Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 81.81
Liaison Tonie Miyamoto
Submission Date Feb. 25, 2014
Executive Letter Download

STARS v1.2

Colorado State University
ER-15: Sustainability Research Identification

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 3.00 / 3.00 Aleta Weller
Coordinator
School of Global Environmental Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Has the institution developed a definition of sustainability research?:
Yes

A copy of the institution's definition of sustainability research:

Through CSU's School of Global Environmental Sustainability (SoGES), environmental sustainability has been defined as: humans coexisting with the natural world on a planet with finite resources.

The definition is meant to encourage a linked societal-environmental-economics framework to advance understanding and generation of sustainability science.


Has the institution identified its sustainability research activities and initiatives?:
Yes

A brief description of the methodology the institution followed to complete the inventory:

From the School of Global Environmental Sustainability, there have been six areas of research strengths at CSU. These are primarily (but not limited to):
climate change and energy
food security
environmental institutions and governance
sustainable communities
land and water resources
biodiversity, conservation, and management

To determine the number of faculty and departments involved in sustainable research (ER 16 and 17), the Office for the VP of Research devised a search criteria based on areas of strength at CSU. The resulting projects were then scanned for relevance and final numbers were drawn from this carefully evaluated compilation.


Does the institution make its sustainability research inventory publicly available online?:
Yes

The website URL where the sustainability research inventory is posted (required if claiming Part 3 of the credit):
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

The Green Tome is also a publicly available material which describes not only research at CSU but also collaborations and projects generally. The compendium focuses on environmental aspects of Colorado State University’s physical campus, research, education, and outreach. It was complied through the efforts of the staff of the Office of the President, working with each university department to identify programs, actions, and research that provides a positive environmental benefit. Members of the Colorado State community were asked to submit information to the Office of the President to be added to the compendium to ensure an up-to-date perspective on environmental efforts of the university. The Green Tome was not used to count research projects/departments in subsequent STARS credits. It is listed here just as a more accessible way to explore Sustainable Research at CSU.


The Green Tome is also a publicly available material which describes not only research at CSU but also collaborations and projects generally. The compendium focuses on environmental aspects of Colorado State University’s physical campus, research, education, and outreach. It was complied through the efforts of the staff of the Office of the President, working with each university department to identify programs, actions, and research that provides a positive environmental benefit. Members of the Colorado State community were asked to submit information to the Office of the President to be added to the compendium to ensure an up-to-date perspective on environmental efforts of the university. The Green Tome was not used to count research projects/departments in subsequent STARS credits. It is listed here just as a more accessible way to explore Sustainable Research at CSU.

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.