IU earns ‘silver’ on sustainability

IU-Bloomington received a “silver” rating this week from the Sustainability, Tracking, Assessment and Rating System.

The University became the seventh reported school to become part of the new campus sustainability measure. The STARS rating system is directed by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.

“This is a new system and it’s the first one that was really developed by college and universities for college and universities,” said Bill Brown, director of the Office of Sustainability.

The STARS program is one of the only sustainability reports that is a comprehensive system and clearly shows how the universities that participate are scored.

“It will allow us to learn from other people who submit the report and it’ll allow other people to learn from us,” Brown said. “We think it’s a step in the right direction in terms of collaboration among our peer institutions.”

The rating system is scored in three different areas: education and research, operations and planning administration and engagement. Point values are given to each of the categories and averaged to obtain a platinum, gold, silver or bronze rating.

“While there is much more progress to be made, our participation in this project indicates that we are firmly dedicated to addressing the serious issues surrounding sustainability,” said Provost and Executive Vice President Karen Hanson in a press release.

Vice President for Capital Funds and Projects Tom Morrison said the University’s efforts in sustainability are like the saying “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”

“It all builds upon itself. We have to do this one step at a time,” Morrison said. “The good thing is that the University’s master plan has all these goals enumerated in it, and it recognizes a number of the steps that we want to take as a campus and I think those correspond well with the STARS rating.”

The IU Office of Sustainability has set a goal to receive a platinum rating — the highest the STARS program offers — by the year 2020.

“Eventually we’d like to become recognized as national leaders in campus sustainability,” Brown said.