Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 51.46
Liaison Bradley Flamm
Submission Date March 6, 2020

STARS v2.2

West Chester University of Pennsylvania
EN-11: Inter-Campus Collaboration

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.00 / 3.00 Bradley Flamm
Director of Sustainability
Office of the President
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Is the institution currently a member of a national or international higher education sustainability network?:
Yes

The name of the national or international sustainability network(s):
West Chester University is currently and has been a member of AASHE for several years. WCU is a Carbon Commitment Signatory in the Climate Leadership Network managed by Second Nature. And WCU has been a member of the Post-Landfill Action Network since 2017.

Does the institution actively participate in a regional, state/provincial, or local higher education sustainability network?:
Yes

The name of the regional, state/provincial or local sustainability network(s):
West Chester University is and has long been a member of PERC (the Pennsylvania Environmental Resource Consortium). WCU's Office of Sustainability also participates in an informal group of Southeast Pennsylvania university and college sustainability program managers (Liesel Schwarz of Villanova University is the leader of this group).

Has the institution presented at a higher education sustainability conference during the previous year?:
Yes

A list or brief description of the conference(s) and presentation(s):
WCU staff and faculty were involved in two presentations at the 2017 AASHE Conference in San Antonio, Texas and four presentations at the 2018 AASHE Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (one with WCU staff represented by Director of Sustainability Bradley Flamm, one with three WCU faculty members, and two poster presentations made by WCU undergraduate and graduate students). Professor Paul Morgan made presentations at the October 2019 AASHE conference in Spokane Washington and at the February 2020 Higher Education Climate Leadership Summit in Atlanta Georgia.

Has the institution submitted a case study during the previous year to an external higher education sustainability resource center or awards program?:
No

A list or brief description of the sustainability resource center or awards program and submission(s):
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Has the institution had employees or students serving on a board or committee of a sustainability network or conference during the previous three years?:
Yes

A list or brief description of the board or committee appointment(s):
WCU Director of the Office of Sustainability, Bradley Flamm, is a member of AASHE's Advisory Council (see https://www.aashe.org/about-us/who-we-are/advisory-council/).

Does the institution have an ongoing mentoring relationship with another institution through which it assists the institution with its sustainability reporting and/or the development of its sustainability program?:
No

A brief description of the mentoring relationship and activities:
Though this does not formally meet the criteria required for points for this part of credit EN-11, it is noteworthy that WCU's Director of the Office of Sustainability has advised an informal group of Kutztown University (one of WCU's sister institutions in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education) students, alumni, and faculty interested in sustainability in higher education. On November 14, 2018 and again on March 3, 2020 he participated in a panel discussions at Kutztown University. Kutztown University does not yet have staff hired to work on sustainability, but their efforts are intended to eventually get to that point.

Has the institution had employees or students serving as peer reviewers of another institution’s sustainability data and/or STARS submission during the previous three years?:
No

A brief description of the peer review activities:
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A brief description of other inter-campus collaborative efforts around sustainability during the previous year :
In 2019 West Chester University's Office of Sustainability began participating in a series of exploratory conference calls with two other PASSHE universities about the possibility of a joint renewable energy Power Purchase Agreement. The initiative remains informal, but is ongoing.

Website URL where information about the institution’s inter-campus collaborations is available:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
Prepared by Bradley Flamm, Director, WCU Office of Sustainability. Updated on 4/27/2020 to reflect change of "yes" to "no" response regarding mentorship of Kutztown university students, staff, faculty and alumni.

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.