Sustainability: How Do You Rate?

Colleges are sinking a lot of money and time into sustainability efforts, but do how they know whether they are making progress?

The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, or AASHE, is working on a rating system, and it needs the help of colleges to test and refine it — the more, the better, says Judy Walton, the association’s director of strategic initiatives. The group is seeking “pilot campuses” for the rating system.

AASHE hopes that the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System, also known as STARS, will one day provide a way for colleges to compare their sustainability practices and progress against those of other campuses and promote a more comprehensive understanding of sustainability. Ms. Walton has found, for example, that many colleges did not consider social-justice components of sustainability until they saw them among the STARS criteria.

Colleges should submit applications to become a pilot campus by Wednesday, but colleges can get an extension on that deadline — simply write to Ms. Walton.