Blog Contributor: Mikellena Nettos 

Brock recently held two Focus on Learning sessions to provide an “Introduction to Sustainability at Brock” for staff and faculty on January 28 and February 3. The main purpose of these sessions was to share our recent accomplishments related to Sustainability at Brock. If you have not already heard, Brock recently obtained a Silver rating from our first-ever STARS assessment by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE)! The Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS) is a transparent, self-reporting framework for colleges and universities to measure their sustainability performance administered by AASHE​.   

Overall, STARS provides Brock with sustainability guidance by outlining where our sustainability initiatives are succeeding and where we need to enhance our efforts.  

STARS helps assess areas of future improvement to ensure campus–wide sustainability progression. Brock earned a Silver rating through obtaining 47.15% of available points​. We were most successful in the Academics category, achieving more than 70% of total points available! Currently, 15% of all courses at Brock include sustainability content​ which is an amazing accomplishment. Additionally, Brock earned all points for Community Partnerships, Student Life, and Student Orientation. 

Future areas of improvement for Brock would be in the Engagement and Operations categories. Some future goals for Sustainability at Brock include looking towards conducting a Needs Assessment to determine what students know about sustainability and how to improve sustainability knowledge throughout the university, considering the development of a climate action plan, and updating our current Sustainability Policy. 

To learn more about STARS at Brock, click here to read a Brock News article written by our very own Sustainability Co-ordinator, Elenore Breslow! If you are interested in reviewing the entire assessment, Brock’s full STARS report is also publicly available on the STARS website. 

This is an amazing accomplishment for sustainability at Brock and we hope to achieve greater success within the STARS assessment in the future. Additionally, we want to thank everyone in the Brock community who assisted in providing information for this assessment – we could not have done it without you!