Campus awarded silver ranking in sustainability
April 25, 2015
After taking its first-ever green selfie, the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater is celebrating sustainability achievements while aspiring to be even greener.
The campus recently received "silver" recognition after using the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System. This transparent, self-reporting framework allows colleges and universities to measure their sustainability performance.
"It shines a light in a detail-specific way," said Josh Mabie, faculty sustainability fellow. "This assessment is a useful tool to highlight all the great work that's happening across campus, and also to highlight gaps so that we can devote resources to make improvements."
STARS is a comprehensive program, covering academics, engagement, operations, and planning and administration. It is administered by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. UW-Whitewater has been a member institution of AASHE since 2008.
About 700 colleges and universities in 21 countries have registered to use STARS to assess their green efforts. Less than half have completed the assessment and received recognition as bronze, silver, gold or platinum schools.
UW-Whitewater's campuswide implementation of outdoor LED lighting, the launch of the environmental science major and meaningful co-curricular activities like RecycleMania all reflected positively in the assessment.
"The report reflects many best practices and efforts by our facilities staff to minimize the campus resource use and environmental footprint," said Wes Enterline, sustainability coordinator. "The strong score we received in the planning and administration section reflects our campus commitment to diversity and our efforts to integrate sustainability into our strategic planning."
Efforts are already underway to strengthen programming in all STARS areas.
Academically, Mabie said faculty members have proposed adding sustainability as a desired learning outcome for general education courses. In the fall, the College of Letters and Sciences is hosting a campus diversity forum organized around sustainability and diversity.
"Another benefit of completing this assessment is that it encourages collaboration across a variety of campus departments, including facilities, academics and student life," said Mabie. "Sustainability is challenging us and unleashing creativity and innovation. Now that we have the results of this survey, we can work on a sustainability plan that will be very aspirational."
View the complete ranking online >>
Learn more about UW-Whitewater's sustainability efforts >>