Northern Michigan University’s sustainability advisory committee will host a Campus Sustainability Summit from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, March 24, in the lobby near 1318 Jamrich Hall. The committee will share highlights from its Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS) inventory, which earned NMU bronze certification from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. It will also preview the campus sustainability strategy. University and community members are invited to attend all or a portion of the summit and provide input on Northern's Sustainability Plan.

The agenda begins with a welcome, lunch and refreshments at 11. An overview of the inventory process and results is scheduled at noon, followed by a preview of a draft of the sustainability plan with a Q&A session at 1 and a listening session at 1:30. The summit will close with a summary and synthesized input from 3-4 p.m.

“Input is very important to this process,” said committee member Jes Thompson. “The inventory showed there’s a lot going on at NMU that many don’t know about. Nearly 12 percent of courses include some aspect of sustainability, and over 62 percent of departments offer courses with sustainability infused in the curriculum. On the operations and dining side, people are working hard to come up with innovative ideas to have a smaller impact on the planet. NMU also puts rebates from energy savings into a ‘green fund’ for sustainability-related projects.”

STARS is a transparent, self-reporting framework for colleges and universities to gauge relative progress toward sustainability. It is designed to allow meaningful comparisons over time using a common set of measurements, create incentives for continual improvement and facilitate information-sharing about higher education practices and performance.

The sustainability advisory committee is co-chaired by Sarah Mittlefehldt of Earth, Environmental and Geographical Sciences and Brandon Sager of Facilities. For more information, email smittlef@nmu.edu