USF Beats Ivies, UF and FSU:
USF Ranked 7th in Nation on Sustainable Schools List
Feature
Ecology Florida Staff
Ecology Florida joins the University of South Florida in celebrating the school’s top-ten ranking in the Sierra Club’s “Cool Schools” listing. Coming in 7th overall, USF is ranked ahead of all the Ivy League schools, as well as its better known in-state colleagues, the University of Florida and Florida State. USF is by far the highest ranked school in the state of Florida.
The Sierra Club recognized a number of USF’s achievements, including “America’s first 20,000-watt solar charging station for electric vehicles, the Clean Energy Research Center…and the school’s 24-year-old recycling program [that] has diverted more than 48 tons of aluminum and 9,700 tons of papers from local landfills.” In a state that lags woefully behind much of the nation in sustainability programs, regenerative environmental initiatives, and government commitment to ecological stewardship, USF has emerged as a beacon of progress and inspiration. The Sierra Club recognized what USF is doing to restore the environment, even if many Floridians have not.
What the Sierra Club did not mention is the rich and deep commitment to ecological education revealed in the curriculum of the university. From a food studies certificate to an entire program dedicated to environmental science and policy, to innovative courses in religion and ecology, environmental ethics, food systems planning, and environmental literature, USF is distinguished as one of the great schools of ecological education in the nation. With its trend-setting achievements in environmental stewardship recognized by the Sierra Club, USF is now something of a celebrity ecology school (as opposed to better known celebrity “party schools”), but where USF is making a lasting difference is in its curriculum and its dedication to educating the next generation of Floridians to the critical importance of sustainability and the absolute necessity of ecological regeneration. Now, if USF could only develop a community garden on its Tampa Campus.
Reference
See “The Top 10 Cool Schools,” Sierra magazine
For other features and editorials on Florida’s natural, cultural, and economic ecologies, see Ecology Florida News:
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