Sierra Magazine named CU the Top Green University in the nation. (CU Independent Illustration/Adam Milner)
CU is the greenest campus in the country, according to Sierra Magazine’s recent planet-preserving questionnaire.
Schools are evaluated on eight categories: academics, administration, efficiency, energy, food, purchasing, transportation and waste management.
CU received a perfect score in the transportation and waste management categories, moving up one spot from last year’s ranking.
All of the highly ranked schools excelled in most categories. CU earned bonus points for their unique Student Bus Pass program.
Falling just short of CU was the University of Washington at Seattle, Middlebury College, University of Vermont, College of the Atlantic, Evergreen State College, University of California Santa Cruz, University of California at Berkeley, University of California at Los Angeles and Oberlin College.
“Any of those schools could be number one, and most likely will be in the future, but to me, what separates us is our longevity,” said Dave Newport, director of CU’s Environmental Center. ”We’ve been doing this for forty years, while other school programs are five or seven years old.”
CU students say they aren’t afraid to voice pride in their green reputation.
“I think that the students take pride in our green status because they all know that in some way or another they have contributed,” said sophomore Stephanie Durbin, an environmental studies major.
According to the CU Environmental Center, students voted 8-to-1 in favor of increasing fees to maintain their bus pass and bicycle programs.
“Student leadership has carried our environmental efforts for years and recently the administration has stepped it up to match it,” Newport said.
The question of whether CU’s green status will have an impact on future enrollment has formed an interesting debate.
“I think our green ranking will attract more student enrollment, especially after this election and all the attention that is now being brought to global warming,” said Melissa Hostetter, a freshman open-option major. “‘Going green’ is becoming a sort of emblem of our generation, a lot of young kids are becoming passionate about the environment and will definitely recognize CU as a strong green promoter.”
Newport also agrees that this new ranking will have a positive effect.
“It’s already happening, the environmental studies department has doubled in the last five years,” Newport said. “The big trend is freshmen want to be freshmen at a green school.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Kendall Schoemann at Kendall.Schoemann@colorado.edu.
