Students in the Department of Geographical and Sustainability Sciences assisted the City of Iowa City with their Leadership STAR Community Program application by gathering information about City policies, practices and actions in the areas assessed by STAR.

The Leadership STAR Community Program is a national certification program that recognizes sustainable communities. The areas assessed by STAR include: climate and energy; economy; built environment; equity; health, arts & culture; and natural systems. Students also mapped out indictors of Iowa City’s sustainability across these different categories to spatially display how problems and solutions are distributed throughout the city. STAR awarded Iowa City a certification based on the application that students helped create. The project also helped the City define its sustainability objectives for the years to come.