Creighton earns silver rating for sustainability

Thanks to several key advancements in its sustainability efforts, Creighton University was recently awarded a silver STARS rating by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.

STARS, or the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System, is a global sustainability standard created by the association, with more than 350 institutions reporting.

“This recognition for Creighton University demonstrates our ongoing commitment to taking concrete actions on our campuses to address climate change,” says Creighton President the Rev. Daniel S. Hendrickson, SJ, PhD.

“As Pope Francis recently stated in his Laudate Deum report, human life cannot survive separate from the world around us. Creighton will continue to take meaningful, authentic steps toward making our University more sustainable, and work to inspire our students to become agents of change that can protect our planet.”

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Creighton previously held a bronze STARS rating, and the move to silver comes after the release of the Sustainable Creighton Initiative report in the spring of 2022, a comprehensive, University-wide document outlining the University’s commitment and pathway forward in caring for our common home.

It also comes on the heels of nearly 10 months of data collection by the Office of Sustainability Programs, examining sustainability across a range of areas from campus academics to student, faculty and staff engagement; operations; and administrative planning.

“While we certainly have room for improvement, this move from a bronze to a silver STARS rating is worthy of celebrating and represents the good work of the entire University,” says Andrew Baruth, PhD, director of Creighton’s Office of Sustainability Programs.

STARS awards points over multiple criteria in determining its bronze, silver, gold, and platinum ratings. Baruth says Creighton’s sustainability score in “academics” nearly doubled this year from the University’s previous reports.

Part of that was due to an update to the Magis Core Curriculum, the cornerstone of a Creighton education. In the section on “The Christian Tradition,” the following language shown below in bold was added:

“Students will identify and/or discuss particular challenges facing Christianity (in general) and the Catholic Church (more specifically) in the contemporary world, including but not limited to the ecological crisis.” (Magis Core 3.A.I.4; The Christian Tradition, P. 10)