Stanford submitted its third report through the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS) of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) to receive its third Gold rating. Stanford achieved a score of 81%, which is the second highest score achieved to date by the nearly 800 STARS participants.

With each submission the university has steadily increased its overall score. In 2016, Stanford increased its STARS score by over six percentage points from the score of 74.6% that the university achieved in 2014. In its first submission to the STARS rating system in 2012, Stanford achieved a 68.4%. While all of Stanford’s scores to date have fallen solidly in the Gold category, the university continually moves closer to the Platinum rating threshold at 85%, which has only been achieved by one institution to date.

The data that Stanford submits to STARS is also used by third party rating and ranking systems, such as the “Cool Schools” edition of Sierra Magazine or the Princeton Review. In 2016, Stanford was ranked #5 on Sierra’s top 20 Cool Schools list and made the Princeton Review Green Honor Roll for the fourth consecutive year.

In 2016, Stanford’s accolades reflected not only the university’s overall leadership in sustainability, but also the dedicated work being done in several key areas. For instance, drought response efforts since 2014 allowed Stanford to achieve full points in the Water Use category, making it the only institution to accomplish this. Additionally, the Stanford Energy System Innovations project allowed Stanford to significantly improve its performance in both the Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Building Energy Consumption categories, and Stanford’s thorough integration of sustainability in teaching and research allows the university to achieve full points in the Research category.