The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) announced last week that Estrella Mountain Community College (EMCC) has received a bronze rating for its Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS) report.
EMCC became a member of AASHE in June 2009, and subsequently adopted STARS as a charter Participant in December 2009 to help develop, implement and rack the progress of sustainability initiatives on the EMCC campus. STARS is a voluntary, self-reporting framework for colleges and universities to gauge progress toward sustainability and is designed 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; and
- build a stronger, more diverse campus sustainability community.
President of EMCC Dr. Ernie Lara said, “Receiving the Bronze rating for our STARS report is an important milestone that reflects our alignment with the Maricopa County Community Colleges Presidents’ Climate Commitment. We believe that in order to manage our sustainability progress on campus, we must align our initiatives with the goals of other colleges and universities across the nation.”
According to Nadine Johnson, co-chair of the EMCC Sustainability Team, “The STARS process has been an educational and rewarding experience. We learned the campus already had many sustainability measures in place; with campus support, we were able to implement many other features. For instance, our Campus Operations group is already using green cleaning products and 100-percent recycled paper in our copy center and in printers across the campus. And just this year, sustainability was adopted as one of EMCC’s Core Values and added to our Campus Strategic Plan.”
EMCC Sustainability Team co-chair Erik Huntsinger added, “STARS has proven to be a great tool for determining priorities for our sustainability initiatives. We are proud to be a leader among higher education institutions in Arizona and the United States in assessing our sustainability, and invite all higher education institutions to become rated through STARS and to work toward a more sustainable future.”
The EMCC sustainability team soon will begin development of a campus Climate Action Plan, using the STARS tool as a framework to outline specific steps EMCC will take to address environmental, economic, and social responsibilities. The plan is due in May 2012.
The American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment is supported by 676 institutions of higher education in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, including all colleges within the Maricopa County Community College District. Maricopa Community College District Chancellor Rufus Glasper signed the ACUPCC letter in early 2010 on behalf of all of the district’s colleges. Dr. Michael Crow, president of Arizona State University, is a co-chair of the ACUPCC.
STARS is a planning and benchmarking tool for institutions of higher education dedicated to sustainability, helping signatories of the ACUPCC work together to create a clean, green future by modeling ways to reduce greenhouse gases, providing knowledge, educating graduates to achieve climate neutrality and reducing long-term energy costs. For more information on the ACUPCC and STARS, visit http://www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org.