Higher education provides an ideal setting for engaging in the dialogue of sustainability while creating opportunities to integrate sustainability into society today. The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) is developing a cross-institutional assessment tool to help inform this dialogue of sustainability. In 2008-09, 70 higher education institutions participated in the AASHE Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS) pilot project. I coordinated Evergreen’s involvement in this pilot project. Through my research, I evaluated STARS and its ability to inform this dialogue of sustainability.

This research focused on three main questions with respect to Evergreen’s use of the STARS tool: (a) Is STARS an effective tool for use at Evergreen (did the framework address issues important to Evergreen, did it meet the criteria of an ideal assessment framework, and what are the advantages and disadvantages), (b) Does the STARS process lead to organizational learning, and (c) What STARS reveal about Evergreen’s commitment to sustainability. Using a case study research design, I took a multi-disciplinary approach to the data collection for STARS implementation. Through my research I found that STARS is an effective tool to evaluate sustainability at Evergreen, which led to organizational learning, and highlighted Evergreen’s complex and dynamic commitment to sustainability. The STARS tool could be further explored for its ability to help institutions of higher education fully embrace sustainability