The first Whole School Sustainability benchmarking tool! Measure your levels, plan and report progress, connect and collaborate, and access resources to achieve your goals.
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Who?
Whether a school-based sustainability leader or managing district-wide efforts, START simplifies, structures and supports your journey. START was designed with all schools in mind - public, charter, independent and private.
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How?
Respond to an interactive survey to establish your baseline, visualize your buildings' efficiency, and find the guidance you need through a structured resource library and peer-to-peer discussion forums.
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Why?
Create healthier learning environments, reduce your environmental footprint, educate and engage students and staff, and save your school money through improved building efficiencies.
Created by schools, for schools, START* provides a simple way to methodically track, plan and collaborate on your Sustainability Journey so you can make measurable progress.
*Created in collaboration with award-winning building analytics platform Maalka.
Need help convincing your school to start its sustainability journey? Try the Advocacy Deck & Tips.
Structure, Measure, and Accelerate Your
Whole School Sustainability Journey
Benchmark
Measure your sustainability levels across clear metrics.
Access a step-by-step framework for holistic school sustainability, covering 50+ metrics across educational programs, organizational culture and physical place.
Establish your sustainability baseline by responding to simple questions in the START Survey.
Plan for progress across 3 levels of achievement. START meets you where you are, whether Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced.
Visualize your sustainability levels and progress through accessible graphics.
Analyze & Plan
Visualize your sustainability levels and use your baseline to plan your progress.
Identify areas for improvement through your START scorecard.
Set goals, score points for taking action, and progress through each metric tier at your own pace.
Each sustainability action includes a Cost, Difficulty and Impact (CDI) rating so that you can choose actions that align with your priorities and resources.
Generate reports and graphics, which you can choose to share publicly or use for internal reporting and planning.
Streamline School Building Analytics
Analyze hard data around energy, emissions, water & waste.
Included free with START, this optional functionality allows schools and school districts to track and visualize water, waste, energy and emissions data over time.
Create structure, accountability and program continuity by storing building data, files and bills in a central database.
Generate reports with graphics and communicate with team members through annotations and comments.
Learn more about START’s Sustainable Building Analytics.
Take Action
Access resources, engage students and collaborate.
Create a team of any size with a variety of user access levels.
Access action-based resources (included free with START!) to help you achieve your goals.
Engage students through curated student activities and curriculum resources related to each sustainability metric (in development).
Collaborate with team-members through metric-specific discussion forums.
Connect with peers from other schools to share ideas, resources and best practices.
Celebrate
Make measurable progress that you can share and celebrate.
Document and validate your progress by uploading files in a structured database to compliment certification programs.
Gain points and stars as you create a healthier, more sustainable school while mitigating your environmental impact and reducing operational costs.
Share your progress through Success Stories so others can learn about how you achieved a sustainability metric.
Choose to share your START progress publicly through reports, or use them for internal auditing and planning.
START is a sustainability tool designed to engage the whole school community.
Learn what START can do for:
