University of Michigan
IN-1: Innovation 1

The Sustainability Cultural Indicators Program (SCIP) is a multi-year project designed to measure and track the culture of sustainability on the University of Michigan’s (U-M) Ann Arbor campus. It is intended to inform U-M administrators and others responsible for day-to-day operations of the University including its academic programs. Furthermore, it is intended to serve as a model demonstrating how behavioral research can be used to address critical environmental issues within universities generally and in other organizational settings. Culture of sustainability is meant to reflect a set of attitudes, behaviors, levels of understanding and commitment, degrees of engagement, and dispositions among a population such as members of a university community.

Two separate questionnaires are used for SCIP - one for staff and faculty, and one for students. While many of the questions are similar, different time frames and sequences are used in the two versions. As a primary objective of SCIP is to work closely with the U-M sustainability goals, questionnaire modules were developed with questions focusing on transportation, waste prevention, the natural environment, food, climate change, as well as U-M sustainability efforts, and respondent demographics. Since 2012 approximately 6000 members of the campus community have completed the questionnaires each year. This includes roughly 4000 students and 2,000 faculty and staff.

Annual SCIP reports are shared with the campus community noting changes since the previous year and trends over time. A program website was also developed to share key results and materials. Between September 2013 and June 2014 there were over 1000 views of this website and the Year 1 report was one of the top ten file downloads from the Graham Institute website. Meetings are held each year with more than a dozen campus groups to discuss results and these have already led to new initiatives and programs. In terms of broader SCIP reach, more than 50 institutions across the US and in other countries have requested copies of the survey instruments. Three book chapters and three journal articles have been produced on the SCIP process and results, and SCIP has been share at 12 major conferences. http://graham.umich.edu/leadership/scip