STARS has received the following endorsements in the academic literature on sustainability assessment and reporting in higher education:
Minutolo, Ivanova, & Cong, M. 2021. Signaling sustainability: impact that learning how to report has on enrollment, endowment and emissions of North American higher education institutions
“In summary, the results from this study suggest that STARS reporting and STARS score have a positive impact on reputation (enrollment), finances (endowments) and environmental performance (emissions) of the HEIs.”
Alghamdi et al., 2017. Assessment tools’ indicators for sustainability in universities: an analytical overview
“The proposed framework appears to be comparable to STARS. This supports the conclusion reached by Kamal and Asmuss (2013) that STARS is one of the most comprehensive and advantageous assessment tools. The paper makes its conclusion by arguing that STARS meets the most important attributes of an ideal assessment tool suggested by Shriberg (2002). These attributes are: identifying important issues; emphasising comprehensibility; and easiness of comparability and calculability.”
Maragakis & Dobbelsteen, 2015. Sustainability in Higher Education: Analysis and Selection of Assessment Systems
“This paper combines relevant literature on sustainability assessment with empirical data to suggest an ideal assessment method to be used as the basis for a universal tool. It was found that the STARS system was the most suited system to be used as a basis for a future universal assessment tool.”
“The comparison found in this research is a first step in showing that STARS may be the most suitable basis for a uniform rating of sustainability in higher education institutions. Based on criteria set forth in previous research as well as empirical survey results, it is clear that STARS is a methodology that could be used as the cornerstone for a universal rating system.”
Maragakis & Dobbelsteen, 2013. Higher Education: Features, Trends and Needs in Relation to Sustainability
“95% of respondents agreed that there was a need for a uniform rating system of sustainability within institutions of higher education. Of those knowledgeable of the various methods of assessment currently available, AASHE’s STARS was the best known (88%) and also the most supported as being the ideal system (60%). The results suggest that STARS could be an ideal system for standardization if it is improved or augmented in order to address a broad range of stakeholders.”
Kamal & Asmuss, 2013. Benchmarking tools for assessing and tracking sustainability in higher educational institutions: Identifying an effective tool for the University of Saskatchewan
“STARS would appear to be the most effective benchmarking tool for assessing and tracking sustainability for higher educational institutions that want to assess and track sustainability across the breadth of campus life in education, research, operations, governance, and community engagement.”
Saadatian et al., 2011. Identifying Strength and Weakness of Sustainable Higher Educational Assessment Approaches
“The study has identified 18 popular SHE assessment approaches out of which Sustainability Tracking and Assessment Rating System (STARS) and Campus Sustainability Assessment Framework (CSAF) were found out to have more strength in comparison of other SHE assessment approaches.”