The UWGB Sustainability Committee and the UWGB Office of Sustainability are collecting information about faculty and staff who engage in research and creative activity related to environmental sustainability.
We will submit this information as part of the STARS report. Your participation is helpful, because we earn points based on the percentage of faculty who conduct sustainability research and based on the number of departments within which sustainability research is taking place.
This information may also be shared on the Office of Sustainability webpage.
Note that STARS has a specific definition of sustainability research that is fairly broad and includes focus on a sustainability challenge:
Sustainability research – Research activities and scholarly work that explicitly address the concept of sustainability, further our understanding of the interdependence of ecological and social/cultural/economic systems, or have a primary and explicit focus on a sustainability challenge.
Sustainability challenge – An issue or situation that threatens or undermines ecological integrity, racial equity and social justice, or the ability of future generations to meet their needs (e.g., biodiversity loss, poverty and inequality, and climate change), OR a goal or objective that contributes to the resolution of such an issue or situation (e.g., ecosystem health, universal human rights, and renewable energy generation). To identify sustainability challenges, it may be helpful to reference the targets embedded in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the principles outlined in the Earth Charter, and/or the Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries. Sustainability research – Research activities and scholarly work that explicitly address the concept of sustainability, further our understanding of the interdependence of ecological and social/cultural/economic systems, or have a primary and explicit focus on a sustainability challenge.