Eight years later, fall is still the season of STARS

In 2018, we published an article called “Fall is the season of STARS.” At the time, colleges and universities were preparing their STARS submissions with two familiar sources of recognition in mind: Sierra Club’s Cool Schools ranking and The Princeton Review’s Guide to Green Colleges.

Eight years later, one of those lists is gone, the STARS framework has evolved, and campus sustainability teams are navigating a different set of institutional pressures. But the practical advice at the heart of that article still holds: if your institution is planning a spring STARS submission, fall is the time to get moving.

What has changed since 2018?

For schools that have been reporting for a while, the changes have felt gradual and unremarkable, but when you look at it as we are, taking a time capsule piece and contextualizing it for 2026, things can feel very different.

For one, in 2021, the SIERRA Club discontinued their “Cool Schools” ranking. If you’ve been involved with STARS reporting before then, you’d know this had been an established ranking for 15 years, but their reasoning for discontinuation was just – instead of making schools feel the need to compete, they decided to take a more holistic approach to facilitate more equity and inclusion in their programs. Since then, the SIERRA club has continued climate reporting, but for STARS submitters, the collaboration has ended.

But don’t worry, The Princeton Review’s Guide to Green Colleges is alive and well. This guide uses STARS submission as an integral part of the submission process and is a prestigious recognition that universities and colleges look forward to submitting for every year.

Meanwhile, the value of credible sustainability data has expanded significantly. Institutions are using it not only to pursue public recognition, but also to inform existing climate action plans, strengthen funding requests, benchmark progress, communicate with campus stakeholders, and identify gaps between stated commitments and current performance. STARS remains one of the most comprehensive frameworks available for doing that work. 

STARS 3.0 changes the reporting process

Perhaps the biggest change since our original article is the introduction of STARS 3.0. We released an article on all the changes when it first launched in 2024, but in summary, the updated framework redesigned credits and scoring methodologies, simplified course and research inventories, placed greater emphasis on performance-based measures, and expanded indicators related to racial equity and social justice. Despite broadening the scope of the framework, AASHE reduced the number of documentation fields by approximately 40 percent.

That does not necessarily mean institutions should expect reporting to be easy. Some of the changes have required campuses to approach familiar data differently. Greenhouse gas reporting, for example, now places greater emphasis on comprehensive Scope 3 accounting and compares institutional performance against peer-group benchmarks. Planning credits have also evolved to consider measurable objectives across areas ranging from academics and engagement to operations, equity, administration, and finance.

For returning STARS institutions, that makes reviewing the new criteria an important first step—before simply assigning last cycle’s credits to the same departments and data owners. Understanding where definitions, methodologies, and documentation requirements have changed early can prevent significant rework later in the reporting process.

You do not have to manage it alone

GreenerU supports institutions throughout the STARS process. Depending on the needs and capacity of the campus team, that support can include process management, data collection, score analysis, identification of opportunities for improvement, full report preparation, and third-party reporting assurance.

We can also work alongside student interns and campus staff, providing the coordination, training, and technical guidance they need to lead a successful reporting process.

The tools and rankings surrounding STARS have changed since our original article. The calendar has not. Spring arrives quickly on a college campus, and a strong submission begins months before the deadline.

Whether STARS is on your institution’s agenda for early in 2027 or later, contact us below to get on track with your submission.

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