Honor Roll:
University of Washington (UW) has some of the best environmental reporting we came across in our study. Metrics are easy to find and all the information you would want to see is easily accessible. UW has 4 LEED buildings, with over a dozen more on the way, and has mandated that its new construction meet LEED standards. UW diverts about 40% of its waste, putting it towards the top of the list for landfill diversion and the school has a comprehensive composting program to boot. UW has a relatively green energy grid mix and it also offsets 15% of its carbon footprint. Around a quarter of its food is organic, local, or fair trade, and the campus sports over 300 alternative fuel vehicles (also placing it at the very top of its class). UW also has aggressive water conservation policies in place in both its facilities and its landscaping. UW also had some great climate numbers per student and per 1000 sq feet as reported by the ACUPCC.

Held After Class:
We felt some of UW’s water conservation measures could be a little more stringent (such as runoff planning), but there is really not too much to be picky of here.
Green Grade:
The University of Washington is our valedictorian when it comes to greenest Universities in the U.S

The Princeton Review – known for its education services helping students choose and get in to colleges – today reported its second annual Green Ratings of colleges: a measure of how environmentally friendly the institutions are on a scale of 60 to 99.   The company tallied its Green Ratings for 697 institutions based on data it collected from the colleges in 2008-09 concerning their environmentally related policies, practices, and academic offerings. The Princeton Review also named 15 colleges to its "2010 Green Rating Honor Roll" – a list that salutes the institutions that received the highest possible score – 99 – in this year's rating tallies. The University of Washington received the top score of 99 and was recognized in the Honor Roll.

UW was recognized by the Sierra Club as one of the top green schools, ranking 9th out of 10 total schools recognized.
The home of the Huskies is one of the few universities whose overall energy use has decreased (by 10 percent between 2000 and 2005) despite campus growth. All the university's energy comes from renewable sources (including hydropower), and 14 buildings are slated for construction or renovation in compliance with LEED standards.

University of Washington Housing and Food Services was recognized as Recycler of the Year for overcoming significant barriers to expand residence hall recycling. Assisted by a residence hall student organization, SEED (Students Expressing Environmental Determination), HFS created a program for composting post-consumer food in dining halls and other food outlets. Using preferred purchasing practices to “push the composting envelope,” in less than a year, compost collection increased from 279 back-of-the house food scrap toters in January 2007 to 1047 front and back of the house toters in October 2007--equivalent to more than 32 tons of compostables diverted from the garbage. HFS now has recycling and compost collection in all 22 food services areas and uses one of the most complete compostable serviceware packaging lines in the region.

President Emmert signed the Presidents Climate Commitment and charged the Environmental Stewardship Advisory Committee with developing a campus climate plan. The president established the Office of Environmental Stewardship to coordinate campus policy and operations and formalized a policy giving full institutional support to campus sustainability.