Green Options

It seems that in the quest to sell the cheapest hybrid they possibly could — a “hybrid for everyone” as Honda’s tagline goes — Honda has majorly skimped on some truly essential bits. Have they made a critical strategic error?

As detailed in the just released August issue of Consumer Reports magazine, out of a crop of 22 small hatchbacks and wagons, the Insight — Honda’s much-touted all new Hybrid — came in 21st on the road test with one of the worst performances CR has seen from Honda in longer than many of the editors at the venerable publication can remember. The only car in that group to fare worse on the road test was the Dodge Caliber.

What’s the best defense against charges of “greenwashing?” Its measurement, of course: accurate, verifiable assessments provide evidence that an institution is “walking the walk” in its efforts to operate more sustainably. While the business world might have the most to gain in terms of releasing concrete data regarding sustainability initiatives, higher education’s enthusiastic embrace of green initiatives has also drawn scrutiny from a variety of stakeholders: students, faculty, administrators, alumni and board members all want to know that a campus’ efforts to “go green” represent sound investments in both the institution’s, and the planet’s, well-being. While a number of reports have measured various aspects of college and university environmental programs, no single method for assessing campus sustainability exists… well, until now.

Last week, I ran across an article from the Washington University Record noting that it, along with 89 other institutions, was participating in the pilot stage of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS). The pilot represents the start of “a collaborative process to develop a campus sustainability rating system” with the following goals:

1. Provide a guide for advancing sustainability in all sectors of higher education, from governance and operations to academics and community engagement.
2. Enable meaningful comparisons over time and across institutions by establishing a common standard of measurement for sustainability in higher education.
3. Create incentives for continuous improvement toward sustainability.
4. Facilitate information sharing about higher education sustainability practices and performance.
5. Build a stronger, more diverse campus sustainability community and promote a comprehensive understanding of sustainability that includes its social, economic and environmental dimensions.