Skip to main content

The Sierra Club Thinks We’re Cool

October 10, 2019

JCCC has been named one of the Sierra Club’s Cool Schools in North America

We already knew we were cool. Now the rest of the country does, too.

JCCC has long been a driving force for sustainability on campus and within our community. Recently, Sierra – the national magazine of the Sierra Club – released “2019 Cool Schools,” its rankings of North America’s best schools for sustainability.

JCCC ranked 4th among participating community colleges and 200th overall. That we appear on the list is quite a feat, given that the ranking system skews heavily toward four-year universities and research institutions.

For 13 years the magazine has evaluated four-year universities and colleges based on data submitted via the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS®). Two years ago, it started including two-year community colleges.

Sierra Club looks at which schools offer the best sustainability-focused courses, ecofriendly cafeteria provisions, and carbon-neutral land and energy policies as well as the most opportunities to engage with the environmental movement.

Jay Antle, Executive Director, Center for Sustainability, says, “As with all these rankings and awards, scoring high among community colleges in the Sierra Club’s Cool Schools ranking is validation that we are doing the hard work as a college that matters to our students: reducing our environmental footprint and teaching relevant content in the classroom.”

Here’s how we stack up against all participating two- and four-year schools:

  • The only school in Kansas and the Kansas City Metro deemed “Cool”
  • 71st in energy conservation efforts
  • 116th in waste management efforts

Learn about JCCC’s Center for Sustainability.

See the full Sierra Club Cool School rankings and study methodology.