CSU LIFE
FACULTY & STAFF
MARCH2019 2020 SEPTEMBER
Happy Birthday, CSU!
Colorado State celebrated the 150th anniversary of its founding in style on Feb. 11, with (clockwise from upper left) big letters on the LSC Plaza, a conversation with former UN Ambassador Susan Rice and NPR Correspondent Greg Myrhe; signing a giant birthday card, and Vice President for Student Affairs Blanche Hughes and CAM the Ram blowing out the candles on the cake. Photos by CSU Photography.
CSU three-peats STARS Platinum sustainability rating
By Joe Giordano
Colorado State University is building upon its global reputation as an innovative leader in sustainability by becoming the only institution in the world to earn three Platinum ratings from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. AASHE recently awarded CSU a Platinum rating for a record third time under its Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS), an independent program that measures comprehensive sustainability efforts at 990 universities around the world. CSU earned the best score in the United States at 88.14 points, joining Stanford University; Thompson Rivers University in Canada; University of New Hampshire, and the University of California, Irvine as the only institutions ever to receive Platinum ratings. CSU’s score was 2.58 points higher than its previous score in 2017. “To earn a third platinum rating with the best STARS score in the U.S. is incredible recognition of all the work done by the faculty, staff and students of Colorado State University. Sustainability is a true community effort, and we at CSU take sustainability as a point of pride in everything we do,” said CSU President Joyce McConnell. “Sustainability is not a plateau where we can say ‘we’ve done enough.’ There are areas where we can improve and become an even more sustainable place to learn and discover.”
No rest in quest for the best
In 2015, CSU was the first university in the world to earn a Platinum
STARS rating. The historic results were repeated in 2017 when CSU went Platinum for a second time. CSU has not rested since then. Since 2017, the University has added more than 335,000 square feet of new LEED Platinum- or Gold-certified classrooms, research space and offices. The League of American Bicyclists also recertified the institution as a Platinum-level community in 2019. CSU also created the Ram Food Recovery Program to redistribute food items, when deemed safe, to the campus community to address both food insecurity and waste. One student idea resulted in the creation of several student-managed apiaries on campus as well as pollinator-friendly gardens, which led to CSU’s certification from Bee Campus USA in 2018. “Our faculty, staff and students continue to probe sustainability issues in diverse fields,” McConnell said. “We uncover new challenges every day. And like other STARS-reporting institutions, we are passionately committed to addressing those challenges, solving the problems they bring, developing solutions and generating new ideas that will offer all of us hope moving forward.”
