Are 'green' colleges really green?

<i>Sierra</i> names UCLA the 9th greenest college -- but the school recycles less than the city where it's located.

Fri, Aug 21 2009 at 8:56 PM

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Sierra Club’s Sierra magazine released its annual list of top 10 greenest colleges — and University of California, Los Angeles made the list at #9!

UCLA Today’s got more details on what gave Bruins the eco-competitive edge. My alma mater, University of Southern California, didn’t even make the list of the top 135. Trojans have cause to worry — Auden Schendler at Grist argues that colleges without rocking enviro programs are failed businesses.

That said, UCLA could still be doing a lot better. UCLA’s office of media relations bragged about the school’s "current 60 percent waste diversion rate” in an email to me about Sierra magazine’s list. But according to L.A. City Council President Eric Garcetti’s blog, “Los Angeles has the highest recycling rate out of the 10 largest U.S. cities. The recycling rate here is 65 percent.”

Bruins — recycle at least as much as the average Angeleno!

These numbers make me shudder at how little the other colleges in the U.S. (including USC) must be recycling — despite the fact that recycling’s the easiest and least effective eco-move in the “reduce, reuse, recycle” triumvirate.

How did your alma mater do?

Image courtesy of Sierra

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Comment: 1

Julie Aug 23 2009 at 4:14 PM

i went to UCLA and I remembered last year they passed the TGIF fund where each student pays a fee of 4 dollars going towards sustainability projects. As far as I know they didn't list what potential they have in the future. Anyways just because you go to a green school doesn't mean you're going to practice being green. I think of instead of having projects first maybe instead do a Sustainability fair for a week and educate students on a green lifestyle rather than adding a bunch of recycling bins.

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