Report reflects QU’s underwhelming progress toward sustainability

p. 2

By CAT MURPHY Associate News Edtor

Data published in March 2022 by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education identified deficiencies in Quinnipiac University’s approach to sustainability.

AASHE’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System enables colleges and universities to evaluate and score their sustainability performance.

The point-based STARS rating system awards universities with bronze, silver, gold and platinum ratings, though institutions can opt to submit unscored reports that do not qualify for performance ratings.

Per AASHE’s website, the self-reporting system measures an institution’s sustainability across four major categories: academic programming, community engagement, campus operations and planning and administration.

Quinnipiac, which submitted its first AASHE report in March 2022, earned a bronze STARS rating in April of that year.

Bethany Zemba, vice president for strategy and community relations and member ex-officio of the Quinnipiac Sustainability Implementation Committee, noted that the university’s AASHE STARS initiative required “a tremendous amount of work.”

“There had never been anybody at the university paying attention to sustainability in a cohesive way,” said Zemba, who previously worked at Yale University’s School of the Environment. “I think they always cared about sustainability, but it wasn’t centralized in the way that (President Judy Olian) made it centralized.”

The university, which earned 56.65 of

See SUSTAINABILITY Page 2

JACK MUSCATELLO/CHRONICLE