The Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS) will enable higher-education institutions, from community colleges to large universities, to assess the progress of sustainability efforts on their campuses.

"There is currently no standard, comprehensive way to compare the sustainability performance of higher-education institutions and to benchmark a single institution's performance over time," the draft states. "This makes it difficult for schools to reap the marketing, recruitment and fundraising benefits of sustainability leadership."

The association began working on a rating system in 2006. It released the previous draft (version 0.4) of the STARS system in September 2007 and used the feedback to make changes for the latest version.

The goals of the rating system, the AASHE says, are to:

• Provide a guide for advancing sustainability in all sectors of higher education.
• Enable meaningful comparisons over time and across institutions by establishing a common standard of measurement for sustainability in higher education.
• Create incentives for continual improvement toward sustainability.
• Facilitate information sharing about higher education sustainability practices and performance.
• Recognize sustainability achievements for all institutions, including leaders and beginners.
• Build a stronger, more diverse campus sustainability community.

The AASHE says that as proposed, STARS would enable campuses to earn two types of credits: performance, which consists of quantitative measurements, and strategy, which focuses on approaches or processes. Performance credits generally are given a higher priority. "The primary goal of the system is to catalyze tangible improvements in sustainability achievement, not simply to encourage adoption of more strategies," the AASHE says.

Credits also are broken down into three categories--education and research; operations; and administration and finance. STARS Version 0.5 lists a possible 66 points under education and research; 61 points under operations; and 51 points under administration and finance.

For instance, under operations, colleges and universities can receive credits for having a green cleaning program, for using local sources in food services, for buying environmentally preferable furniture and paper products, and for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

More than 90 colleges and universities are taking part in a pilot project testing STARS. They will provide feedback to AASHE throughout 2008 and help develop STARS version 1.0, planned for release in spring 2009.

Version 0.5 of STARS is online at www.aashe.org/stars/documents/STARS_0.5.pdf. The AASHE is seeking comments on the draft at stars@aashe.org until May 9.

• 17: Percentage reduction in greenhouse gas emission at Yale University since 2005.

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