Cal Poly Pomona Gets Environmental Recognition

Cal Poly Pomona has earned high marks for its environmental efforts.

The campus recently became the first public university in California to complete a full sustainability assessment, called the STARS report, for which the school received a silver rating.

STARS, which stands for Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System, enables universities and colleges to evaluate how they are making progress in their sustainability efforts.

The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education developed the system, which consists of three main categories:

• Education and research
• Operations
• Planning, administration and engagement

Participants can earn extra credit points in a fourth category – innovation – for “new, extraordinary, unique, ground-breaking or uncommon outcome, policies and practices.”

Cal Poly earned its highest rating in the education and research category, related to efforts of the College of Environmental Design. The campus received one innovation point for the Lyle Center being named the first carbon-neutral facility in the California State University system.

Besides the usual sustainability efforts, which include recycling and organic gardens, the report also considers other areas such as academic curriculum, transportation, community partnerships and energy consumption in buildings.

"I think people focus too much on the big solar panels," Meaghan Smith, the university's sustainability manager who oversaw the report, said. "That's a wonderful start, but there's so much more to sustainability than just hybrid cars and solar panels. It's the in way we conduct business in the office, how we publicize stories, our accessibility and diversity."

In 2007, Cal Poly President J. Michael Ortiz became a charter signatory of the President’s Climate Commitment, signaling the university’s long-term commitment to sustainability. The university has set a long-term goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2030.

View Cal Poly Pomona's report in detail at the STAR report website.