by Tony Moore
With around 3,000 four-year colleges in the U.S., it might be hard for any one of them to stand out. But Dickinson manages to do it time and again through its reputation in sustainability—across the spectrum of operations, academic programs and, ultimately, ethos.
Now, the Association of the Advancement for Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) has given Dickinson its STARS 2.0 Gold rating, a designation shared by only a small fraction of colleges nationwide. This designation marks the third time Dickinson has been named Gold through AASHE's Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS).
“At Dickinson, we value the AASHE STARS rating system because it allows us to get diverse data from across the college relating to sustainability all in one place,” says Lindsey Lyons, assistant director of the Center for Sustainability Education (CSE). The data are self-generated by participating institutions and evaluated by AASHE, which then ranks facets of each institution through four broad sets of criteria: academics, engagement, operations and planning & administration.
Lyons says that CSE updates Dickinson’s report to AASHE annually, and then the college and the President’s Commission on Environmental Sustainability use it to identify areas of need and possible innovation, setting institutional priorities and strategic initiatives.
Published July 27, 2015