Embargoed until 3:01am EST Thursday, April 10, 2008
Contact: Julian Dautremont-Smith, AASHE Associate Director - (610) 349-5994

Lexington, KY: The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) announced the release of the next draft of its rating system for sustainability in higher education, called STARS (Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System). The release of STARS version 0.5 (pdf) opens a public comment period that will last until May 9, 2008.

"We encourage feedback from the entire higher education community as we continue to refine the system,” said Judy Walton, AASHE’s acting executive director. “This latest version of STARS is significantly improved over the version we released in September thanks to the input we received.”

Given the rapid growth of sustainability initiatives at institutions of higher education in North America, measuring and assessing progress toward sustainability goals has become increasingly important.  STARS is designed to:

• Help gauge the progress of colleges and universities toward sustainability in all sectors, from governance and operations to academics and community engagement.
• Enable meaningful comparisons across institutions as well as benchmarking within institutions.
• Create incentives for continual improvement toward sustainability.
• Facilitate information sharing about sustainability practices and performance in higher education
• Build a stronger, more diverse campus sustainability community.

While many institutions have undertaken sustainability assessments and while a variety of assessment tools are available, there is currently no system that translates a wide range of sustainability indicators into a single metric that enables both institutional benchmarking and easy comparison across a large number of campuses in terms of overall level of achievement.

"We're eager to review the newest draft of STARS," said Shere Abbott Director of the Center for Science and Practice of Sustainability and Co-chair of the President's Task Force on Sustainability at The University of Texas at Austin. "The key is to establish metrics that help guide all of us toward more sustainable practices and away from unsustainable practices. Participating in the STARS pilot program has been helpful as we monitor progress here at UT Austin."

Over 90 colleges and universities, including UT Austin, are pilot testing STARS. They will provide feedback to AASHE throughout 2008 and inform the development of STARS version 1.0, planned for release in spring 2009.

Using STARS, campuses may earn credits in three categories – 1) Education and Research, 2) Operations, and 3) Administration and Finance. Within each category are sections of credits, ranging from “purchasing” and “buildings” in Operations to “investment” and “planning” in Administration and Finance.

For information about STARS, including a copy of the new version (v.0.5) please visit www.aashe.org/stars.

About AASHE:
AASHE is an association of colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada working to create a sustainable future. It was founded in 2006 with a mission to promote sustainability in all sectors of higher education - from governance and operations to curriculum and outreach - through education, communication, research and professional development. AASHE defines sustainability in an inclusive way, encompassing human and ecological health, social justice, secure livelihoods, and a better world for all generations.

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