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UF ranks No. 7 in a list of the country's "cool" schools.

Why the cool ranking? Being environmentally friendly.

The top 10 list of schools is in the latest issue of Sierra, the magazine of the Sierra Club, the largest environmental organization in the U.S.

Dedee DeLongpré-Johnston, director of UF's Office of Sustainability, said it's an honor for UF to be the only Florida school on the list.

Middlebury College in Vermont is No. 1.

In the rankings, UF is lauded for recovering 40 percent of its waste and its high volume of eco-friendly student organizations.

DeLongpré-Johnston said she's been working to bring down UF's $40 million electric bill each year.

"Forty percent of it is turning off the lights and unplugging things at the end of the day," she said.

The Sierra Club knocked UF's score to 86 for a lack of open or sustainable investing policies.

Members of Students for a Democratic Society, or SDS, protested several times last year to make UF's investments public. The UF Foundation is a private entity that oversees UF's $1.2 billion endowment fund.