Colorado State University, Appalachian State University, Green Mountain College and Kankakee Community College have been recognized as top performers in campus sustainability.
The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) ranked the institutions after measuring the performance of colleges and universities in 17 aspects of sustainability with its Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS).
“The institutions and initiatives featured in this year’s Sustainable Campus Index showcase the great work that higher education institutions are doing to lead the global sustainability transformation," says AASHE's Executive Director, Meghan Fay Zahniser. "I hope the contents of this report will inspire students, administrators, faculty and staff at colleges and universities to work together to implement innovative solutions to the challenges that we face today."
STARS is a self-reporting framework for colleges and universities to measure their sustainability performance.
The rating system identifies top overall performers in four categories of higher education. The top performing schools for 2016:
- Kankakee Community College in Kankakee, Ill., was the top overall performer among associate’s colleges.
- Green Mountain College in Poultney, Vt., was the top overall performer among baccalaureate institutions.
- Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., was the top overall performer among master’s institutions.
- Colorado State University in Fort Collins was the top overall performer among doctorate/research institutions.
Doctorate/research institutions (schools that award at least 20 research doctoral degrees annually); master’s institutions (colleges and universities that award at least 50 master’s degrees and fewer than 20 doctoral degrees annually); baccalaureate institutions (colleges and universities where baccalaureate degrees represent at least 10 percent of all undergraduate degrees and where fewer than 50 master’s degrees or 20 doctoral degrees are awarded annually); and associate’s colleges (institutions where all degrees are at the associate’s level, or where Baccalaureate degrees account for less than 10 percent of all degrees).