| Overall Rating | Gold |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 68.18 |
| Liaison | Marianne Martin |
| Submission Date | Dec. 3, 2024 |
University of Colorado Boulder
EN-4: Sustainability Culture Assessment
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
3.00 / 3.00 |
Marianne
Martin Associate Director Environmental Center |
4.1 Sustainability culture assessment design and administration
Narrative and/or website URL providing an overview of of the instruments/tools used to assess sustainability culture:
The purpose of the Sustainability Survey is to understand the CU Boulder campus community’s knowledge, values, and perspectives related to sustainability. The survey instrument is a 29 question Qualtrics survey with 19 of the questions of questions related to the following: Beliefs and values related to sustainability; Behaviors and involvement in sustainable practices; Opinions about CU Boulder sustainability programs and initiatives. 10 questions relate to sustainability knowledge.
• Questions were True/False, multiple choice, or asked respondents to either select or rank choices in a table.
• Questions consistent with 2014 and 2017 and 2020.
• Survey link emailed to representative samples of graduate and undergraduate CU Boulder students and staff/ faculty.
• Open for a 3-week period during the Fall 2023 semester.
• Cash prize drawing incentives offered to increase survey response and completion rates
• 21% student response rate (n=947) and 88% completion rate (n=832)
• 46% faculty/staff response rate (n=926) and 97% completion rate (n=862)
Description of the institution’s recent sustainability culture assessment findings and any notable trends:
2023 survey findings: • 63% of students strongly agree/agree that it’s important to them that CU Boulder has a strong public commitment to climate and the environment. (27% somewhat agree).
• 70% of students strongly agree/agree that it’s important to them that CU Boulder has a strong public commitment to social justice. (20% somewhat agree).
• 37% of students strongly agree/agree that CU is making a strong effort to increase its sustainability performance. (38% somewhat agree).
• 60% of students strongly agree/agree they try to make environmentally sustainable choices in the way they live. (35% somewhat agree).
• 13% of students strongly agree/agree they chose to attend CU in part because of its sustainability reputation. (23% somewhat agree)
• 86% of students consider themselves to have somewhat to moderately sustainable lifestyles. Only 2% consider their lifestyle to be “extremely” sustainable. Yet, 45% of students say they want to have extremely sustainable lifestyles.
• 90% of students strongly agree/agree that climate change is a concern for their generation.
Is the culture assessment designed and administered in such a way that the results can be used to measure change over time?:
Description of how the design and administration of the sustainability culture assessments supports the measurement of change over time:
The culture questions have remained mostly consistent in order to conduct pre and post-assessments and to assess trends overall and by cohort. The 4th year students in the 2023 representative sample survey are the 1st year students in the 2020 representative sample survey. Using the Power BI tool, we can isolate these demographics for comparison to evaluate trends in a cohort.
The Reporting Tool will automatically calculate the following figure:
4.2 Percentage of students assessed for sustainability culture
Description of the process used to measure or estimate the percentage of students assessed for sustainability culture:
Office of Data Analytics produced a stratified sample of undergraduate and graduate students. The survey was sent out to the sample (n=4,499), with an 21% response rate for culture-related questions (n=947).
The Reporting Tool will automatically calculate the following figure:
4.3 Percentage of employees assessed for sustainability culture
Description of the process used to measure or estimate the percentage of employees assessed for sustainability culture:
Office of Data Analytics produced a stratified sample of faculty and staff employees. The survey was sent out to the sample (n=2,003), with an 46% response rate for culture questions (n=926).
The Reporting Tool will automatically calculate the following figure:
Optional documentation
Additional documentation for this credit:
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.