University of Cincinnati
EN-6: Assessing Sustainability Culture

In 2016, the UC Office of Sustainability collected examples of survey instruments being used by other schools used for these purposes, including the Ohio State University and the University of Maryland, with their Assessing Sustainability Knowledge (ASK) instrument; the annual survey American University conducts, and others. These instruments were adapted by UC’s Office of Sustainability, in cooperation with the UC Institutional Research office. In 2021, further (minor) refinements were made in collaboration with Dr. Abel Gustafson (Asst. Professor, Communication), who managed the fall 2021 data collection, conducted the analyses, designed the figures, and produced a report document.

Of a total of thirteen content-directed questions, seven seek to provide insight into the ways that respondents experience sustainability as part of UC’s culture, as well as the ways in which their own attitudes, values, and behaviors shape that culture.

Those questions include:
1) How do you feel about sustainability efforts on campus (they are exceptional/ /good/adequate/poor/very poor/not aware)?
2) In your opinion, how important are environmental issues and sustainability (extremely/very/moderately/ a little/ not)?
3) Climate change is something you feel (very/somewhat/not) concerned about?
4) How frequently to you travel to campus (0-7 days)?
5) What is your main mode of transport to campus (SOV/walk/bus/shuttle/carpool /bike/ other)?
6) Do you recycle (always/sometimes/usually/rarely/never—on campus or at home)?
7) How strongly do you support for the following campus sustainability issues: plastic bag reduction/plastic bottle reduction/green infrastructure/local food in dining hall/organic food in dining hall/edible landscaping/expand bike share)?

See the bottom of this page for more information: https://www.uc.edu/about/admin-finance/planning-design-construction/sustainability/links-&-resources/on-campus-resources.html

In order to measure and gauge sustainability literacy and to assess sustainability culture related to how UC performs with sustainability, the University conducts longitudinal sustainability surveys. The most recent survey was administered in the fall of 2019 and was disseminated to all full time faculty, staff, and students on the Uptown campus. The Office of Sustainability worked with the University’s departments of Institutional Research and Communications to best determine the most effective way to share the survey, which ended up being creating a unique listserv group that included all full time students, staff, and faculty on the Uptown campus. The survey was disseminated to 26,000 undergraduate and graduate students, and 8,700 faculty and staff between 10/10/2019 - 10/21/2019.

The campus sustainability culture survey demonstrates that UC students, staff and faculty are aware of, and concerned about, sustainability issues. For example, the vast majority of respondents to the survey, when asked “How would you rate your feelings about environmental issues and sustainability, 83% responded that they were “extremely” or “very” important.

Only a minority of UC community members evaluated the university’s sustainability efforts as better than adequate. 32% said “adequate” in 2021; 18% said they were poor or very poor, and a meaningful percentage (28%) indicated “I am not aware of UC’s sustainability efforts.”

A high proportion of respondents (72% said they always or usually recycle items when on campus and at home). Many also indicated significant support for plastic reductions and green infrastructure on campus, and moderate support for increasing the amount of local and organic food in campus dining halls.

In all questions, responses in 2021 were quite similar to those of 2019. The lack of increase in awareness of UC's efforts or support for various campus initiatives was perhaps a result of limited capacity and engagement opportunity during the years in which the Covid-19 pandemic was most disruptive to campus life. The surveys paint a picture of continued need and opportunity to engage UC students, staff and faculty further in the university’s sustainability efforts.