US universities have upped their game in recent years to become more environmentally friendly, with various sustainability goals and projects. As universities become ‘green’ in the sustainable sense, many have also invested and maintaining beautiful green campuses, which make them ideal study locations for lovers of the great outdoors. Here are 10 US universities that are quite literally blooming!
1. University of California, Davis
Ranked 95th in the QS World University Rankings® 2014/15, the University of California, Davis has frequently been commended for being a very green university. For example, in 2012 Sierra Magazine ranked UC Davis first in its list of the greenest universities in the US, due to campus sustainability and climate change efforts. The university features a 100-acre arboretum (a botanical garden devoted to trees), which was founded in 1936 and includes some 22,000 trees and plants adapted to a Mediterranean climate. When it comes to studying greenery, UCD has also been famed for its programs in agricultural economics, entomology, evolutionary biology, plant biology and ecology. It’s current ranked 15th in the world for environmental sciences, in the QS World University Rankings by Subject.
2. Brown University
Located in the city of Providence, Rhode Island, Brown University has a great deal of green space, and thus does not resemble a typical urban campus. Currently ranked 52nd in the world, it is committed to sustainability, with its ‘Brown is Green’ initiative setting goals to minimize the university’s energy use, reduce negative environmental impacts and contribute to a cleaner, healthier global environment. In the past six years, Brown has reduced its energy-related carbon footprint to 26.6% below 2007 levels. Students also get to enjoy a recently developed series of interconnected green spaces that make great gathering points, between the two main university campuses.
3. University of California, Berkeley
Going back to California, our next green university is the University of California, Berkeley, currently ranked 27th in the world overall, and first in the world for environmental sciences. The university boasts impressive green spaces, as well as a good environmental record. UC Berkeley heats, cools, and powers its lab equipment utilizing power from an on-campus natural gas plant. Two branches of the Strawberry Creek watercourse converge on the main campus, which also contains numerous wooded areas. These include Eucalyptus Grove, which is both the tallest stand of such trees in the world and the tallest stand of hardwood trees in North America.
4. Colorado State University
Founded in 1870 as the Colorado Agricultural College, Colorado State University is now among the leading research universities in the US. Ranked 441-450 in the world, the university is situated in Fort Collins with various campuses totaling nearly 5,000 acres of land. This includes ‘The Oval’, an expansive green area some 2,065 feet (629 m) around, lined with 65 American elm trees at the heart of the main campus. Then there’s Pingree Park, the university’s unique mountain campus, which offers the opportunity for students to leave the hectic pace of urban life behind and be immersed in the natural world of the Rocky Mountains.
5. Green Mountain College
Not only is Vermont’s Green Mountain College very appropriately named for this list of green universities, it’s also a very environmentally friendly institution, priding itself on incorporating environmental sustainability across the curriculum. Among its sustainability projects is ‘Cow Power’, which generates electricity from the methane gas in cow dung – yes, you read that right! Green Mountain College was among the first US universities to achieve complete climate neutrality (meaning it removes as many greenhouse gases from the atmosphere as it emits), and is recognized by the Princeton Review as the second greenest university in the US. Its 155-acre campus features athletic fields, a farm which runs a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) project, hiking trails, and a great swimming hole on the Poultney River.
6. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Ranked 62nd in the world, the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill offers 460 undergraduate courses in 52 departments that incorporate sustainability themes or address sustainability challenges. The American Society of Landscape Architects selected the Carolina campus as one of the most beautifully landscaped spots in the country. That listing is just one piece of praise among many for the university’s beautiful green spaces, featuring vast oaks, majestic quadrangles and distinctive brick sidewalks. The university’s Botanical Gardens include many impressive green features, including solar energy generation, geothermal wells, and cisterns which store rainwater for future irrigation use.
7. Stanford University
At an impressive seventh place in the world rankings, Stanford University seeks to make sustainable living a part of its student experience. This green university is located on an 8,180-acre (3,310 ha) campus on the San Francisco Peninsula, which has been listed by Travel + Leisure as one of the most beautiful campuses in the US. Having begun to demolish Meyer Library, the university intends to replace the building with a landscaped open space to add to the campus’ already appealing green aesthetic.
8. Georgetown University
Ranked 200th in the world, Georgetown University’s picturesque main campus is built on a rise above the Potomac River, and is therefore often called ‘The Hilltop’. The university’s green spaces include fountains, a cemetery, large clusters of flowers, groves of trees, and open quadrangles. Founded in 1789, the same year the US Constitution took effect, it is the nation’s oldest Catholic and Jesuit university. Today, it is pursuing a range of practical approaches to sustainability, including an ambitious commitment to halve its carbon footprint by 2020.
9. Emory University
Located around 15 minutes from downtown Atlanta in the tree-lined suburban neighborhood of Druid Hills, Emory University is ranked 156th in the world and has consistently been praised as one of the greenest universities in the US. Emory has been recognized by the Princeton Review, Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine and the Washington Post for its outstanding commitment to sustainability. It leads the nation in its construction of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified buildings (structures which meet high standards in being environmentally friendly). The campus is also rich in natural beauty, open spaces, trees and plant life.
10. Cornell University
Ranked 19th in the world, Cornell University's main campus is on East Hill in Ithaca, New York, overlooking the town and Cayuga Lake. Ithaca itself has been named among the “Best Green Cities” in the US. Adjacent to the main campus, this green university owns the 2,800 acre (11.6 km²) Cornell Plantations, a botanical garden containing flowers, trees and ponds along manicured trails. Cornell prides itself on ensuring that new building design and construction is approached with sustainability firmly in mind and, like Emory, has a number of LEED-certified green buildings on campus. It was also ranked at number six in the 2015 Princeton Review’s Guide to 353 Green Colleges.
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