The Auburn University Office of Sustainability collaborated with Academic Sustainability Programs to conduct a comprehensive self-assessment throughout 2015, and submitted findings to STARS in January, according to a University release. Representatives from many areas of campus participated in gathering and providing data.
“Auburn has a longstanding commitment to sustainability and a STARS Silver Rating validates Auburn’s efforts so far to fulfill that commitment,” said Mike Kensler, director of the Office of Sustainability. “Cataloguing our achievements through STARS allows us to look back at what we have accomplished and look forward to what’s next. It is both gratifying and stimulating.”
“We are proud that we have again achieved a STARS Silver Rating for our sustainability accomplishments, which motivate us to accomplish more,” said Nanette Chadwick, director of Academic Sustainability Programs. “One of our key academic accomplishments over the past three years has been to include Introduction to Sustainability as a course option in the core curriculum. This has greatly increased student enrollment. Over the same period, we also increased the proportion of other courses with sustainability content in most of the colleges on campus. By now, our program has trained over 80 faculty to add sustainability content into the courses they teach, to better prepare our graduates for their roles as leaders of tomorrow.”
STARS provides a common platform for assessing sustainability performance in higher education, the release states. Universities across the U.S. and in 23 other countries use STARS to conduct thorough and systematic evaluations of sustainability performance in four areas: education and research, operations, engagement, and planning and administration.
The report is public and can be found at the STARS website: www.stars.aashe.org.
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