We’re excited to report that the STARS pilot phase is launching today, with nearly 100 participating campuses! To moderate the workload of participating campuses, the pilot phase will be conducted in two stages. The first part will be released on February 4, and the second part will be released in the fall. The STARS Liaisons from each participating campus will receive special instructions on the pilot process, including a schedule of conference calls and the reporting structure.

I wanted to update you on one of our most exciting projects last year, which continues into 2008 – the creation of a standardized, national “Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System” (STARS) for colleges and universities.

As you may know, AASHE has involved the higher education community in a collaborative process to develop an assessment and self-evaluation tool for campuses to rate their sustainability efforts, with the goal of providing a usable, comprehensive measurement of success for sustainability in higher education. The project is called STARS (Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating […]

The Higher Education Sustainability Act (HESA) has taken another major step forward. On November 9, House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller unveiled the College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007 (HR 4137), which reauthorizes the Higher Education Act. At the request of many of the 17 co-sponsors of HESA, Chairman Miller […]

AASHE is pleased to announce the completed Guide to Developing a Sustainable Food Purchasing Policy. You may download the guide and view related policy examples on the companion web site www.sustainablefoodpolicy.org.
This document is a product of the Sustainable Food Policy Project, which was initiated in 2006 by the partners below to support efforts by […]

Twenty prominent higher education associations, including AASHE, have endorsed HESA to date. This is greatly helping to attract Congressional attention to the bill. But only ten individual schools are on the list (see below). We have only two weeks left to build support - and we’ll need more co-sponsors than we have now to get HESA passed. Please try to get your school to endorse HESA, and most importantly, contact your Representative and Senators as soon as possible to ask them to co-sponsor HESA.

AASHE is looking for motivated schools to pilot the first ever community-developed campus sustainability rating system.

On September 25, 2007, Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore) and Congressman Vernon Ehlers (R-MI) introduced the Higher Education Sustainability Act of 2007, H.R. 3637, which would authorize a $50 million competitive grant program to universities and institutions of higher education to develop, implement and evaluate sustainability curriculums, practices and academic programs. This is great news for […]