| Overall Rating | Bronze |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 35.50 |
| Liaison | Brian Kelley |
| Submission Date | March 1, 2025 |
Christopher Newport University
PRE-4: Reporting Methodologies
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
N/A |
Brian
Kelley Sustainability Specialist Facilities Management |
Narrative outlining the data collection process used in the preparation of this report:
Christopher Newport University is pleased to submit to AASHE STARS for the first time ever in 2025 and would like to thank President Kelly's support by initiating a GoingGreener campaign in 2024 that led to the creation of a GoingGreener task force comprised of staff, faculty, and student members with subcommittees related to waste, water, grounds, energy, transportation, outreach, and fundraising. These committees have seeked input from stakeholders throughout the campus community to move forward with writing a sustainability plan for campus along with reporting to AASHE STARS.
With an initial outreach from the President to all staff and faculty regarding the pursuit of AASHE STARS, the Sustainability Specialist then coordinated the creation of 27 groups to acquire the data by assigning responsible parties to each credit, in which the party was in-charge of entering data from their group. The Sustainability Specialist tracked all fields to ensure information was collected in a timely manner and met with teams as needed to ensure accurate data reporting.
Once all credits were marked as complete, each credit was then reviewd prior to report submission.
List of personnel who led the reporting process:
President Kelly: initial reach out to inform individuals of the University's commitment to report to STARS
Brian Kelley, Sustainability Specialist: coordinated data collection from 27 groups and tracked progress on credits
Linda Manning, Director for the Center for Sustainability in Education: led the academic reporting
Phil Melillo, Energy Manager: led emissions and utility data reporting
List of additional personnel who contributed to the reporting process:
For a full list of individuals and titles with group information, please refer to this sheet. Some individuals will be listed multiple times as they were part of multiple collection groups.
Were students involved in the data collection process?:
Narrative outlining how students were involved in the data collection process:
Data was collected primarily via departments providing the relevant information, but students may have been involved in certain aspects such as academic data collection.
Ultimately, all of the document fields to be completed in the report builder were assigned to a specific staff or faculty member within a department at the University.
Description of the internal data quality controls used in the preparation of this report:
As credits were completed, the Sustainability Specialist reviewed each credit to analyze any potential errors. Any specific clarifications or questions were then directed to the appropriate data collection team.
For any specific links, a google doc was set up to make copies of the documents so they are placed in a centralized space to allow sharing for anyone with the link. Responsible parties were alerted to do this and not to reference the internal site to ensure all links would work properly.
Were any independent audits or external assurance processes used in the preparation of this report?:
Narrative outlining the independent audits or external assurance processes used in the preparation of this report:
Although a third party review was not completed for this report, future submissions will seek a third-party reviewer.
Notes about the information provided for this credit:
The information provided in this report has been evaluated for errors. As this is CNU's first STARS report, the goal was to achieve at least a bronze and determine strategies over the next year regarding new programs and data collection to improve the score in the future.
Submission in February 2025 is in line with the GoingGreener campaign at CNU to introduce a sustainability plan at this time as well, but has been submitted with the intention to learn of potential opportunities to improve operations over the next year.
With this being our first submission, we are looking to build the foundation and it is proposed to submit again in the next year or two with newly implemented programs, and then every 3 years after that.
Additional documentation for this credit:
The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.