Overall Rating Silver
Overall Score 56.01
Liaison Suzanne Wood
Submission Date Aug. 16, 2023

STARS v2.2

UMass Chan Medical School
EN-6: Assessing Sustainability Culture

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.00 / 1.00 Kortni Wroten
Sustainability and Energy Manager
Facilities
"---" 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 was developed by the UMass Chan sustainability staff with support from GreenerU to engage the UMass Chan community. It was developed to assess the UMass Chan community's understanding of sustainability, sustainability values, and interest and knowledge in UMass Chan sustainability efforts.

A follow-up assessment is scheduled for February 2024 and will take place annually going forward.

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:
Q20: To what extent do you agree with the following?
- "Sustainability includes social, environmental, and economic factors"
- "It is important for UMass Chan to mitigate and adapt to climate change thro..."
- "UMass Chan is doing enough to combat climate change"
- "UMass Chan is committed to using sustainable practices"
- "I feel empowered to contribute to sustainability at UMass Chan"
- "I feel informed about what is going on at UMass Chan about sustainability"
- "Climate and health are interrelated"
- "Climate change will impact my local community"

Q21: How often do you do the following?
- "Recycle paper, plastic, metal, glass, and chemicals"
- "Turn off lights or appliances when not in use"
- "Use a reusable cup and/or water bottle"
- "Discuss climate change or sustainability"
- "Make food changes with sustainability in mind"

Q23: How would you rate your level of concern about the environment?
- "Not at all concerned"
- "Slightly concerned"
- "Moderately concerned"
- "Very concerned"
- "Extremely concerned"

A brief description of how representative samples were reached (if applicable) and how the cultural assessment is administered:
The cultural assessment was administered through Qualtrics and sent to the campus community through the Growing Green newsletter. The survey had 121 responses broken out to 13% student responses, 8% faculty responses, and 70% staff responses and the rest of the responses identifying as other specific staff or post-doc roles.

A brief summary of results from the cultural assessment:
The results show that the UMass Chan community is generally not aware of the UMass system climate commitments and sustainability efforts, but the people who responded care about climate change and think that UMass Chan has a role and responsibility in addressing climate mitigation and adaptation. They identified a variety of policies that UMass Chan should prioritize to address climate change.

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.