Sustainability Assessment
Laurier’s Sustainability Office is conducting a Sustainability
Assessment in order to identify areas of strength and weakness in terms
of sustainability at Laurier. After compiling and organizing this
information, the Sustainability Office will be more inclined to allocate
its limited resources to minimizing Laurier’s environmental footprint
and advancing Laurier’s efforts to becoming a recognized leader in
campus sustainability.
Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS)
STARS is a campus sustainability assessment framework developed by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). After a trial pilot phase and a 3 year feedback period, AASHE released STARS which Laurier will be using to conduct its Sustainability Assessment. STARS rates a university’s progress towards sustainability based on the sum of a number of weighted indicators. These indicators are based on 4 major categories:
1. Education and research
2. Operations (ex. energy consumption, transportation options, waste management, etc.)
3. Planning, administration and engagement (ex. human resources, investment, etc.)
4. Innovation
The Sustainability Office will collect data and feed it into the online STARS reporting tool. The final rating, based on the point system associated with the indicators, can be used to compare Laurier against other universities, or to compare the university’s own progress from year to year.
For more information refer to the STARS Manual.
