2017 Sustainable Campus Index Released by AASHE
The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s (AASHE) mission is simple. They want to “empower[s] higher education administrators, faculty, staff, and students to be effective change agents and drivers of sustainability innovation … and enable[s] members to translate information into action by offering essential resources and professional development to a diverse, engaged community of sustainability leaders.”
Sustainability on campuses is tracked via the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS). It measures each school’s achievement in 17 different sustainability impact areas as well as celebrates the innovative and high-impact initiatives each institution has enacted that year.
STARS, developed by AASHE, is both transparent and self-reporting. By helping educational institutions measure their own sustainability, it can help encourage them to improve it. Since it’s development, it has become the leading tool for measuring higher education sustainability performance.
Institutions that achieved the top spot overall according to institution type include:
•Appalachian State University (Master’s institutions)
•Nova Scotia Community College (Associate colleges)
•Stanford University (Doctoral/research institutions)
•Sterling College(Baccalaureate institutions)
Institutions that achieved the top spot in each sustainability topic area are listed below:
•Berea College (Campus Engagement)
•Colorado State University (Public Engagement)
•Columbia University (Transportation)
•Green Mountain College (Curriculum)
•Lewis & Clark College (Investment & Finance)
•Macalester College (Purchasing)
•New Mexico State University (Waste)
•Nova Scotia Community College (Buildings)
•Stanford University (Diversity & Affordability)
•Sterling College (Food & Dining)
•Université Laval (Air & Climate)
•University of Vermont (Energy)
AASHE’s Executive Director, Meghan Fay Zahniser, says, “The institutions and initiatives featured in this year’s Sustainable Campus Index showcase the hard work that colleges and universities have done to advance sustainability on their respective campuses and throughout the world. I hope you find inspiration within this report that may further drive collaborative efforts focused on innovative solutions to ongoing sustainable challenges.”