Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 70.90
Liaison Steve Mital
Submission Date Aug. 1, 2023

STARS v2.2

University of Oregon
PA-4: Reporting Assurance

Status Score Responsible Party
n/a 0.00 / Steve Mital
Office of Sustainability Director
Finance & Administration

This credit was marked as Not Applicable for the following reason:

Institution is renewing an existing rating earned under the same version of STARS.

The Office of Sustainability conducted a thorough internal review of each of the STARS credits from January to March 2020. Each credit was reviewed by staff who were not involved in the data collection for the staff. We have indicated on the review template the specific staff who were assigned to complete the internal review of each credit.

As described, staff conducted an iterative review process with data providers. This review process was thoughtfully constructed so that staff could review credits independently of the data providers, but so that we could create a collaborative work environment across units in the university. To this end, we completed the following activities:

• We held weekly drop-in ‘workshop’ sessions from December until March so that data providers and the core team could work through credit requirements together.
• We fielded questions from data providers throughout the data collection process (as recommended in the STARS templates and sample process online support sections)
• When data collection was complete, we assigned each Office of Sustainability staff member to review a batch of credits for which they were not involved in data collection. Staff who fielded questions and workshopped with the data providers in the months of data collection were assigned to review other credits than those for which they assisted in data collection.
• Each staff member conducted phone calls, in person meetings, email exchanges, and “fact-checking” for their respective credits.
We chose not to specifically document mistakes and correction process as we felt it runs counter to the inclusive, collaborative learning environment we’re building. When mistakes were discovered, we simply and quietly worked with the data provider one-on-one to address problems.

The Office of Sustainability is committed to accuracy and creating a welcoming environment for the many volunteer data collectors we work with. We dedicated dozens of staff hours to this internal review process. We will continue to refine it in subsequent submissions.

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.