Boggia
said. “When students demanded climate change action, they were able
to turn their campus into the sixth-largest university clean power
purchaser in the nation. The best thing is that we are not alone -
collaborative efforts throughout California are ensuring a
systemwide transition to sustainable practices.”

In April, UC Irvine rolled out a shuttle bus that runs on fuel
made from soybeans, an alternative transportation project that
students helped fund.

Also, the campus signed the first contract in Orange County with
Flexcar and hosts a hydrogen fueling station. Members of the Green
Campus Program created a model green dorm room.

“UC Irvine is rapidly becoming more conscious of green issues.
We’re really making progress,” said Courtney Gill, a senior
neurobiology major and president of the Green Campus Program. “The
Flexcar program and the biodiesel buses were big steps for UCI. We
can only hope that other campuses around the nation will follow in
our footsteps.”

“What makes the UC system so special is that the drive to be
green comes from the top (policy/leadership), down (student body)
and also bottom up,” said Bhavik Joshi, a graduate student at UC
Berkeley’s Haas School of Business who organizes a student-led
research group that focuses on renewable energy. “This recognition
will accelerate innovation and adoption of clean technology as it
will attract more talent (faculty and students) from around the world.”

Green efforts at other UC campuses include:

  • UC Riverside encourages carpooling and mass transit, has the
    largest alternative fuel vehicle fleet in the UC system, and
    pursues countless individual research projects on air pollution and
    alternative fuels. Dining Services uses citrus grown on campus in
    sauces, marinades and garnishes and fresh juices; and recycles its
    cooking oil to be made into biodiesel.
  • UC Santa Barbara has a policy that all new buildings must
    achieve the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Silver certification
    and has agreed to renovate 25 existing buildings over five years
    and improve operational practices to certify them through the LEED
    for Existing Buildings program. The campus, which has won several
    awards for its energy-efficiency efforts, hosted the sixth annual
    UC/CSU/CCC Sustainability Conference in June that attracted more
    than 850 participants.
  • UC San Diego, noted for its use of biofuel vehicles and
    energy-efficient design of newer buildings, was the first
    university in the state to be recognized by the California Climate
    Action Registry as a “Climate Action Leader.” The “Triton Bike”
    program, which turns abandoned bicycles into a transportation
    alternative for students, faculty and staff, was recognized by the
    U.S. EPA and Department of Transportation for making the campus one
    of the “Best Workplaces for Commuters.”
  • UC San Francisco has incorporated green building designs at its
    new campus at Mission Bay and has an active recycling program
    ranging from paper, bottles and cans to batteries and pipette tip boxes.

Sierra Magazine has a circulation of 1.2 million readers, and is
the national magazine of the Sierra Club, the nation’s oldest and
largest grassroots environmental group.

Widely recognized as the best public research university system
in the world, the University of California includes more than
214,000 students, 170,000 faculty and staff, and an $18 billion
annual budget. UC offers programs in more than 150 disciplines –
many of which are ranked among the top 10 nationally. UC’s five
medical centers support the clinical teaching programs of the
University’s medical and health sciences schools and handle more
than 3 million patient visits each year. The UC system is also
involved in managing the three U.S. Department of Energy national
laboratories at Berkeley, Livermore and Los Alamos.

For more information on UC’s sustainability efforts: