Among the stars: ESF, SU join a national program that monitors sustainability on college campuses

By: Hope Morley

Posted: 2/13/08

The State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse University and 90 other universities across the country won't just be grading their students this year.

They'll be grading themselves.

These schools are beginning a pilot phase of a new campus sustainability program, which scores the schools on different aspects of academic and social performance.

"We are very serious about reducing our environmental impact," said Michael Kelleher, the director of renewable energy systems for ESF. "This program is a good way to measure our progress."

The self-assessment system, known as Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS), is a way for college campuses to calculate where they stand in terms of sustainability and learn in what ways they can improve. The system gives the campus an overall score, which can be used to mark individual improvement from year to year or from one university campus to another.

"One of the main goals of this program is to provide a roadmap for advancing sustainability. It will enable meaningful comparisons and benchmark progress over time," said Judy Walton, acting executive director for the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE).

AASHE's Web site describes sustainability as the combination of good human and ecological health, social justice, secure livelihoods and a better world for future generations.

Walton explained that STARS is distinct because it is a rating system, not a ranking of top sustainable campuses. The system works on a point system broken into three major categories: curriculum, operations and administration. The campus rates itself with a comprehensive checklist and then adds all the points to receive a score, which will be valid for three years.

For example, one subcategory within STARS is new construction on campus. The university may earn one point for a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, two points for LEED silver and so on.

LEED certifications are given by a third-party and only apply to individual buildings. Before now, there has not been a certification system that could apply to an entire campus. Walton also emphasizes that since STARS is a self-assessing system, campuses know exactly how they received their scores and where they need improvement.

"STARS is modeled after LEED in some ways," Walton said. "LEED raised the bar for sustainability in buildings. It's become the norm."

"(LEED) rates where we stand in several areas, so we can see where we need to improve," Kelleher said. "Not so much as a comparison with others."

SU, on the other hand, looks forward to using STARS as a way to learn from other campuses that receive higher ratings. All ratings will be made public by AASHE, which hopes the ratings will facilitate sustainability dialogue between campuses.

"It's the ground floor of creating a comparison for our campus," said Steve Lloyd, chief sustainability officer for SU. "Finding info about better campuses can help us to improve ourselves. We can find were we are weak and strong."

The pilot version of the system was released on Feb. 1 and will end on Dec. 31, but STARS has been in the works for quite some time. In 2006, the Higher Education Associations Sustainability Consortium (HEASC) issued a call for a sustainability ratings system. AASHE accepted the challenge and began to gather information from members of the higher education community.

"We wanted to examine every sector of campuses and come up with a yardstick," Walton said.

The program was based on a regional sustainability system created by AASHE for Puget Sound, Wash. schools in 2005. STARS was able to grow out of this program into a national system.

AASHE hopes to release Version 1.0 of the ratings system into wide circulation on Earth Day 2009.

In addition to STARS, SU joined the Clinton Climate Institute (CCI) at the end of 2007. The CCI makes money available for global warming initiatives on university campuses. This program is also in a pilot phase.

Lloyd, whose position was just created this past summer, insists that energy conservation is very important to SU. The university has saved a million dollars in energy in the past decade, but he said the lighting system needs improvement and could save even more money.

"If you don't use something, it's free," Lloyd said.

SU and ESF applied to participate in STARS and were accepted on AASHE's terms. After the pilot phase, both universities plan to continue to support sustainability efforts, and they are applauded by Walton.

"The planet doesn't care how hard it is," Walton said. "We need to do it."

hemorley@syr.edu