Penn State is dedicated to tracking its progress in sustainability to improve its performance, and measure progress toward its sustainability goals.

The University regularly participates in several sustainability assessments, including the Sustainability Tracking Assessment and Rating System (STARS) developed by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), and the Princeton Review’s Green Schools Rating. More recently, Penn State has participated in the Times Higher Education Impact Ranking. Each of these is described briefly below. We also track additional metrics that are representative of Penn State’s unique sustainability goals.

STARS

The Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System™ (STARS®) is a transparent, self-reporting framework for colleges and universities to measure their sustainability performance. It covers a broad array of assessment areas, including Curriculum, Research, Public and Campus Engagement, Operations, and Planning and Administration. In 2011, its first year of participation, Penn State received a silver rating from STARS. In 2014, our rating rose to Gold. In 2017, 2020, and 2023 Penn State scored higher each time within the Gold category.

The Princeton Review’s Guide to Green Colleges

The Princeton Review publishes an annual Guide to Green Colleges, based on a subset of the data submitted through STARS and weighted according to a different scheme. Penn State has appeared as one of the roughly 400 schools listed in the Guide each year. More information about the Guide, including Penn State’s current listing, can be found at the link below.

Times Higher Education Impact Rankings

In 2020, Penn State participated for the first time in the Times Higher Education Impact Ranking, then in its second year of development. In contrast to the two assessments listed above – which are primarily or exclusively used by U.S. universities – this assessment is truly a global one, with (as of 2025) 2,526 universities from more than 125 nations participating. The assessment is structured around the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, and uses indicators to provide comparisons across three broad areas: research, outreach, and stewardship. The number of participating universities has grown substantially year over year, affecting the rankings slightly, and yet Penn State consistently has ranked in the top 5 percent of all universities globally in sustainability:

  • In 2020, Penn State placed 35th overall out of 768 participating universities and 3rd among U.S. universities.
  • In 2021, Penn State placed 32nd overall out of 1,118 participating universities and 4th among U.S. universities.
  • In 2022, Penn State placed 47th overall out of 1,406 participating universities and 3rd among U.S. universities.
  • In 2023, Penn State placed 40th overall out of 1,705 participating universities and 3rd among U.S. universities.
  • In 2024, Penn State placed 51st overall out of 2,152 participating universities and 4th among U.S. universities.
  • In 2025, Penn State placed 64th overall out of 2,526 participating universities and 3rd among U.S. universities.

See Penn State’s progress addressing the SDGs on the SDG Progress page.

QS logo

QS World University Rankings

QS (Quacquarelli Symonds)

QS is the world’s leading provider of services, analytics, and insight to the global higher education sector, whose mission is to enable motivated people anywhere in the world to fulfill their potential through educational achievement, international mobility, and career development. The QS World University Rankings portfolio, inaugurated in 2004, has grown to become the world’s most popular source of comparative data about university performance.

2025 represented the 21st edition of the QS World University Rankings. It features 1,501 institutions across 104 locations and is the only ranking of its kind to emphasize employability and sustainability.

In 2024, QS implemented their largest-ever methodological enhancement, introducing three new metrics: Sustainability, Employment Outcomes and International Research Network. The results drew on the analysis of 17.5m academic papers and the expert opinions of over 240,000 academic faculty and employers.

In the 2026 ratings, Penn State overall ranked: