STARS Sustainability Reporting Process
Cornell re-evaluates sustainability annually across campus, assessing performance with a self-reporting framework called Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS).
Cornell is proud to announce we have renewed our Platinum rating for its six year.
What is AASHE STARS?
STARS is a transparent, self-reporting framework for colleges and universities to measure their sustainability performance. This system was developed by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) with broad participation from diverse representatives of the higher education community.
Anybody with a Cornell email can join AASHE for free. Cornell is an active member of AASHE therefore all Cornell students, staff, and faculty have free access to AASHE’s online resources, which include opportunities for networking, information sharing, collaboration, and professional development.
How does the STARS system work?
STARS is broken into four sectors: Academics (AC), Engagement (EN), Operations (OP), and Planning & Administration (PA). Each sector is further tiered into data credits that describe specific metrics, activities, or practices throughout campus. Fulfillment of credits allows the University to accumulate points, and STARS awards a rating of platinum, gold, silver, or bronze based on earned points. The data used to assign points are made public so that institutions may compare their own activities to those of other campuses, and get inspiration for ways to improve and achieve success.
What makes STARS different?
AASHE’s STARS program is the only one of its kind that involves publicly reporting comprehensive information related to a university’s sustainability performance. Unlike other rating or ranking systems, this program is open to all institutions of higher education throughout the world, and the criteria that determine a STARS rating are transparent and accessible to anyone. Because STARS is a program based on credits earned, it allows for both internal comparisons as well as comparisons with similar institutions.
STARS Roles
Our office collaborates with designated SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) for data and RPs (Responsible Party) who review the data submitted by the SMEs.
To get involved with sustainability on campus, contact:
To learn more about STARS, contact:
STARS Timeline
September
Campus Sustainability Office works on administrative / organizational STARS tasks (requesting information from the Cornell Registrar, reviewing list of contributors, preparing key communications with SMEs and RPs, etc.)
September– December
SMEs enter quantitative and qualitative data to the STARS online reporting tool
January-February
RPs review data
Peer institution reviews our data.
March
Data is formally submitted to STARS in order to receive a final review and rating
April
Final rating is announced to campus
Following completion of a STARS report, the campus spends the proceeding academic year reviewing findings and crafting action plans for improvement with departments across campus.