Mechanism for Broad Sustainability Coordination
Institutions should have at least one sustainability committee, office, and/or officer tasked by the administration or governing body to advise on and implement policies and programs related to sustainability on campus. The committee, office, and/or officer focuses on sustainability broadly (i.e., not just one sustainability issue, such as climate change) and covers the entire institution.
An institution that has multiple committees, offices and/or staff with responsibility for subsets of the institution (e.g., schools or departments) may earn points for this credit if it has a mechanism for broad sustainability coordination for the entire campus (e.g., a coordinating committee or the equivalent). A committee, office, and/or officer that focuses on one aspect of sustainability (e.g., an energy efficiency committee) or has jurisdiction over only a part of the institution (e.g., “Academic Affairs Sustainability Taskforce”) does not count toward scoring in the absence of institution-wide coordination.
This metric is looking for a mechanism for broad sustainability coordination for the entire institution:
For Wikirate researchers:
Institutions who report to the STARS program are listed on the STARS Participants & Reports website.
Use the institution Index, CTRL F, or Command F to search for the institution you want to research
By clicking on the hyperlinked name of the institution, you will be redirected to the page where all their STARS reports are listed. You can select either the most recent report, or one of the older reports to start tracking their performance over time.
NB: While the values in the reports might apply to different points in time (performance year, baseline year, most recent, etc.), the submission date of the report should be listed as the “year” on Wikirate. This is to ensure that reports of the same submission year can be compared. Any time specific information for the individual values should be included in the comment to that specific metric value.
To narrow down your search, navigate the reports’ index using the Reporting Category - Planning & Administration - and Credit Category - Coordination, Planning and Governance - to finally select the Credit Title: Sustainability Coordination.
You should now be on the report page that discloses a mechanism for broad sustainability coordination for the entire institution. To locate the exact value you can search the page using CTRL F or Command F with keywords like sustainability mechanism and coordination.
Always check the metric question and methodology for the unit of measure or currency - researchers may need to carry out calculations or conversions before entering the final metric value
Add comments to include details of simple or complex calculations or conversions made to determine the metric value and document any relevant contextual information, like if the answer is yes:
a brief description of the activities and substantive accomplishments of the institution-wide coordinating body or officer during the previous three years
the website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available (optional)
Further guidance on how to research values is available here, including detailed guidance on adding, editing and checking metric values.
STARS compliance guidance for institutions:
E.g. a campus-wide committee or an officer/office responsible for the entire campus