Dear AASHE Members and Supporters, AASHE is looking for motivated schools to pilot the first ever community-developed campus sustainability rating system.STARSAs many of you know, AASHE has initiated a collaborative process to develop a campus sustainability rating system, tentatively called the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System (STARS). The project is in its scoping and development phase, with a pilot version planned for early 2008, and a 1.0 version by early 2009. As announced in the AASHE Bulletin, we're looking forpilot institutionsto test-run STARS in 2008 and provide feedback on individual credits as well as the entire system. In an effort to get as diverse a group of campuses piloting STARS as possible, we've extended the deadline for applications toWednesday, October 31. Please consider being a pilot campus! The more institutions the better, as it will help to set proper thresholds by institution type and identify problem areas. Pilot institutions will benefit from early experience with the rating system, opportunities to refine and shape it, and recognition in AASHE materials and publicity about the initiative. Applications can be downloaded from www.aashe.org/stars/#pilot (under "pilot campuses"). We are also looking for morereviewersfor the next round of comments. We can especially use more feedback in the areas of social responsibility, diversity, and community engagement, but also in any other topic covered in the rating system. Please get in touch with me if you are interested, and feel free to forward this to others who might want to get involved or simply follow STARS' progress. More information about STARS, including the latest draft of the checklist and a list of committees, is available on the project web page - www.aashe.org/stars. I'd be happy to answer any questions.Thanks in advance for your consideration and contributions to the development of STARS.Best, Judy Walton STARS Project Manager ---|| Director of Strategic Initiatives Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) Tel: 859.940.2909 [Portland, OR] judy@aashe.org