Philadelphia Schools Suck at Being “Green”

The Sierra Club released its 9th annual Top 10 “Cool Schools 2015” report. Spoiler Alert: No one in Philadelphia (or PA) broke the top 10.

The closest we got? Dickinson College (located in Carlisle, PA) got #16. Most of the Top 10 Schools are on the west coast, with University of California, Irvine, placing the top honor.

How did the other Philly schools fare in the Green School List?

• #43: University of Pennsylvania with a scored of 684.09
• #110: Villanova University (519.63)
• #117 Lehigh University
• #122: Temple University (492.22)
• #148: Drexel University barely made the 153 school cut with a 313.01

(I would like to boast that my alma mater, Pennsylvania State University, beat out UPenn (And the other schools), by ranking #35 with a score of 690.93.)

Also notably absent from the list: Philadelphia University, Swarthmore College & St. Joseph’s University. (You guys can enter in 2016!)

Don’t lose all hope for Philly schools. We know they’re up to a lot of great stuff and can continue to improve their scores.

Cool Schools Scoring Key

How does the Sierra Club rank these college?

This is a submission-based system, with school administrators completing an extensive questionnaire online, named STARS. There’s a point system of 1000 assigning points to what is the “most important elements of campus sustainability” from the Sierra researchers. Points can be assigned to anything from electronic-waste recycling programs to water consumption and vegan options. You can find the full point system online here.

Readers, what do you think Philly schools can do to break the top 10 in 2016? We’re looking at you, SPARC, to make this happen!

Photo: Sierra Club