University of British Columbia
AC-6: Sustainability Literacy Assessment

Survey Questions
1. Word List and Word Generation Condition questions:
Your task is to examine the following list of term/phrases and select five that most reflect your understanding/perception of the concept ‘Sustainability’ (these terms were provided in a table format)
Environmental, Legalization, Alternative Housing Models, Green Chemistry, Human Potential, Ecosystem Management, Organic Agriculture, Human Security, Supply-Chain Management, Public Transit, Anthropocentrism, Environmental Accounting, Planetary Limits, Full Employment, Green Belts, ISO 4000 Standards, Inter-generational, Equity, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Eco-Strategies, Equitable Incomes, Hybrid Vehicles, Utilitarianism, Natural Capital, Transportation, Infrastructure, Mutualism, Industrial Ecology, Social Capital, Health and Safety, Environmental Engineering, Global Warming, Efficient Allocation of Resources, Recycling, Social Justice, 'Factor X' Patterns of Production or Consumption, Eco-design, Protecting Wildlife habitats, Water Conservation, Conservation of Natural Resources, Globalization, Future Generations, Economic Resilience, Social Equity, Urban Design, 'Zero-Growth Economy', Human Scale, Ethical Investment, Food Security, Ecosystem capacity, Health & Well-being, Cost of Mitigation Vs. BSU (Business as Usual), Degradation, Sustainable Consumption, Preservation of Natural Landscapes, Clean Production, Education, Urban Growth Boundaries, Social Responsibility, Ecosystem Recovery, 'Livable' Cities, Purification, Zero-Waste, Energy Efficiency, Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC), Socio-cultural traditions, Healthy Communities, Community Organization, Social Panels Preservation of Agricultural Land, Reduction or Elimination of CO2 Emissions, Biodiversity, Bio-centrism, 'Polluter Pays' Principle, Limits to Population Growth, Product Innovations, Utopian Ideal, Local and global connections/flows, Distribution of Wealth, Species Extinction, Development, Reduced Demand, 'Maximum Sustainable Yield', Renewable Energy, 'Green-washing', Lifestyle Sacrifices, Ecosystem Services, Urban Agriculture, Reduction of Automobile use

Your task is to write the first 5 terms/phrases that come to mind when you consider this concept. Please write your responses in the following space.

2. Sustainability familiarity questions:
How would you rate your level of familiarity concerning ‘Sustainability’?
o Very Unfamiliar
o Unfamiliar
o Neither Familiar or Unfamiliar
o Familiar
o Very Familiar
Have you ever taken a UBC course that covered 'Sustainability' topics?
o Yes
o No
If so, how many?

3. Participant engagement questions:
Do you have previous experience participating in sustainability initiatives, events, or programs?
❍ Yes
❍ No
If no, would you like to participate in such activities in the future?
❍ Yes
❍ No
Which of the following is the most accessible way for you to engage in sustainability education and action on campus?
❍ Sustainability/environmentally orientated classes
❍ Extra-curricular organizations/clubs
❍ Volunteer work
❍ Other ____________________
❍ No opinion
To what extent would a sustainability component influence your choice of electives in course selection?
❍ Highly deterring
❍ Somewhat deterring
❍ No effect
❍ Somewhat influencing
❍ Highly influencing
Did the university’s commitment or reputation in sustainability influence your decision to attend
UBC?
❍ Highly deterring
❍ Somewhat deterring
❍ No effect
❍ Somewhat influencing
❍ Highly influencing

4. ASK survey questions:
What is the most common cause of pollution of streams and rivers?
❍ Dumping of garbage by cities
❍ Surface water running off yards, city streets, paved lots and farm fields
❍ Litter near streams and rivers
❍ Waste dumped by factories
❍ Don't Know
Ozone forms a protective layer in the earth’s upper atmosphere. What does ozone protect us from?
❍ Acid rain
❍ Climate change
❍ Sudden changes in temperature
❍ Harmful UV rays
❍ Don’t know
What is the primary benefit of wetlands?
❍ Promote flooding
❍ Clean the water before it enters lakes, streams, rivers or oceans
❍ Keep the number of undesirable plants and animals low
❍ Provide good sites for landfills
❍ Don’t know
Which of the following is an example of sustainable forest management?
❍ Setting aside forests to be off-limits to the public
❍ Never harvesting more than what the forest produces in new growth
❍ Producing lumber for nearby communities to build affordable housing
❍ Putting the local communities in charge of forest resources
❍ Don’t know
Which of the following is the most commonly used definition of sustainable development?
❍ Creating a government welfare system that ensures universal access to education, health care and
social services
❍ Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet
their own needs
❍ Setting aside resources for preservation, never to be used
❍ Building a neighborhood that is both socio-demographically and economically diverse
❍ Don’t know
Higher levels of education generally lead to [. . .]
❍ Lower levels of voter turnout
❍ Greater annual earnings
❍ Larger family size
❍ Higher self-esteem
❍ Don’t know
Which of the following populations has the highest rate of growth?
❍ North America
❍ Europe
❍ China
❍ Africa
❍ Don’t know
Which of the following is a leading cause of the depletion of fish stocks in the Atlantic Ocean?
❍ Fishermen seeking to maximize their catch
❍ Reduced fish fertility due to genetic hybridization
❍ Ocean pollution
❍ Global climate change
❍ Don’t know
Which of the following is the most commonly used definition of economic sustainability?
❍ Maximizing the share price of a company’s stock
❍ Long-term profitability
❍ When costs equal revenue
❍ Continually expanding market share
❍ Don’t know
What are the potential effects of global climate change?
❍ Loss of habitats
❍ Less severe weather
❍ Loss of ozone layer
❍ Decrease in sea level
❍ Don’t know
The most significant driver in the loss of species and ecosystems around the world is [...]
❍ Over-hunting/over-harvesting
❍ Conversion of natural spaces into human developments (farmland, cities, etc.)
❍ Acid rain
❍ Breeding of animals in zoos
❍ Don’t know
Which of the following statements about water is true?
❍ Globally, water for personal use such as washing dishes, doing laundry, and bathing is the major
user of water resources.
❍ Globally, freshwater reserves (aquifers) are used faster than they are replenished.
❍ Floods and severe weather will increase the availability of clean drinking water.
❍ Because water is a free and abundant resource, it is not a major concern for most countries.
❍ Don’t know
Imagine that we had to pay for all the costs associated with the goods we use every day. What would go into calculating the true costs of a product?
❍ The cost of raw materials to make the product
❍ The cost of environmental damage caused by production
❍ The cost of health care for employees who manufacture the product
❍ All of the above
❍ Don’t know
Workers around the world face a variety of social injustices, including low wages, poor working conditions, and lack of access to education. To help improve conditions for these workers you can [...]
❍ Support corporations that do not allow workers to join labour unions
❍ Buy the newest products to keep factories around the world open
❍ Purchase products from companies that conduct business in a socially responsible manner
❍ Support large corporations because they generally have more money to pay their workers
❍ Don’t know
Of the following, which would be considered living in the most environmentally sustainable way?
❍ Recycling all recyclable packaging
❍ Reducing consumption of all products
❍ Buying products labeled "Eco" or "green"
❍ Buying the newest products available
❍ Don't know

5. Demographic questions:
What is your gender?
❍ Female
❍ Male
❍ Other
❍ Prefer not to say
What is your current year of study?
❍ 1st year
❍ 2nd year
❍ 3rd year
❍ 4th year
❍ 5th year or above
❍ Prefer not to say
Which faculty do you currently belong to?
❍ Faculty of Arts
❍ Sauder School of Business
❍ Faculty of Science
What is your major program?

The survey contains four sections that assessed students based on their sustainability familiarity, engagement, knowledge, and demographics. The study used a word generation and word list task plus a modified version of the survey conducted at Ohio State University in conjunction with the University of Maryland. The Word Generation method involved two different questions, each individual participant completed only one of these. The first question was a word generation task (WG) wherein participants provided the five words that they felt best reflected their understanding of the concept ‘sustainability ‘and the second involved a word list task (WL) wherein five words were chosen from a predefined set of terms. The predefined set of terms included 87 terms generated through a review of academic literature regarding definitions of sustainability, and the terms were equitably distributed among the categories of Environmental, Economic, and Social sustainability. The Assessment of Sustainability Knowledge (ASK) survey section consisted of 15 items testing various facets of sustainability knowledge; any USA specific questions were replaced with questions rating participants’ exposure to and familiarity with the concept of sustainability, as well as their motivation to participate and engage in sustainability focused initiatives. This portion of the test was measured according to the number of correct answers.

92 undergraduate students from the faculties of Arts, Science and the Sauder School of
Business were sampled for this study. The survey was conducted over a 14-day sample period, participants completed surveys at various locations on campus to get a representative sample (including the Student Union Building, Sauder Cafe, and Ponderosa Commons). The study was also hosted on qualtrics.com and circulated online via social media.

The difference in word generation and word list tasks suggests that there is a popular perception of environmental sustainability that influences student responses. When asked to list what they thought of the concept sustainability, students were inclined to using environmentally related words whereas when given a list of words to choose from, there was no predominant type of word selection, i.e. environmental, social and economic responses occurred proportionally.

Year standing and years attended did not correlate with any of the measures and were not significant. Participants in the faculty of Science produced significantly higher mean scores on the sustainability knowledge section than both Arts and Business participants. Though, both number of sustainability-related classes taken and experience with extracurricular sustainability initiatives were found as a significant predictors for participants’ mean knowledge scores. However, due to a small sample size, further studies are needed on a bigger sample to confirm this data in order to accurately confirm the findings.