FOREWORD: AASHE SUSTAINABLE CAMPUSES
SUSTAINABLE
CAMPUSES A foreword by Meghan Fay Zahniser, AASHE Executive Director
MEGHAN FAY ZAHNISER, AASHE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR.
The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) is proud to support the “Sustainable Campuses” series that recognizes achievements of the higher education sector and their ef18 | SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE
forts toward developing a thriving, equitable and ecologically healthy world. AASHE empowers higher education administrators, faculty, staff and students to be effective change agents and drivers of sustainability innovation. We enable members to translate information into action by offering essential resources and professional development opportunities to a diverse, engaged community of sustainability leaders. We work with and for higher education to ensure that our world’s future leaders are motivated and equipped to solve sustainability challenges. We support the higher education community through the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS), modeling Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, the AASHE Conference & Expo and more.
STARS STARS was introduced as a transparent, self-reporting framework for colleges and universities to measure their sustainability performance. This program incentivizes institutions to deepen their efforts and provides an open platform for information sharing. STARS has become the global standard for sustainability in higher education and has more than 320 rated institutions from nearly 1,000 participants. STARS is being used by institutions in 38 countries, and we are happy to share a few recent STARS firsts including: • The University College Cork becoming the first institution in Ireland to earn a STARS rating and the first institution outside the U.S. and Canada to achieve STARS Gold rating.
