VCU Places High on GreenMetric Sustainability Ranking

By Alexandra Klingelhut

For the second consecutive year, Virginia Commonwealth University has earned a top spot on the Universitas Indonesia’s GreenMetric World University Ranking of sustainability. VCU ranked 26th out of 215 universities worldwide in the 2012 survey. In addition, VCU ranked 10th out of 29 participating universities in the United States-based rankings.

The UI GreenMetric is an online ranking of green universities. The philosophy behind the survey encompasses the three E’s: environment, economics and equity. The results are based on sustainability efforts in setting and infrastructure, energy and climate change, waste management, water use, transportation and education. Universities can view their sustainability efforts in comparison with other schools on the website.

“We see the potential of the websites as a hub for a worldwide community of campuses to share their stories on their journey towards sustainability,” said Gumilar Rusliwa Somantri, Ph.D., rector of Universitas Indonesia.

The GreenMetric program uses scoring, rather than the commonly used grading system, for sustainability efforts. VCU improved its score from 2011, when it was ranked 23th out of 178 universities worldwide and 11th out of 26 U.S. universities.

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