U of A in Top Third of Sierra Club "Cool Schools 2017" Ranking

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University of Arkansas was ranked 75th in the Sierra Club’s “Cool Schools 2017” ranking, designed to quantify the sustainability of North America’s college and university campuses. The U of A was one of 227 institutions that completed applications for ranking by the club in 2017, making the U of A among the top third of ranked sustainable institutions. This high ranking is in part a reflection of the U of A’s achievement of Stars Gold status from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education earlier this year.

The U of A scored 568 points out of a possible 1,000, which means there is still a great deal of work to be done. According to the Sierra Club website “Our results show that while many universities are making admirable progress, no school has yet attained complete sustainability, … proving that, in higher education as in the rest of society, there is much room for improvement.“

“The Cool Schools ranking helps provide campuses with a benchmark for complete sustainability and a metric by which to assess their progress towards this goal,” said Eric Boles, director of the Office for Sustainability. “The reporting framework is comprehensive and looks at a university’s academic programs, public engagement, facilities, purchasing, waste, water, energy, transportation, investments, planning, and even dining services to name some examples. That being said, these high marks reflect positively across the U of A as a whole.”

The Sierra Club, established in 1892, is the nation’s largest grassroots environmental organization.

To find out more about U of A Sustainability Initiatives, visit the U of A Sustainability website.