UC Irvine has been named the “Coolest School” in the country by Sierra, which also means that for the fifth straight year UCI has been recognized by the Sierra Club's magazine as among the top 10 “greenest” campuses nationwide.
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Sierra's September/October cover story commends UCI for its academic and research achievements in environmental sustainability, three on-campus solar projects, student engagement in campus initiatives and energy efficiency goals that consistently exceed federal and state guidelines.
“At our commencement ceremony this year, President Obama praised UCI for being 'ahead of the curve' on climate change research, energy efficiency and sustainability,” says Howard Gillman, interim chancellor and provost, in a university statement. “Sierra magazine's No. 1 ranking is further recognition of our national leadership in these areas.”
The Irvine university was followed at No. 2 by American University in Washington, D.C. At No. 6, Stanford is the only other California school in the magazine's top 10. The next closest school to Orange County is UC Riverside at No. 90. The University of San Diego is at No. 14 and UC San Diego is close by at No. 17. You have to scroll down to No. 60 for UCLA. Read more about all the schools recognized in Sierra's eighth annual rankings at www.sierraclub.org/coolschools.
Meanwhile, UCI reminds that this distinction comes on the heels of the U.S. Department of Energy recognizing the university for surpassing its Better Buildings Challenge goal of improving campus energy efficiency by 20 percent by 2020, making it the first educational institution in the nation to meet or exceed the objective.
The Anteaters did so seven years early.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.