Binghamton University earns STARS Gold rating for sustainability achievements

Binghamton University has earned a STARS Gold rating in recognition of its sustainability achievements from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). STARS, the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System, measures and encourages sustainability in all aspects of higher education.

Binghamton had achieved STARS Silver status the past two years, but gold status was the goal, President Harvey Stenger said.

“We have made sustainability a priority in many ways at Binghamton, including in our physical infrastructure, development of new academic programs and an emphasis on sustainability in our research,” Stenger said. “We also recently adopted our first Sustainability Plan and continue to pursue a Green Energy Master Plan to reduce our carbon footprint.”

“STARS was developed by the campus sustainability community to provide high standards for recognizing campus sustainability efforts,” AASHE Executive Director Meghan Fay Zahniser said. “Binghamton University has demonstrated a substantial commitment to sustainability by achieving a STARS Gold Rating and is to be congratulated for its efforts.”

Colleges and universities report sustainability achievements to STARS in five overall areas: academics, engagement, operations, planning and administration, and innovation and leadership.

These categories align with Binghamton’s vision of environmental, economic and equitable sustainability initiatives, and according to Pam Mischen, associate professor of public administration and member of a committee that focuses on the University’s sustainability efforts, Binghamton reports achievements in every category.

“STARS is really looking at what campuses are doing. Think about what we do with our campus from an environmental perspective; we are very involved in our local community in terms of economic development and it ties in with the environment,” Mischen said. “When we expand our campus, we do it in areas that need economic revitalization. We reuse existing buildings or build on existing footprints in places that increase our ability to have an impact on low-income areas.”

In terms of equity, Mischen explained it is about making sure that all students have what they need to be successful. “For instance, we recognize that food security is an issue for many of our students and the Binghamton University Food Pantry is available to help students who are food insecure.

“We go through each and every point and there are very few things we don’t try for,” Mischen added. “The committee that works on this put together our Sustainability Plan and identified some things we could do better. That’s where we put our focus, doing things like increasing the low-mow or no-mow areas on campus that enabled us to achieve a sustainability objective, and actually reduced costs as well.”

The ratings are comprehensive, yet strict, and campuses can also earn partial points for their efforts. Some of it also boils down to better record keeping, Mischen said. “They audit us and we get an entire list of clarifications we have to make, providing documentation,” she said.

“STARS updates its reporting platform and every few years there’s a new version,” said Sandy DeJohn, Binghamton’s utility manager and sustainability coordinator.

This year, changes in the innovation and leadership category provided opportunities to earn points that had not been available in the past, she said. “Innovation this year had more areas to explore. Innovation and leadership are something you can add if you do well, so this year we grabbed as many points as we could from this list.”

“This rating is a tool for us to benchmark ourselves against other universities to see how well we do,” DeJohn said. “Certain things we do better than others.

“These credits [points] are established though a panel; AASHE came up with these standards and minimum requirements to be considered sustainable. They set a bar, and every year we say can we do a little better and we do,” she said.

As an example, DeJohn noted that establishing a Sustainability Project Fund allowed Binghamton to earn another half point by helping the campus fund energy conservation projects. “We also have composting and a recycling program run mostly by students, which is pretty unique,” she said.

Last year, STARS ranked Binghamton No. 1 for research and featured the University in its annual report, Mischen said. The campus earned all possible points for research again this year.

“The reason we do really well earning research points is because we have to report what percentage of faculty are doing sustainability-related research,” she said. “Because we have the Sustainable Communities and Smart Energy TAEs, we can claim a large portion of our faculty is doing sustainability research of some kind. It works to our benefit.”

“We’re always trying to decrease our carbon footprint and that helps us every year. Our end goal is to have a better campus,” Mischen said.

With more than 900 participants in 40 countries, AASHE’s STARS program is the most widely recognized framework in the world for publicly reporting comprehensive information related to a college or university’s sustainability performance.

The STARS program is open to all institutions of higher education, and the criteria that determine a STARS rating are transparent and accessible to anyone. Because STARS is a program based on credits earned, it allows for both internal comparisons as well as comparisons with similar institutions.

Binghamton University’s STARS report is publicly available on the STARS website.