Group Report – Campus Sustainability Research Research Problem Statement and Scope We want SUNY to be more of a leader in sustainability. There are gaps. Certainly campuses are perfoming better or worse than others. There are inconsistencies across the campuses in addressing sustainability. How might that be addressed? Basic Research Questions or Hypotheses Overall: What features makes a campus perform more sustainably than others? What features contribute significantly to a campus' sustainability? What are the hallmarks of campus sustainability within SUNY in the following categories: curriculum, operations, engagement/planning, research Also, how does SUNY compare to its peers? Where should we focus our efforts? If STARS scores go up, how does that affect the GHG inventory? Phase 1: Develop an internal database (inventory) Metrics 
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STARS data SAT scores Endowment size Annual operating budget Receiving financial aid Student loan debt Campus location FTE Student teacher ratio Carnegie Classification Estimates of impervious surfaces as a percentage of what's on campus Number of online classes Etc. Research questions: 
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Which features show up the most, which ones are consistently absent? Which features are most effective? Which campuses are most effective? 
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How do up‐state campuses compare to down‐state campuses? Other comparison questions. What variables are affecting the adoption of sustainability features? Potential outputs Evaluating STARS to see what is an outcomes or an output measure Longitudinal study to see what changes occurred after the sustainability coordinator was hired. Could compare SUNY campuses to another system of campuses. Create a change report. Focus on the different SUNY levels (e.g., community college and research institutions). Could also compare sizes of campuses, populations of campuses. There could be data that shows that STARS could approach measures differently What is needed We need sustainability coordinators to help us write the proposal, who are more familiar with STARS. We need to estimate how many hours doing STARS already takes. Phase 2: Make the database public (or at least public to SUNY campuses) (Inter­campus network/portal) Phase 3: Consider mandates SUNY could set as minimum standards for sustainability Requested Communication Mechanism: 
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Webinars: starting in August The group will email each other to move forward.