Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 67.30
Liaison Dianne Anderson
Submission Date Feb. 7, 2020
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

New York University
AC-6: Sustainability Literacy Assessment

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.00 / 4.00 Nicholas Liu-Sontag
Manager
Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution conduct an assessment of the sustainability literacy of its students (i.e. an assessment focused on student knowledge of sustainability topics and challenges)?:
Yes

Which of the following best describes the literacy assessment? The assessment is administered to::
A subset of students or a sample that may not be representative of the predominant student body

Which of the following best describes the structure of the assessment? The assessment is administered as a::
Pre- and post-assessment to the same cohort or to representative samples in both a pre- and post-test

A copy of the questions included in the sustainability literacy assessment(s):
A sample of the questions included in the sustainability literacy assessment or the website URL where the assessment tool may be found:

See the attached document.


A brief description of how the literacy assessment was developed and/or when it was adopted:

The Sustainability Literacy Assessment was developed as a part of the NYUGreen Sustainability Quiz. The Quiz is distributed to the NYU Office of Sustainability email list, and is used as a benchmarking quiz for participants in the NYU GreenZone sustainability training to establish their baseline understanding of sustainability issues. The assessment was first performed in Spring 2020.


A brief description of how a representative sample was reached (if applicable) and how the assessment(s) were administered :

The assessment was initially administered to the NYU community in the Spring 2020. The survey was first distributed via the NYU Office of Sustainability email list, and will be administered to further groups in the future as a benchmark for participants in the NYU GreenZone sustainability training. Respondents received a link to the Google Form containing the survey, and responses were recorded by the Office of Sustainability.


A brief summary of results from the literacy assessment(s), including a description of any measurable changes over time:

Results from the survey have revealed a fairly good understanding of sustainability in regards to food and transportation. But showed areas for sustainability education improvements as it pertains to NYU's carbon goals and green building initiatives - both of which are significant opportunities for learning about 'sustainability in practice'.

For example, only 14% of respondents correctly knew the ballpark square footage of NYU's LEED certified buildings (a figure that is often quoted in NYU sustainability material) and less than 10% knew of NYU's carbon neutrality goal.


The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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