Happy New Year everyone! I hope you're already enjoying the first few days of 2008.

I wanted to update you on one of our most exciting projects last year, which continues into 2008 - the creation of a standardized, national “Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System” (STARS) for colleges and universities. In coordinating the participative process behind its development, we've had the privilege of working with representatives of over 20 higher education associations, more than 100 technical experts, and over 100 other reviewers from across the spectrum of the higher education community. We couldn't have done it without the support of so many higher education associations and campus experts who provided feedback on the STARS indicators in their areas of expertise.

STARS is about to enter its pilot phase (February, 2008), with 80+ pilot campuses representing all institutional types, sizes, and geographies. The final list of pilots will be announced in a couple of weeks. They will use STARS version, 0.5, which will be posted early in February, and will also be open for public and expert review. The release of the official STARS v.1.0 is scheduled for Earth Day, 2009.

Please visit the STARS webpage at www.aashe.org/stars to learn more about this significant initiative, including the history of how it came to be, You'll find the current draft (v. 0.4) of the rating system, all comments received to date, a PPT presentation, and a list of committee members. You'll also find ways you can participate. If interested in getting regular updates on STARS, you can join the “discussion list” (which is actually more of an announcements list) - http://lists.aashe.net/listinfo.cgi/aashe-rating-aashe.net.

As we draft version 0.5, we intend to send subsections out for quick review to those with relevant expertise. If you would like to serve on a subsection "review team" in any area below, let me know as soon as possible (judy@aashe.org). Thank you!

- Judy Walton

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