University of Miami
AC-6: Sustainability Literacy Assessment

Q7 - The production of heat trapping Green House Gases in our atmosphere is the primary source of Global Warming. Which gas is NOT a Green House Gas? Q15 - The "Holocene extinction" refers to the ongoing mass extinction of species mainly due to human activity. What is the first cause of this mass extinction? Q18 - Which of those areas is NOT considered an energy intensive space? Q20 - Producing meat and animal-derived products requires more resources and energy than crops, fruits or vegetables. More resource equals more carbon emissions. What solutions do we have to reverse that trend? Q21 - Taxing what we want less of - like pollution - instead of what we want more of - like wages - would make sense. Internationally and in the US, several policies are making polluters pay for the cost of carbon pollution. Which one is not a carbon pricing policy? Q30 - The image on ocean pollution above relates to what recent decision by the City of Coral Gables?

The assessment was developed by the Office of Sustainability in consultation with the Ecosystem Science and Policy Center and faculty members that sit on our Sustainability Committee. The questions came from some of their class material, some came from standardized tests on sustainability. We also wanted to add a local dimension to it, so we added questions related to our campus and our community environmental, social and economic challenges.

We agreed on dividing the questions in two: nearly half of the questions were global sustainability questions addressing most of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and the other half, local sustainable community or sustainability in the workplace questions. 352 individuals took the survey which was sent massively through our University Department of Communication outlets.

The survey was comprised of diverse questions covering the spectrum of international, national, local and workplace sustainability related topics. Nearly 60% of surveys came from staff, nearly 30% from students and a very small portion from faculty members. The observations made from the results are as follows: - Answers to local sustainability related matters (5 questions) were mostly accurate (over 90%) - Answers to workplace sustainability related best practices (7 questions) were also mostly accurate (over 90%) - General questions for other topics like Water Conservation, Sustainable Food and Environmentally Preferred Products received an average of 70% accuracy (3 questions) - Questions on international policies, climate science and sustainable development goals received a much lower score: 59% accuracy (8 questions) The overall average of accurate answers to the survey was 73%. We are planning to send a new survey every year to follow up on sustainability educational outreach impact on our campuses.