What is START?

START, the Sustainability Tracking and Roadmap Tool, is a high-performance, digital platform that enables schools to track and analyze their current levels of sustainability across a comprehensive range of metrics and provides guidance to help schools meet their sustainability goals.  

Built on the award-winning Maalka platform, an offshoot of the U.S. Department of Energy's Innovation Lab, START provides an Onboarding Wizard that streamlines data collection, validation, analysis and visualization, enabling schools to quickly assess their sustainability efforts across over 50 metrics.

START offers Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced levels for schools to evaluate their current actions and to establish a baseline for where they are on their sustainability journey. Its rating system indicates the Cost, Difficulty and Impact of each action to help schools identify and implement those measures most closely aligned with their interests, means and resources, while 'How To Guides' linked to each metric provide step-by-step instructions for schools to implement and expand their sustainability goals. START also includes student activities and discussion forums to enable schools to share their best practices.
 

 

Why START?

Our community expressed a need for a flexible and scalable platform that supports high-level reporting on a range of metrics (e.g.: energy and water efficiency, food waste, air quality, curriculum) and connects schools with their district administration to enable sharing and analysis of that information to support sustainability goals. START helps schools methodologically create a more healthy and sustainable environment for learning based on the 3 principles of Whole-School Sustainability.
 
EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM: Students have meaningful learning opportunities that help them become more aware of their role and responsibility in creating a sustainable future.

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE: Staff cultivate a culture of teamwork and strategic planning to embed sustainable action into everyday practices.

PHYSICAL PLACE: Schools become more healthy, efficient, and engaging places to learn and work that improve both educational outcomes and promote academic development.

Note: Learn more about Whole-School Sustainability from the Institute for the Built Environment.  


Through START, we can scale and accelerate behavior change, maximize environmental stewardship across the whole school community and simplify the journey towards Whole School Sustainability. 

 

Get Started

After beta-testing by a diverse cohort of schools. including independent, public district and charter schools, START will be launching in the US in 2021.
To learn more about how START can get your school on its pathway to sustainable success, visit this page for regular updates, or email info@greenschoolsalliance.org.