Top 25 Eco-Friendly Football Schools

- Thursday, September 11, 2014

Using pre-season results of The Associated Press' Top 25 NCAA Football poll as a base, SaveOnEnergy.com compared five metrics to identify the top-ranking eco-friendly football colleges. For a full explanation of SaveOnEnergy.com's methodology and the full ranking, view their full slideshow of the results, but here's a cheat sheet:

Ranking criteria:

  1. Stadium sustainability efforts
  2. Number of active green organizations
  3. Waste diversion rate
  4. Percentage of budget spent on locally grown or organic foods
  5. Level of Environmental Studies degrees offered

The Top 10 Eco-Friendly Football Colleges and Universities:

1. University of Washington
AP Top 25 Pre-Season Rank: #25
Active Green Organizations: 45
Waste Diversion Rate: 58%
Share of budget spent on locally grown/organic foods: 59%

2. Stanford University
AP Top 25 Pre-Season Rank: #11
Active Green Organizations: 12
Waste Diversion Rate: 65%
Share of budget spent on locally grown/organic foods: 44%

3. The Ohio State University
AP Top 25 Pre-Season Rank: #5
Active Green Organizations: 84
Waste Diversion Rate: 42.8%
Share of budget spent on locally grown/organic foods: 26.9%

4. Texas A&M
AP Top 25 Pre-Season Rank: #21
Active Green Organizations: 18
Waste Diversion Rate: 66%
Share of budget spent on locally grown/organic foods: 24%

5. UCLA
AP Top 25 Pre-Season Rank: #7
Active Green Organizations: 38
Waste Diversion Rate: 69%
Share of budget spent on locally grown/organic foods: 14%

6. North Carolina
AP Top 25 Pre-Season Rank: #23
Active Green Organizations: 30
Waste Diversion Rate: 46%
Share of budget spent on locally grown/organic foods: 22.4%

7. Clemson
AP Top 25 Pre-Season Rank: #16
Active Green Organizations: 11
Waste Diversion Rate: 42.5%
Share of budget spent on locally grown/organic foods: 35%

8. Florida State University
AP Top 25 Pre-Season Rank: #1
Active Green Organizations: 4
Waste Diversion Rate: 40%
Share of budget spent on locally grown/organic foods: 45%

9. Nebraska
AP Top 25 Pre-Season Rank: #22
Active Green Organizations: 6
Waste Diversion Rate: 53%
Share of budget spent on locally grown/organic foods: 12.85%

10. Wisconsin
AP Top 25 Pre-Season Rank: #14
Active Green Organizations: 26
Waste Diversion Rate: 14%
Share of budget spent on locally grown/organic foods: 40%

The Fibrex Group has sold recycling containers to many of these schools for placement in their dormatories, stadiums & common areas. To find out what we can do for you, please check out www.fibrexgroup.com or give us a call at 1-800-346-4458. Work. Play. Recycle.

By Charlotte O'Malley at EcoBuilding.com