In our continuing effort to become a zero waste campus and reduce energy and carbon emissions by 2020, Sheridan has earned a “Silver” STARS rating from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE).
AASHE awards Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze ratings to post-secondary institutions who voluntarily report data to the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS). AASHE’s STARS program is the most widely recognized framework in the world for publicly reporting comprehensive information about a college or university’s sustainability performance in Operations, Academics, Engagement, and Planning & Administration.
Since our initial campus-wide assessment in 2012, Sheridan has improved from a “Bronze” to a “Silver” rating. Our accomplishment reflects a significant improvement in energy efficiency, waste generated per campus user, and better data tracking.
This STARS submission also shows a drastic improvement in Public Engagement; we are now able to claim over half of the available points, up from under 10%. Academic administrators were engaged early in the process of identifying courses containing sustainability content, and as a result, we were able to include a thoroughly-examined course list. This allowed us to capture almost half of the Academics credits, up from 16% in the first submission.
“The STARS framework provides a sustainability lens through which we gain valuable insights into areas of strength and opportunities for improvement across the organization,” said Herb Sinnock (Manager, Sustainable Energy Systems and Manager of the Office for Sustainability). “I am pleased to see that Sheridan has gained strength in a number of key categories since our last reporting cycle, and all of us in Office for Sustainability look forward to working with the Sheridan community to advance even further by the next assessment.”
We want to thank everyone who helped with providing data and filling out the assessment, without whom this wouldn’t be possible. The data collection for the STARS survey spanned nearly every department across all campuses.
Sheridan’s STARS report is available on the STARS website. For more information about sustainability at Sheridan visit sustainability.sheridancollege.ca. If you have any questions or comments about this achievement please email sustainability@sheridancollege.ca.
