Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 71.07
Liaison Michael Chapman
Submission Date March 6, 2020

STARS v2.2

Nova Scotia Community College
EN-6: Assessing Sustainability Culture

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.00 / 1.00 Kirk Herman
Environmental Engineer
Facilities and Engineering
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution conduct an assessment of sustainability culture?:
Yes

Which of the following best describes the cultural assessment? The assessment is administered to::
The entire campus community (students and employees) directly or by representative sample

Which of the following best describes the structure of the cultural assessment? The assessment is administered::
Longitudinally to measure change over time

A brief description of how and when the cultural assessment(s) were developed and/or adopted:
The cultural assessment questions were developed by NSCC's sustainability department in collaboration with our Institutional Research Analysts. The questions are intended both to focus on the values of our stakeholders, as well as gauge willingness to participate in sustainable development on Campus and awareness of NSCC's various sustainability initiatives.

A copy or sample of the questions related to sustainability culture:
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A sample of the questions related to sustainability culture or the website URL where the assessment tool is available:
1. How important is it to you that NSCC demonstrates leadership in on-campus
sustainability?

2.How often do you wonder about the impacts of climate change and how they might
impact you?

Using the scale provided (Strongly Agree, Somewhat Agree, Neither Agree Nor Disagree, Somewhat Disagree, Strongly Disagree), please indicate your level of agreement with the following statements:

3. NSCC has a responsibility to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions to minimize the effects of climate change.

4. NSCC provides opportunities on Campus for you to be engaged with sustainability.

5. NSCC is good at communicating College sustainability initiatives.

6. Environmental/sustainability-related issues affect my daily life and habits.

7. I understand how I can contribute to on-campus sustainability at NSCC.

8. Sustainability matters to me.

9. How willing are you to participate in sustainability activities on campus? (Very willing, somewhat willing, not willing)

10. Are you aware of any of the following sustainable infrastructure initiatives NSCC currently participates in? Check any that you have heard of: (BOMA BEST, LEED, STARS)

A brief description of how representative samples were reached (if applicable) and how the cultural assessment is administered:
The cultural assessment was emailed directly to all NSCC staff and students in the 2019/2020 academic year via their NSCC email address. Incoming students also received an invitation to participate in the survey via their personal email address in case the were not yet familiar with NSCC's email login. Students received the first iteration of the survey in September 2019, with the initial staff following in January 2020. Students will be re-surveyed at the end of their academic year to measure the impact of NSCC on sustainability culture. Many programs at NSCC are 1-2 years in length, so the surveying program will be an ongoing program to ensure we continually capture data for new students on a regular basis. The staff assessment will be done on a 2-3 year basis to measure the impact of embedding sustainability in NSCC's workplace culture on a longer timescale. NSCC has committed to the longitudinal aspect of this assessment and the follow-up surveys are planned and scheduled, beginning in March 2020 and continuing in the near future.

A brief summary of results from the cultural assessment:
This is NSCC's first sustainability culture assessment. It will be a longitudinal assessment of the entire College population and follow-up assessments are planned for both staff and students in order to measure changes over time.

Optional Fields 

Website URL where information about the assessment of sustainability culture 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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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.