Performance Overview
UC Berkeley has a comprehensive approach to sustainability goals and strategies. These are included in the 2020 Campus Sustainability Plan. The Plan is structured into five focus sections and 15 topics. The plan includes the more traditional environmental indicators like energy efficiency, green buildings and transportation and it provides a framework for intersectional and emerging topics – like diversity and inclusion and health and wellness in sustainability. The Plan also provides vision statements for each section. These statements serve as a guiding light to focus prioritization of goals and strategies.
For over a decade we have been conducting inventories in these performance categories and transparently and publically reporting this information. In our 2021 submission, UC Berkeley earned a Platinum rating in the Sustainability, Tracking, Assessment & Rating System, a comprehensive sustainability rating system for colleges and universities that addresses the environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability. This marks an exciting achievement from our first-ever STARS submission in 2018, advancing our campus from Gold to Platinum despite stricter criteria under this newest edition of STARS. In each of the performance category pages in the section you will find both our campus performance standing as well as our STARS assessment.
Campus Performance Overview
Each year, UC Berkeley tallies our progress toward our sustainability goals and reflects on what is working and what opportunities to pursue next. As we reach our goals, we stretch further, taking on new environmental challenges to tackle. On the performance category pages you will find both our current UC and Berkeley goals and a current assessment of how we are moving forward.
See our latest performance reporting in the UC Annual Sustainability Report.
STARS Performance Overview
In its 2021 submission, UC Berkeley earned a Platinum rating in the Sustainability, Tracking, Assessment & Rating System, a comprehensive sustainability rating system for colleges and universities that addresses the environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability. This marks an exciting achievement from our first-ever STARS submission in 2018, advancing our campus from Gold to Platinum despite stricter criteria under this newest edition of STARS. In particular, our report this time around sought to encompass a holistic view of sustainability through guidance by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This expanded view of sustainability allowed us to better capture the range and depth of sustainability initiatives on campus and in the classroom.
UC Berkeley's 85.39-point score came in 7th highest of the 674 colleges and universities with an active STARS rating, and 3rd highest among the institutions reporting under the most recent version of STARS, v.2.2. This achievement also lifted UC Berkeley to the highest score among UC campuses under this most recent edition of STARS, with UC Irvine following with a Platinum rating under STARS v.2.1. For a campus that has long been a pioneer in environmental sciences and best practices, UC Berkeley received important recognition from the most comprehensive and widely used academic sustainability assessment tool.
See the full STARS report.
Read our STARS Platinum news release.
Review the UC Berkeley STARS Analysis Report 2021.
Per STARS: "The Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System™ (STARS®) is a transparent, self-reporting framework for colleges and universities to measure their sustainability performance...STARS is designed to enable meaningful comparisons over time and across institutions using a common set of measurements developed with broad participation from the international campus sustainability community..."
Campus Initiatives
Climate
Built Environment
Energy
Food
Land Use
Procurement
Transportation 
Waste 
Water
Academics & Learning
Research
Engagement
Metrics