Recognition & Awards

Stanford’s long history of sustainability-focused operations and academic research has been recognized by regional, national, and international organizations. The spectrum of Stanford’s awards and commendations highlights the multifaceted nature of sustainability and spans a wide range of topics. Presented below are selections of the most significant campus sustainability initiatives to receive formal recognition.

Third-Party Evaluations of Sustainable Stanford

2015 Green Honor Roll, The Princeton Review

Stanford was named as one of the most environmentally friendly schools in the nation for the third consecutive year, having earned 99 points in the survey of 804 schools.
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BestColleges.com Greenest University

Stanford ranked fourth among BestColleges.com’s Greenest Universities for 2015. This ranking system relies heavily on the data available through the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS) tool. The only institutions that surpassed Stanford were Colorado State University, Colby College, and Green Mountain College.
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Gold Rating, Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s (AASHE) Sustainability, Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS)

Stanford earned a Gold rating from AASHE’s latest version (2.0) of its assessment and national rating system. Stanford’s score of 74.6% is among the highest scores earned to date by any institution within the new framework. A total of 314 colleges and universities report into various versions of STARS. In 2015, STARS issued the first formal ranking across 17 different categories. Stanford scored among the top ten in Research, Purchasing, and Transportation categories and earned the number one spot for Diversity and Affordability through the ranking.
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Operations

Gold Award, Best Workplaces for Commuters, for Transportation Demand Management program

Best Workplaces for Commuters spotlighted 25 employers nationwide during the organization’s “Race to Excellence” Virtual Awards Ceremony. The program is designed to encourage sustainable transportation innovation. The “Race to Excellence” awards recognize organizations that have taken exemplary steps to offer their employees viable alternatives to driving alone, resulting in reduced air pollution, traffic congestion, and fuel consumption.
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Platinum-Level Bicycle-Friendly University, League of American Bicyclists

This is the organization’s highest designation.
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Parking Matters Marketing and Communications Award, International Parking Institute

The award recognizes Stanford’s outstanding marketing, public relations, and communications efforts to encourage drive-alone commuters to switch to alternative transportation. The IPI recognized Stanford’s efforts to encourage drive-alone commuters to switch to alternative transportation through campaigns promoting the Commute Club program. In the past year, one campaign invited Commute Club members to enter a “Why I Commute the Way I Do” photo contest.
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Green Restaurant Association Certification

Florence Moore Dining Hall, which had recently undergone a complete renovation, was certified by the Green Restaurant Association. The association’s standards cover water efficiency, waste reduction and recycling, sustainable building materials and furniture, sustainable food, energy, reusables, and chemical and pollution reduction.
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U.S. Healthful Food Council’s REAL Certification

R&DE Stanford Dining has become the nation’s first campus dining program to be REAL Certified for its use of nutrition and sustainability best practices. Modeled after the LEED® green building program, Responsible Epicurean and Agricultural Leadership (REAL) Certified is the trusted, nationally recognized mark of excellence for food and foodservice operators committed to holistic nutrition and environmental stewardship.
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Hobart Center for Foodservice Sustainability Grant

R&DE Stanford Dining won the Hobart Center for Foodservice Sustainability Grant in 2015. Each year, one foodservice establishment in the nation is given this grant for its work reducing energy use, water use, and waste and for its sustainability programs.
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Peta2 Favorite Vegan-Friendly College

Stanford was named peta2’s Favorite Vegan-Friendly College (Large Campus) in 2015 for R&DE’s commitment to serving delicious and creative vegan food in the dining halls and cafes.
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RecycleMania Film Plastics Champion

Stanford University won first place in the Film Plastics Category of RecycleMania collecting 2340 pounds during the competition. Stanford University has a unique program that asks users to place their plastic bags, bubble wrap, air pillows, and shrink wrap in the paper recycling bins on campus to keep the material clean and dry so that it can be recycled into new products.
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Research & Academic

Fellow of the American Physical Society

Kenneth Goodson, chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering
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Co-director of the Precourt Institute for Energy

Arun Majumdar, the Jay Precourt Provostial Chair Professor. He was also selected as the vice chair of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board in the U.S. Department of Energy.
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Richard W. Lyman Award

Margot Gerritsen, professor of energy resources engineering, received the 2014 honor for faculty who go above and beyond to engage Stanford alumni.
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National Medal of Science from President Barack Obama

Burton Richter and Thomas Kailath, professors emeriti
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2015 IEEE Founders Medal

Jim Plummer, former dean of the School of Engineering, for leadership in fostering interdisciplinary global research and education
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2015 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics

Shoucheng Zhang, professor of physics, for his groundbreaking contributions to the discovery of topological insulators.
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Robert R. Berg Outstanding Research Award

From the American Association of Petroleum Geologists for Mark Zoback, professor of geophysics, for his contributions to the field of reservoir geomechanics.
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Appointed Chair of Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Paul McIntyre, co-director of Stanford Energy 3.0
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Elected to the National Academy of Sciences

Zhi-Xun Shen, Shoucheng Zhang, and Aharon Kapitulnik
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Named Member of the National Academy of Engineering

Jens Nørskov, professor of chemical engineering at Stanford and of photon science at SLAC
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Appointed Chair of Department of Chemical Engineering

Stacey Bent, director of the TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy
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Roland Volunteer Service Prize

Elizabeth Hadly, biology professor and senior associate vice provost for undergraduate education, for integrating research, teaching, and outreach as they pertain to science education and global issues
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Stephen H. Schneider Award

Chris Field, director of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology; Melvin and Joan Lane Professor for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies; and a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, the Precourt Institute for Energy, and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies; for outstanding climate science communication
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BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award

Paul Ehrlich, senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, in the ecology and conservation biology category
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Gordon Maskew Fair Award

From the American Academy of Environmental Engineers & Scientists, Richard Luthy, senior fellow by courtesy at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, for substantial contributions to the field of environmental engineering
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Senckenberg Prize for Nature Research

Page Chamberlain, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, for advancing the understanding of erosion mechanisms, the carbon cycle, climate, and precipitation patterns
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