Overall Rating Silver
Overall Score 58.84
Liaison Paulina Szlachta
Submission Date May 6, 2024

STARS v2.2

St. Lawrence College
EN-6: Assessing Sustainability Culture

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.50 / 1.00 Jadon Hook
Sustainability Officer
Facilities Management Services
"---" 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::
A subset of the campus community or a sample that may not be representative of the entire community

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 annual Sustainability Awareness Survey assesses sustainability values, understanding, priorities and beliefs. Also outlined in AC-6, this survey's questions are created to measure general outlook on global sustainability issues, how important they are, and how they need to be (if they need to be) prioritized. The survey then reflects on existing priorities and initiatives at St. Lawrence College to understand a sense of how much students, staff, and faculty are in support of these initiatives and to measure their support for these initiatives. 

Together with the college's Institutional Research & Data Governance team, the Sustainability team has created the survey to measure sustainability culture year over year. 


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:

The survey can be accessed through this link: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=JzlNl7SbyUi2XGCUOT0DC1JzaLcScXRNkefsDtNgfS1UNzZPWERLRkJPNkdHWVdONzdRMkNNVU1HNC4u


A PDF has also been uploaded above with the questions. Sustainability culture questions can be viewed below under our summary of results. 


A brief description of how representative samples were reached (if applicable) and how the cultural assessment is administered:

The survey is emailed to all students, staff, and faculty at St. Lawrence College. It is open for approximately two weeks and is promoted twice more through the weekly newsletter, social media, and within college departments by sustainability committee members. The college community receives an additional reminder 2-3 days before the survey closes. The survey is administered through Microsoft Forms.


A brief summary of results from the cultural assessment:

Questions 3, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 15 were focused on assessing sustainability culture and beliefs. This means that approximately 42% of the survey's total questions (counting 14 questions are true questions, not including name/email requests in the total) included an assessment of campus sustainability culture.

Summary of Cultural Assessment Questions/Results



  •  On a scale 1 to 5, participants rated an average response of 3.6 the statement: "I am confident that there are adequate resources in place at SLC to help me act more sustainably".


  • In response to question 3 where a number of global sustainability issues were listed, participants were asked: " From the list below, please select three ways you think we can make the most meaningful difference in our local and global communities"

    •  Food Insecurity, Poverty and Displacement, and Extreme Weather Events were categorized as the three highest issues of global concern.




  • Respondents weighed in on which issues should be prioritized when planning sustainability integration at the College:

    • 'Waste reduction' was identified as the highest area of opportunity for St. Lawrence College to prioritize, followed by 'Increased access to sustainable foods'.




  • The question: "On a scale of 1 to 5, please respond to the following statement: Increasing mental health resilience and availability of mental health resources is a part of promoting sustainable development."

    • 4 was the average rating. 




Website URL where information about the assessment of sustainability culture is available:
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.