Skip to Main Content

About Us

Mission

The Office of Sustainability’s mission is to engage the UT Dallas community as a catalyst and champion for environmental stewardship and social responsibility while fostering a culture of sustainability evident in all aspects of the campus experience.

Vision

Creating a better world by connecting education and expertise to principles of sustainability.

About

The Office of Sustainability was established under Facilities Management in 2011. We define sustainability as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

The Office of Sustainability utilizes United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG [Sustainable Development Goal] s) to connect students’ education to transdisciplinary application in order to create a more sustainable world.

UT Dallas is a member of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE [Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education] ) and measures holistic effectiveness according to AASHE’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, & Rating System (STARS [Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, & Rating System] ) Report which encompasses administration, academics, engagement, and operations.

We believe that sustainability is a collaborative field to which all members of the UT Dallas community contribute. The Office of Sustainability collaborates with stakeholders and students across The University to facilitate the integration of sustainability principles and practices into all areas of The University of Texas at Dallas.

If you have any questions about sustainability at The University of Texas at Dallas, or would like to collaborate for a project or event, please contact us.

STARS Gold

We track our success through the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s (AASHE [Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education] ) Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, & Rating System (STARS [Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, & Rating System] ). It is an international standard for sustainability in higher education.

The STARS [Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, & Rating System] framework measures sustainability across all aspects of higher education in four broad categories: academics, engagement, operations, and planning and administration. Within these four categories, UT Dallas measures 63 credits and provides over 1,000 data points in order to holistically assess sustainability. Sustainability efforts are quantified by STARS as points and are awarded in each credit category according to performance. Depending on the number of points accumulated, a university earns certification as a Reporter, Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum institution.

The Office of Sustainability has embraced the international standard for sustainability provided by the AASHE [Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education] STARS [Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, & Rating System] report and has adopted a mission statement to collaborate with stakeholders to integrate sustainability into the fabric of UT Dallas impacting academics, engagement, operations, and planning and administration. For this reason, the Office of Sustainability is pleased to announce that The University of Texas at Dallas has achieved STARS Gold status.

To commemorate this achievement along with The University of Texas at Dallas’ 50th anniversary, The Office of Sustainability has released The University’s first holistic Sustainability Report. Learn More >

Memberships and Affiliations