UCSB Ranked Third in Top 50 Green Schools

It’s not easy being green, but UC Santa Barbara sure makes it look that way. The campus, with a history of environmental efforts and sustainability trendsetting, has now been ranked third in the nation of the “Top 50 Green Schools.”

“The students, staff and faculty of UC Santa Barbara have had a longstanding commitment to reduce the energy, water and other material resource needs of our campus,” said Bruce Tiffney, dean of UCSB’s College of Creative Studies. “This ranking, together with similar honors, are a welcome recognition of our success in this collective endeavor and should encourage current and future members of the UCSB community to uphold and improve upon this tradition.”

It is said the seaside campus was the place where the modern environmental movement launched following the 1969 oil spill off the Santa Barbara coast. That same devastating event spurred the creation of UCSB’s vibrant environmental studies program and inspired a never-ceasing drive for Eco-leadership.

The Online School Center, a web resource for perspective students research universities, searched through institutions that had been included in prestigious green rating by several agencies in the last two years. It also required school cited to have attained gold or silver designations from the Association for Advancing Sustainability in Higher Education, and filtered for institutions with a wealth of ongoing or pending green initiatives.

UCSB only came behind American University in Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania’s Dickinson College.