- Administrative edits and clarifications that may occur as often as quarterly.
- Substantive changes (e.g. 2.1, 2.2) that may occur as often as once a year.
- Major revisions (e.g. 2.0, 3.0) that may occur no more frequently than once every two years.
Major revisions are vetted through an extensive process of deliberation and public comment. Public feedback is solicited in advance of substantive changes as well.The actual pace and scope of change within this framework is very much driven by stakeholder feedback, with the STARS Steering Committee having final authority over the content of the Technical Manual.
If you are working on a submission when a new version of STARS is released, nothing will change automatically. You will have a full year to submit under either the current version you are working in or the newly released version. If you decide to switch, you will not have to manually move your data over, as there will be an option to automatically make the switch. However, you will most likely need to make some revisions to the data because of the criteria changes between versions.