Sierra Club Names NYU Among its Most Eco-Enlightened Universities for 2009

The Sierra Club has recognized New York University as one of the United States’ eco-enlightened universities, or “Cool Schools,” in the September/October 2009 issue of Sierra magazine.

“It’s wonderful for NYU Sustainability to receive this recognition from a respected and long-standing voice in the environmental movement,” said Jeremy Friedman, coordinator of NYU’s Sustainability Task Force.

“We’ve been able to learn from other schools - and from the remarkable students, faculty and staff that make up our community - to zoom forward and make big strides in just three short years,” Friedman added. “We hope that being named a ‘Cool School’ by Sierra magazine gives NYU even more momentum so that we can continue to better address NYU’s environmental impacts and build a campus culture of sustainability.”

“We’re thrilled to see these schools making a real commitment to greening their campuses,” said Carl Pope, the Sierra Club’s executive director. “The next generation of students cares deeply about stopping global warming, and schools that take the initiative to become environmentally responsible are doing the right thing for the planet and are better poised to attract the best students.”

NYU was recognized for its efforts across eight categories: efficiency, energy, food, academics, purchasing, transportation, waste management, and administration.

“Rather than focus on one or two issues such as energy conservation and investment choices, we sought a comprehensive overview of each campus’s sustainability efforts,” said Sierra magazine’s editors Avital Binshtock and Michael Fox

NYU’s Sustainability Task Force is an advisory body composed of students, faculty, administrators, and staff, who develop recommendations for new policies and practices that advance NYU’s long-term future as a sustainable university. For more information on the Sustainability Task Force, please go to http://www.nyu.edu/sustainability