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Education, airports and industry

What is AASHE STARS?

Definition

STARS, the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System from AASHE, is a transparent, self-reporting framework colleges and universities use to measure their sustainability performance.

Who participates

Higher education institutions from community colleges to research universities, per AASHE. A campus sustainability office usually compiles the report with data from facilities, energy, procurement and transportation teams.

Ratings and validity

Scores lead to a Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum rating, or institutions can take the unscored Reporter designation. Reports and ratings stay valid for three years from publication, per AASHE. Version 3.0 is in use, with Energy and Climate and Buildings and Grounds among its credit areas, and AASHE has opened comment on proposed changes for 3.1.

Campus utility data for the energy credits

Energy and water credits depend on building-level data the campus can defend. Aqueduct supplies sub-metered electricity, gas and water by building with weather-normalized baselines, so year-over-year change is separated from a hot summer, plus exports the sustainability office can reconcile against utility invoices before submission.

Questions

AASHE STARS: common questions

AASHE STARS is the sustainability rating built for higher education by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. Institutions report publicly on academics, engagement, operations, planning and administration, and earn a rating from the points achieved. Aqueduct's view is on the universities and schools page.

LEED rates individual buildings. STARS rates an institution's overall sustainability performance, including teaching, research and governance as well as operations. A campus may use LEED results as evidence inside its STARS report.

After three years it moves to the archive and is marked expired unless the institution has published a newer report. Campuses that plan the next submission early keep a current rating and avoid rebuilding data from scratch.

Campus energy, water and emissions, with building detail where available, and enough history to show trends. Aqueduct supplies metered and normalized totals per building with exports for the sustainability office, which then completes the operations credits and assembles the report.

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Bring a site, a utility bill or a question. We will show you where the loss is.

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