| Overall Rating | Gold - expired |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 65.55 |
| Liaison | Susan Powers |
| Submission Date | Feb. 22, 2019 |
| Executive Letter | Download |
Clarkson University
EN-6: Assessing Sustainability Culture
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
0.50 / 1.00 |
Susan
Powers Director of the Institute for a Sustainable Environment ISE |
Does the institution conduct an assessment of sustainability culture (i.e. the assessment focuses on sustainability values, behaviors and beliefs, and may also address awareness of campus sustainability initiatives)?:
Which of the following best describes the cultural assessment? The assessment is administered to::
Which of the following best describes the structure of the cultural assessment? The assessment is administered::
A brief description of how and when the cultural assessment(s) were developed and/or adopted:
The Smart Housing Project uses a combination of real-time energy feedback (messaging, wall screens, and internet dashboards) with resource use education and motivational messaging to help Clarkson students reduce their energy and resource consumption. This project can contribute to reduced energy, water, and heating use. A key component is the use of survey work to derive baseline environmental attitudes and emotions. This survey includes several critical survey questions sets that measure pro-environmental behavior, response to authoritarianism, empathy towards the environment, and several others.
A copy or sample of the questions related to sustainability culture:
A sample of the questions related to sustainability culture or the website URL where the assessment tool is available:
Environmental Emotions
1. Thinking about resource waste and damage to the environment affects me emotionally.
2. I don't really feel sorry for the negative ways that we affect the environment.
3. I don't really feel sorry for the negative ways that we affect the environment. (reverse-scored)
4. Damage to the environment disturbs me a great deal.
Pro-environmental Behavior
Indicate how often you perform the following (never through every time)
Walk or ride bike
turn off lights when leave the room
recycle...
Rate the importance of the following...
1. Energy education should be an important part of everyone's lives.
2. Saving energy is important.
3. We don't have to worry about conserving energy because new technologies will be developed to solve energy problems for future generations.
A brief description of how representative samples were reached (if applicable) and how the cultural assessment is administered:
Students receive assignment to smart housing through a lottery. They are asked to respond to the survey early in the semester. They take part in focus groups in the later half of the semester.
A brief summary of results from the cultural assessment, including a description of any measurable changes over time:
This is a quasi-experimatnal protocol that measures results over a 4 month semester. Detailed analysis is available via the following citations: 1. L. Legault, S. Bird, S.E. Powers, A.K. Sherman, A. Schay, D. Hou, K. Janoyan, Impact of a Motivational Intervention and Interactive Feedback on Electricity and Water Consumption: A Smart Housing Field Experiment, Environment and Behavior. (2018) 27. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916518811433. 2. S. Bird, L. Legault, Feedback and Behavioral Intervention in Residential Energy and Resource Use: A Review, Current Sustainable/Renewable Energy Reports. 5 (2018) 116–126. doi:10.1007/s40518-018-0106-8. 3. A.K. Sherman, A.J. Rowe, S. Bird, S. Powers, L. Legault, Motivational Orientation Explains the Link between Political Ideology and Proenvironmental Behavior, Ecopsychology. 8 (2016) 239–249. doi:10.1089/eco.2016.0029. 4. D. Hou, S. Bird, K. Janoyan, L. Legault, S.E. Powers, Predictive Building Energy Modeling for Efficiency Improvements in HVAC and DHW, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, Albany, NY, 2016. 5. S. Bird, D. Hou, K. Janoyan, L. Legault, S.E. Powers, L. Fox, A. Rowe, A. Schay, A.K. Sherman, Clean Energy and Smart Student Housing: Motivational Interventions for Improved Energy Efficiency in University Housing, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, Albany, NY, 2016.
The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
This is the same assessment that we refer to in AC-6 for the Sustainability Literacy Assessment. This holistic survey assesses both sustainability culture and sustainability literacy. Our Smart Housing Project is a large effort on campus as you can see from the published results from the project. We believe we are justified in counting this assessment towards both EN6 and AC6 credits because both knowledge and attitude questions are included.
This is the same assessment that we refer to in AC-6 for the Sustainability Literacy Assessment. This holistic survey assesses both sustainability culture and sustainability literacy. Our Smart Housing Project is a large effort on campus as you can see from the published results from the project. We believe we are justified in counting this assessment towards both EN6 and AC6 credits because both knowledge and attitude questions are included.
The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.