FAQ: Sustainability Rating

Q. I noticed that campus has a silver sustainability rating, but that we don’t make the lists of the greenest schools in magazines like the Sierra Club. Why is that?

A. Wake Forest University participates in STARS, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s Sustainability Tracking Assessment Rating System (say that three times fast). We undertake this comprehensive reporting effort as a part of our commitment to transparency and accountability.  The framework was developed specifically to measure and track indicators of sustainability in higher education. Each campus that participates makes its report available online; no ratings or rankings are judged out of context or evaluated using metrics that create a limited view of a campus’ commitment. Wake Forest is one of many campuses that does not respond to other outside requests for ratings/ranking information. We encourage those groups who would like to showcase campus efforts to draw from our STARS report for any information they might need.

In 2011, 2012, and 2015 WFU submitted a STARS report and was awarded a STARS silver rating, the third highest rating possible.