In recognition of its sustainability achievements, Virginia Commonwealth University has again earned a STARS Gold rating from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.
STARS – the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System – measures and encourages sustainability in all aspects of higher education, including academics, engagement, operations, planning and administration, and innovation and leadership. With more than 1,200 participants in 52 countries, the AASHE program is the most widely recognized framework in the world for publicly reporting comprehensive information related to a college or university's sustainability performance.
"Achieving STARS Gold is a reflection of the university's commitment to sustainability. We are grateful for the exceptional work of faculty, staff, and students across the institution that has led to this result," said Meredith Weiss, Ph.D., VCU's senior vice president for finance and administration and CFO.
Microgreens growing in the greenhouse of the Trani Center for Life Sciences. (Photo courtesy of VCU Sustainability)
The recent reaffirmation of the university's gold rating comes as VCU begins implementation of the first-ever ONE VCU Sustainability Plan, a new initiative to pursue meaningful and impactful environmental sustainability goals and initiatives at both the university and the health system.
"I am grateful that this comprehensive plan is a call on our large community to address environmental and sustainability issues that impact human health, our economy, and our natural world," said VCU President Michael Rao, Ph.D. "As a top-ranked national public research university and health system, we have the ability and responsibility to lead the way in facing these challenges at the local and global level and make sustainability integral to the ONE VCU culture. We are role models for our communities and need to model the best of sustainability."
The ONE VCU Sustainability Plan is organized into the following three goals – each with strategies, initiatives, and measurements of success – that outline actionable, achievable opportunities for the university and health system to weave sustainability into operations, academics, research, innovation and healthcare:
Development of the ONE VCU Sustainability Plan took place over more than two years and is a result of several collaborative committees and working groups represented by university and health system students, faculty, staff, and team members, as well as local community members from a range of backgrounds.
"Internal and external engagement were important to the success of the development of this plan," said Ann Kildahl, Ph.D. director of sustainability. "Throughout the development process, we engaged with the VCU and VCU Health communities and the Richmond community to understand current sustainability conditions, pinpoint areas of improvement and identify new opportunities."
Engagement consisted of events and presentations, stakeholder interviews, meetings with community groups and public surveys resulting in over 2,200 responses. The public was also invited to submit suggestions, feedback and questions via email at any time throughout the process. Each piece of feedback was then incorporated into the final ONE VCU Sustainability Plan.
Source: VCU.edu