Among the 250 total participating universities rated by the Sustainability Tracking Assessment and Rating System (STARS), Grand Valley State University received a silver rating, putting the university among the highest-rated in universities across the U.S. and Canada in terms of sutainability efforts. Along with GVSU, 20 other colleges have a silver rating, with 10 receiving bronze and nine receiving gold.

The rating system is calculated based on how many points a university receives in a category, and the total determines where the university rates. STARS observes categories which include education and research, operations, planning, administration and engagement and innovation.

The highest honor an institution can attain in the rating system is a platinum rating. Bart Bartels, project manager for the GVSU Sustainable Community Development Initiative, said while reaching platinum is difficult, it is the ultimate goal for GVSU.

“The points are awarded very conservatively,” he said. “I get the impression that they don’t want anyone to think their work is done, and rightfully so.”

Bartels said reaching platinum requires the work of not just the SCDI but the entire university.

“I’ve used STARS as a widespread collaborative effort,” Bartels said. “It really took a lot of work from every department on campus.”

After the silver award was released for GVSU, a celebration luncheon was held on Friday.

Wendy Wenner, dean of the college of Interdisciplinary Studies, calledfor GVSU to reach this goal and become a leader for other universities to follow.

“Our goal, I think our modest goal, is to be the most sustainable university in the Midwest,” she said.

To reach this goal, Wenner said GVSU can only do so much on its own, and the university needs to reach out to see what other campuses are doing.

“This is a very transparent evaluation, and so it is out public for everybody to measure us against other universities,” Wenner said. “So it takes some courage for us to step out in the front, and it takes some will after that to look carefully at what we can and want to do from here.”

Since 2005, GVSU has stayed ahead of the curve in a period of tremendous growth, Bartels said.

“I think the important thing to realize is we reduced our water consumption by 25 million gallons. We reduced our energy consumption and we’ve reduced our waste,” Bartels said. “But we did that over a time of significant growth.”

Even with these areas of success, Bartels sees areas for GVSU to not only improve the STARS rating but also general education about sustainability.

“The good thing about STARS is it creates an awareness of projects that we are not doing,” Bartels said. “We don’t have a student peer-to-peer sustainable education program. We don’t have a carbon offset program and we don’t have a sustainable student-run business on campus. All of these are possibilities for the future.”

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