UC Riverside ranked No. 16 among the nation’s most environmentally friendly campuses in an international survey released this week.
The campus was No. 145 in the overall GreenMetric World University Rankings 2018, conducted by Universitas Indonesia.
UC Riverside was one of 719 universities from 81 countries that took part in the annual rankings, which began in 2010 and has grown from an initial 95 participants.
Each university filled out an online questionnaire and was judged on its commitment to developing environmentally sustainable infrastructure. The survey looked at six indicators: setting and infrastructure, energy and climate change, waste, water, transportation, and education.
The campus was rated highest for its policies and practices regarding recycling and waste reduction, water conservation and recycling, and transportation.
Last year, 9,600 solar panels were installed in two parking lots on campus, providing 6.9 million kilowatt-hours of energy over a 13-month period.
The University of California announced in September that it aims for 100 percent reliance on clean electricity supplies across its campuses and medical centers by 2025 — the same year it has pledged to become operationally carbon neutral.
The 10-campus system plans to meet those goals through the use of clean energy, green building design, sustainable procurement, and waste reduction.