The College earns Gold STARS sustainability award!

The Association for the Advancement for Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) announces that Saint Joseph’s College of Maine has earned the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS) Gold rating. Congratulations to all your hard work getting us there!

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Saint Joseph’s College of Maine Awarded for Sustainability, Public Health Measures

Saint Joseph’s College of Maine announced Monday that its sustainability and public health efforts have earned the College a pair of coveted “gold” ratings from two prominent and well-respected ratings organizations.

Saint Joe’s earned Gold from the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s national STARS Program. After a Bronze rating in 2014 and Silver in 2017, the College now joins a class of 83 other colleges and universities that have been awarded AASHE’s second highest rating. Just five schools have been awarded the top Platinum rating, which the College intends to pursue next.

STARS is a highly transparent framework for colleges and universities to measure sustainability performance. It engages and recognizes the full spectrum of higher education institutions, from community colleges to research universities. Sustainability is an increasingly important facet of Saint Joseph’s identity, and the STARS submission was prepared by the Center for Sustainable Communities – the College’s engine of learning, service, and community improvement around sustainability issues.

The College also earned Gold from the MaineHealth Center for Tobacco Independence, whose Gold Star Standards of Excellence ranks Maine’s institutions of higher education by their efforts to protect public health through smoking cessation. In a letter, the GSSE committee noted Saint Joseph’s holistic approach to cutting tobacco use: “You provide key support and are an exemplary role model in wellness. By creating tobacco-free social norms through the adoption of strong policies, educating about the harmful effects of use and exposure, and providing support in quitting, your institution of higher education can help reduce the number of tobacco users in Maine.”

“We are honored to be recognized for our efforts on the most critical issues of our time:  protecting people’s health and the health of the world they will inherit,” said Saint Joseph’s College President Jim Dlugos. “Higher education has an enormous responsibility to create leaders who can sustain their communities and the global community. That’s our focus and our mission, and these awards tell us that we’re on the right track.”