Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 69.25
Liaison Laura Bain
Submission Date Jan. 26, 2015
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.0

Furman University
EN-9: Community Partnerships

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.00 / 3.00
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution have at least one formal sustainability partnership with the local community that meets the criteria as “supportive”?:
No

A brief description of the institution’s supportive sustainability partnership(s) with the local community:
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Does the institution have at least one formal sustainability partnership with the local community that meets the criteria as “collaborative”?:
Yes

A brief description of the institution's collaborative sustainability partnership(s):

The David E. Shi Center for Sustainability serves as Furman University's hub for community partnerships aimed at improving social, environmental, and economic well being in the Upstate region. The university has worked with 19 primary community organizational partners; staff have served on 9 boards; and have consulted with over 80 organizations on these efforts - feedback is often used to improve work to even better meet community needs. Some examples include an ongoing partnership with Habitat for Humanity to identify, work with, and solicit feedback from local low-income homeowners to provide energy efficiency home weatherization and conservation education. Multiple ongoing research projects involve students and faculty working to provide information related to holistically conceived sustainability. This includes identification of area food deserts; the sharing of this information led to development of new community programs to provide access to jobs in urban farming and local food to underserved residents; in the second phase researchers are returning to these neighborhoods to understand how citizens have received these new programs and how they might or might not be affecting purchasing decisions and health. Another example is research on personal health and economic development outcomes of a large rail-trail project; significant positive findings are providing justification for city planners to design and fund new, similar trails.


Does the institution have at least one formal sustainability partnership with the local community that meets the criteria as “transformative”?:
No

A brief description of the institution's transformative sustainability partnership(s) with the local community:
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A brief description of the institution’s sustainability partnerships with distant (i.e. non-local) communities:
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The website URL where information about sustainability partnerships is available:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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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.