| Overall Rating | Gold |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 75.39 |
| Liaison | Stephanie MacPhee |
| Submission Date | Feb. 5, 2025 |
Dalhousie University
EN-6: Assessing Sustainability Culture
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
1.00 / 1.00 |
Stephanie
MacPhee Executive Director Office of Sustainability |
Does the institution conduct an assessment of sustainability culture?:
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 Dalhousie Annual Sustainability and Commuter Survey has been implemented since 2009 and was developed through a collaboration between The Office of Sustainability and DalTRAC (Dalhousie Transportation Collective). The purpose is to measure sustainability beliefs and get feedback on our programs and policies, and well as an in depth look into how student staff and faculty commute to and around campus.
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:
See above document for sample questions.
A brief description of how representative samples were reached (if applicable) and how the cultural assessment is administered:
The assessment is administered through an online survey program used by Dalhousie called Opinio. The participants were reached by emailing a list of all faculty and staff employed at Dalhousie, emails to individuals Departments and Faculties to share, promotion through the DalNews and Today@Dal newsletter, survey promotion to all students through student services, promotion to student groups and societies, on social media including Facebook, Twitter and Sustainability Blog.
A brief summary of results from the cultural assessment:
Just over 63% of the 2022-2023 DalTRAC Commuter Study respondents were students, 27% were staff, and 9% were faculty. Over 64% of respondents identified as women, 29.9% as men, 2.3% as non-binary, 3% preferred not to say/were not sure and 0.7% identified as another gender not listed. The most popular primary modes of transportations were walking (33%), public transit (28.7%), and driving alone (25.5%). The median commute time for members of the Dalhouise University community was 21 minutes. A significant difference can be observed in the commuting habits of students, staff, and faculty at the Agricultural campus compared to the same groups at the Halifax campuses. At the Agricultural campus, 62% of commuters drive alone. This is likely due to the lack of public transit in the towns of Truro and Bible Hill. The percentage of students walking to campus has increased since 2020, but so has the percentage of staff and faculty driving to campus over the same period of time. Finally, a word cloud analysis was performed. Respondents were asked to provide suggestions for sustainability action. The most prominent terms were parking, campus, initiatives, awareness, engage, fossil, public, and continuity.
Optional Fields
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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.