The Ohio State University
EN-6: Assessing Sustainability Culture

The cultural assessment survey was originally developed and conducted in 2010, and largely remained unchanged through 2014.
Building from those past efforts in social scientific sustainability assessment, five Ohio State faculty and staff members of the ESS Lab further developed an ambitious, campus-wide sustainability survey in 2018 intended to both answer specific research questions and provide a source of valuable longitudinal (panel) data on Ohio State student’s sustainability perceptions, values, and behaviors.
In addition, portions of the survey were collaboratively developed with partners including the Sustainability Institute (formerly The Sustainable and Resilient Economy Discovery Theme and the Office of Energy and the Environment), the ENGIE-Axium energy partnership, and The Office of Student Life, Facilities, Operations, and Development (FOD) to inform important efforts on campus such as sustainability curriculum development and campus initiative assessment. Please see below for a summary of our approach and scales used:

The items used in previous versions of the survey were developed through expert input, focus groups, and analysis of sustainability literature. The 2018 survey updated these items and included additional measures of sustainability values including the Sustainability Attitudes Scale (SAS) (see Zwickle & Jones, 2018), as well as normative and control perceptions related to a sub-section of sustainability behaviors (adapted from Stern, 1999; Hassan, Shiu, & Shaw, 2014; Heath & Gifford, 2006).

The 2021 survey continued the practices within the 2018 survey, with some changes in questions relevant to support for specific campus sustainability initiatives.

The 2021 assessment tool survey report, in addition to previous years, is available here: https://ess.osu.edu/campus-sustainability-survey/reports

Sample behavior questions:

“Below is a list of behaviors you may or may not do. Please indicate how often you do these behaviors”
• Carry a reusable water bottle
• Turn off the lights in an empty room where you live
• Eat animal products such as milk, cheese, eggs, or yogurt
• Eat meat
• Print on both sides of the paper
• Sort out your recycling
• Walk, bicycle, or take public transportation instead of taking a car
• Use the stairs instead of the elevator when going up or down more than one floor

“Below is a list of behaviors you may or may not do. Please indicate how often you do these behaviors”
• Turn your personal electronics off or into low-power mode when not in use
• Use reusable bags when shopping
• Act to conserve water when showering, cleaning clothes, dishes, or other uses
• Limit the energy used to heat or cool your living space
• Limit your consumption of new items (e.g. electronics, clothes)
• Purchase second-hand items instead of purchasing new items
• Eat organic food

In order to maintain a panel and assess how individuals have changed over time, the sampling frame for 2021 included all students that responded to the 2020 survey and were still enrolled at Ohio State in 2021 (N = 2,909). These 2020 respondents were separated by rank, and each total was subtracted from 5,000 to determine the number of new students randomly sampled from each rank for the 2021 effort. As was done in 2018 - 2020, we oversampled 5,500 first year students to account for sample attrition over time. In October of 2021, survey invitations were emailed to the full sample of 20,500 non-transfer undergraduate students from Ohio State’s Columbus campus via Qualtrics. In addition to an invitation, after one week, participants were emailed a reminder, and one week later they received a third and final reminder.

Of the 20,500 students contacted, 2,600 started the survey and 1,846 completed it (9% completion rate). The final sample size used for this report (i.e., students who began the survey and answered at least one behavior question) was 2,374 students, for a final response rate of 11.6%.

Engagement in sustainable behaviors: In total, undergraduate student engagement in sustainability-related behaviors such as carrying a reusable water bottle, turning off the lights in an empty room, and printing on both sides of the paper remain quite high. Likewise, nearly half (47%) of students report often or always sorting out their recycling. However, opportunities to further promote campus sustainability goals continue to present themselves in emphasizing behaviors that are low cost, but that many students have not yet adopted, such as limiting purchases of new items and shifting purchases to second hand wherever possible.
Sustainability knowledge: Student knowledge of sustainability-related topics (e.g. sustainable economics, social sustainability) as assessed through quiz-type questions remains higher than that assessed in 2014. However, some misconceptions remain on topics regarding the causes of pollution and environmental degradation. One major misconception worsened among students in relation to causes of pollution. In 2021, 36.6% of students incorrectly answered that waste dumped by factories is the main cause of pollution of streams and rivers (in 2018 the percent answering incorrectly was 24.1%). Less than half of student respondents identified the correct answer— surface water runoff from yards, city streets, paved lots, and farm fields.

Please visit the website for the Environmental and Social Sustainability Lab at https://ess.osu.edu/home or contact us at ESSL@osu.edu to receive more information about the OSU campus sustainability survey, as well as our other social scientific sustainability research initiatives.

ESSL@osu.edu