At a Glance

Maine's College of the Atlantic was announced the most environmentally friendly university by the Sierra Club.

With climate change in terms of extreme weather, and dangerous, some universities are taking steps to seriously address their environmental footprint— and the Sierra Club is honoring those that have gone above and beyond in 2016.

This week the environmental group's publication,Sierra magazine, announced its tenth annual "Cool Schools" ranking of the greenest colleges in the United States.

According to a press release by the magazine, these "environmentally enlightened" universities havedisplayed "a strong commitment to protecting the environment, addressing climate change, and encouraging sustainability."

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In a survey of 200 colleges, Sierrascored their green cred on the basis of whether schools demonstrated a "commitment to upholding high environmental standards."

This included what the universities had done to increase renewable energy on campus and providing more sustainable transportation on campus. It also judged schools by their "investments in fossil fuel companies."

According to the report, Maine'sCollege of the Atlantic was named the most eco-friendly college in the country.The school became thefirst college to .

"...We are thrilled to name the College of the Atlantic this year's greenest campus," Jason Mark, Sierra's editor-in-chief, said in a . "College of the Atlantic is a great example of how schools can make sustainability a key part of their mission."

"This huge response shows that colleges are taking the lead on addressing climate change," Mark added. "We're seeing schools commit to renewable energy purchasing, buying electric vehicles for their campus fleets, reducing their water usage, offering organic food in the cafeterias and offering dozens of environmental studies courses. These schools are instilling in the minds of their students the importance of adopting conservation values in their day-to- day activities."

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