Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 68.42
Liaison Austin Sutherland
Submission Date Feb. 18, 2025

STARS v2.2

University of Pennsylvania
AC-6: Sustainability Literacy Assessment

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 4.00 / 4.00
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution conduct an assessment of the sustainability literacy of its students?:
Yes

Which of the following best describes the literacy assessment? The assessment is administered to::
The entire (or predominate) student body, directly or by representative sample

Which of the following best describes the structure of the assessment? The assessment is administered as a::
Pre- and post-assessment to the same cohort or to representative samples in both a pre- and post-test

A copy of the questions included in the sustainability literacy assessment(s):
Penn_Climate_Change_Survey_10.11.2023.pdf

A list or sample of the questions included in the sustainability literacy assessment or the website URL where the assessment tool may be found:
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A brief description of how the literacy assessment was developed and/or when it was adopted:
Penn's Climate and Sustainability Action Plan 3.0 (CSAP 3.0) charges the University with improving Penn's students' climate literacy. In support of this goal, Penn Sustainability and the Environmental Innovations Initiative have developed a comprehensive university-wide climate and sustainability survey. The survey, planned to be issued every two years, aims to collect time-series data on Penn community's attitudes, beliefs, knowledge, and behaviors to address specific research questions.
 
Additionally, portions of the survey were developed to help clarify whether there is a need for crucial campus initiatives like the creation of sustainability curricula and campus initiative evaluation.

A brief description of how a representative sample was reached (if applicable) and how the assessment(s) were administered :

To have knowledge of the community's perception, the survey was distributed in Fall 2023. The implementation strategy consisted of issuing surveys through school deans, requiring adjusting some questions to create more school-specific versions of the survey, focusing more on academic purposes if needed. The distribution of this survey is under the deans' discretion; therefore, is bound to their plans and approaches. 


A brief summary of results from the literacy assessment(s):

1,481 responses collected 
• 337 (28%) undergraduate students
• 384 (32%) graduate students
• 173 (15%) faculty
• 291 (25%) staff

Findings
• 88% of respondents are extremely sure that climate change is happening.
• 80% of respondents including students, faculty, and staff consider human activities to be the primary cause of climate change.


Optional Fields 

Website URL where information about the sustainability literacy assessment is available:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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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.