The system, called STARS, is designed to create a measurable, comparable way of assessing sustainability at diverse institutions of higher education, incentives for continuous improvement toward sustainability and a vehicle for sharing information about sustainability practices and performance. AASHE defines sustainability as promoting human and ecological health, social justice, secure livelihoods and a better world for all generations.

“There is currently no system that adequately enables colleges and universities to comprehensively measure and easily compare their sustainability,” said Lauren Bishop, energy manager at WCU.

“By participating in the STARS pilot project, we will be part of an effort to develop a system for measuring sustainability at colleges and universities that is similar to the LEED (Leadership in Energy Environmental Design) green building rating system. Through our participation, we also will identify, proactively, the ways that we can become more sustainable at Western,” she said.

The first phase of the STARS pilot project under way at higher education institutions in the United States and Canada was launched Feb. 4. Results will guide development of a version of STARS to be released in spring 2009.

“The launch of the pilot phase is a major milestone in the development of STARS,” said Judy Walton, AASHE’s acting executive director. “It has taken nearly two years of hard work and the contributions of hundreds of individuals from every sector of the higher education community to bring us to this point.”

As part of the first phase, institutions will begin gathering information for STARS related to curriculum and research; operations; and administration and finance. Specific questions could relate to purchasing policies, diversity on campus, community engagement activities or recycling, for instance, said Bishop.

“We have taken significant steps at Western to become a more sustainable campus, from expanding the service learning projects that benefit our community to using biodiesel and E10, a blend of ethanol and unleaded gas,” said Bishop. “We make measurable improvements every month, and I think through collecting this data for STARS we will see a lot that we can be proud of.”

For other information, check out www.aashe.org/stars or contact Lauren Bishop by phone at (828) 227-3562 or by e-mail at lbishop@email.wcu.edu.

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Last modified: Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2008