UC Merced Ranks Among Greenest Schools in U.S.

Now the rest of the country knows what students, staff and faculty at UC Merced have known for years – this is a cool school.

The Sierra Club just released its list of the top 100 “Cool Schools” – the greenest campuses in America, and UC Merced ranks 25^th.

"UC Merced's goal is to be green from the ground up and we've made giant strides since the campus opened seven years ago," said Jim Genes, special assistant to the vice chancellor for administration. "The Cool Schools ranking helps us measure our success and set our sights on improving our ranking next year."

UC Merced made a “Triple Zero Commitment” to consume zero net energy through efficiency and renewable energy production; to produce zero landfill waste by reducing excess consumption and composting or recycling as much as possible; and to produce zero net greenhouse gas emissions by offsetting as much carbon emissions as it produces – all by the year 2020.

The campus is committed to sustainability through its much-lauded long-range development plan, including constructing LEED certified buildings, conserving water, promoting recycling and reuse, and through many other programs.

With a possible 894 points in categories like education/research, planning, transportation, waste, innovation and water, UC Merced scored 560.52 points. No school received a perfect score. The first-place winner, UC Davis, received 709.17 points. UC Irvine is ranked No. 9, UC San Diego stands at No. 17 and UC Berkeley is ranked 20^th.