UC Irvine is Again Ranked One of the Nation's Coolest Schools … No, Not That Kind of Cool

For the fourth straight year, UC Irvine is listed among America's top 10 “Coolest Schools.”

No, that's not due to an overabundance of mustaches, craft brews and aviator frames on campus. This particular honor comes from the Sierra Club, which ranks UCI third on its seventh annual list of the nation's greenest college campuses.

The university's highly efficient cogeneration power plant and more than 4,800 solar panels helped secure the nod.

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The write-up publicized in Sierra magazine's September/October cover story:

3 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE
Irvine, California
SCORE: 794.30 | STUDENTS: 27,479

UC Irvine's 19-megawatt cogeneration facility and other energy-preserving projects have helped the school save 20 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year since 2009–and solar panels generate enough power to run 500 homes for a year. The 1,475-acre campus is anchored by a 16-acre botanical garden, and all new buildings must be certified at least LEED Silver. Living green is important at UCI: Meatless Mondays are strongly encouraged, and a dozen student clubs focus on eco-issues. Above, graduate students in UCI's Earth System Science Department learn about Mono Lake's geology, ecology, natural history–and about environmentalists' efforts to protect the lake–during a spring-break field trip.

As you can see from the complete list, UCI is sandwiched between UC Davis at No. 4 and Dickinson College of Pennsylvania at No. 2. The University of Connecticut topped the list. Other California schools in the top 10 are Stanford at No. 7 and UC Santa Barbara at No. 10.

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