The Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System™(STARS®) is a transparent, self-reporting framework for colleges and universities to measure their sustainability performance. STARS was developed by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education with broad participation from the higher education community.
STARS was developed by the higher education community through a transparent and inclusive process.
An institution’s STARS score is based on the percentage of applicable points earned in credits across four main categories: Academics, Engagement, Operations, and Planning & Administration.
STARS is designed to:
- Provide a framework for understanding sustainability in all sectors of higher education.
- Enable meaningful comparisons over time and across institutions using a common set of measurements
- Create incentives for continual improvement toward sustainability.
- Facilitate information sharing about higher education sustainability practices and performance.
- Build a stronger, more diverse campus sustainability community.
The Office of Sustainability & Campus Enrichment is a charter member of STARS and has been participating in the assessment process since 2012.
Our Most Recent Report - STARS Gold
View the most recent Texas A&M University STARS report submitted December 20, 2023.
You may view a full listing of STARS institutions on the AASHE STARS website.
Academic Content
Every three years, the Office of Sustainability & Campus Enrichment reviews 10,000+ syllabi to identify the courses taught at Texas A&M that focus on or teach a component of sustainability. Our most recent inventory covers courses offered at Texas A&M University in College Station between Summer 2022 and Spring 2023. All undergraduate courses are included in the review. Graduate courses that submitted an electronic syllabus are also included. Syllabi from previous reviews that are not considered sustainability focused or included are removed from the current comprehensive review. Following are statistics about the syllabus review:
- 9,620 undergraduate courses offered by TAMU were reviewed
- 692 courses focused on a sustainability topic
- 1,140 included at least one sustainability topic
- 3,311 graduate courses were reviewed
- 109 focused on a sustainability topic
- 158 included at least one topic
- 83% of academic departments offered at least one course among those reviewed.
Review the 2023 STARS Academic and Department Course Inventory.
STARS Awards
The STARS Awards recognize the stakeholders who helped compile and enter the data needed to complete the report and the departments they represent.