American University
EN-4: Sustainability Culture Assessment

The Sustainability Culture Survey was developed in tandem with the literacy assessment to obtain an understanding of how people engage in sustainable behavior, what programming and initiatives people are aware of, and what kind of improvements or initiatives faculty, staff, and students want to see on campus.

The culture survey consists of 6 questions designed to gauge how students interact with and think about sustainability both at AU and in thier daily lives.

Notable findings:

• More than half of faculty and staff respondents stated that they always recycle while less than half of student respondents claim to always recycle. Waste competitions, campaigns, and education have been implemented to increase student awareness of AU's three waste bin system. This programing may have impacted the increase between the fall and spring survey, in the percentage of faculty, staff, and students who responded that they always or usually avoid single use plastics.
• The percentage of student responses related to electricity and water conservation increased significantly between the fall and spring survey with 71% of survey respondents reporting that they turned off the light compared to 58% in the fall survey. 69% of survey respondents reported that they always turn off faucet when brushing their teeth compared to 41% in the fall. 
• More than half of all survey respondents claimed that they strongly agreed to understanding  how sustainability related activities contribute to a more sustainable lifestyle and community. 
• Most respondents selected they either agreed or neither agreed or disagreed with the claim stating, I feel that my individual actions (choosing reusables, composting, taking public transportation) will make a difference on AU's campus. 
• Faculty and staff awareness of campus initiatives increased from the fall to spring survey.
• Most people obtain sustainability knowledge from internet resources, talking with friends/colleagues, and radio/podcasts/TV.                          
• Survey participants want to see more campus wide sustainability communications, events,  and sustainability integration in the classroom through academic majors offered and course integration.   

The survey has been periodically distributed to a representative sample of students, faculty, and staff in both the fall and spring academic semesters every few years since 2010. This allows results to be compared between the begining and end of the academic year. Pervious surveys can also be compared to more recent surveys. The shifts in responses allows us to benchmark how sustainability behaviors and attitudes have changed with the implementation of different sustainability programming. 

The Office of Institutional Research and Assessment (OIRA) provided a representative sample of the campus population of faculty, students, and staff. OIRA checks the samples against the population on all of the characteristics included to ensure they are exceedingly close in terms of representativeness.

The Office of Institutional Research and Assessment (OIRA) provided a representative sample of the campus population of faculty, students, and staff. OIRA checks the samples against the population on all of the characteristics included to ensure they are exceedingly close in terms of representativeness.

Surveys were completed in Fall 2023 and Spring 2024