Indiana State University
ER-13: Sustainability Literacy Assessment

How concerned are you that human behavior might be permanently harming the environment? How important do you think it is to conserve energy? How concerned are you about global warming? Do you think that humans are a major cause of global warming? How much do you value the money that the university would save through energy conservation at school... How much would you value the money you would save through energy conservation if it was your own hom... How important do you think it is for ISU to reach carbon neutrality (zero carbon emissions) at some... How much do you think ISU should be investing in alternative energy such as windmills and solar powe... Do you believe you can make a difference through your own energy conservation efforts? How important do you think changes in your everyday actions are for resolving environmental issues? How much would you like to see more climate and sustainability classes in the curriculum? How much do you think the government is doing to prevent climate change? Rank the following issues according to how they affected your decision to come to ISU -Commitment to Sustainability Would you support an optional sustainability tuition tax of a small amount of money (possibly $0.50/... How much of a sustainability tuition tax would you support for each semester? What is your position at ISU? How many sustainability or climate related classes have you taken at ISU? Does your family recycle? Does your community at home have a curbside recycling program? Did your high school promote recycling and sustainability? What is the size of your home community (approximate number of people)? What percentage of the people in your home town do you think recycle (please use a number between 0-... How many of your friends recycle? What is your religion (Optional)? Which of the following statements best describes your beliefs about the Bible (Torah or Qur’an as ap... Which of the following best describes your general political views (Optional)? What is your major? Do you live in a residence hall? (If so please answer the next question; If not, jump to the followi... What residence hall do you live in? Are you male or female? How old are you?-Drag the toggle to your age. What sustainability efforts are you aware of around campus? What do you think would be helpful in improving environmental issues around campus?

This assessment was originally developed as a hands-on project for the ENVI 110:Introduction to Environmental Science class as an example of practicing the scientific method. Students in this class developed the survey, developed hypotheses to determine what demographic factors affected environmental concern and awareness, and learned about their peers perceptions of the environment.

The survey is administered through the ENVI 110 classes with each student striving to have 20 of their peers take the survey. We have run this survey for four years and tend to reach approximately 10% of the ISU community.

We regularly find that 77% of the students are somewhat to extremely concerned that human actions are harming the environment. 64% are somewhat to extremely concerned about global warming. 10% of our students put our commitment to sustainability as one of their top three reasons for coming to ISU.