Sierra Magazine, published by the Sierra Club, has announced their picks for the country's 100 greenest colleges, and five of them are in North Carolina. (One is in South Carolina.)

Here's how they rank:

14 - Warren Wilson College

29 - Furman University

40 - UNC Chapel Hill

54 - Duke University

84 - Elon University

93 - Appalachian State University

Here's what the magazine has to say about the list:

Intercollegiate rivalry is a long and hallowed tradition. That was the operating premise, anyway, behind our fourth annual Coolest Schools survey. We sent out 11-page questionnaires to 900 colleges and universities across the United States, asking them to detail their sustainability efforts. We received 162 responses, nearly all of them painstakingly thorough.

Although energy supply carried the most significance, nine other categories were considered in measuring a school's commitment to sustainability: efficiency, food, academics, purchasing, transportation, waste management, administration, financial investments, and a catchall section titled "other initiatives." No school scored a perfect 100; Green Mountain came closest, with 88.6.

Although we worked hard to apply rigorous, objective standards when evaluating the questionnaires, a certain amount of subjectivity was inevitable, and we hope that readers (and the growing legion of college sustainability officers) will bear that in mind. The point, after all, is to create competition, to generate awareness, and to celebrate that so many colleges even have a sustainability officer.

Read more here to find out which school got "most improved" nods (App State was one of them), learn more about the K-12 competition, read about four "standout students" and more.

Congratulations to all of the schools who made the cut and thanks to all of the administrators who care enough to enter their school in the contest.

Further reading: CPCC Center for Sustainability wins the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce's 2010 Green Award