Western University
EN-4: Sustainability Culture Assessment

The Sustainability Pulse Survey has been administered annually since 2020. It is a Qualtrics survey broken down into three main sections: sustainability literacy, awareness of and engagement with Western’s sustainability initiatives, and individual opinions and actions. Each of these sections represent an equal part of the survey, which takes about 10-15 minutes to complete in total. In October-November the survey remains open for 3-4 weeks and is widely promoted to the entire campus community through mass emails, social media, website, and more. In 2023, nearly 3,200 people (roughly 12% of the campus community) participated in the survey including representation from students and employees across all areas of campus.

Campus community has a much higher awareness of sustainability programs/initiatives that are more visible (i.e. bike shelters, EV charging, Community Garden) compared to programs that don’t have the same kind of physical presence (i.e. Sustainable Workplace Ambassadors Program, Campus as a Living Lab). To help promote these lesser known programs we aim to make them more visible through promotional materials such as physical signage at Living Lab sites, where appropriate, and a billboard highlighting different programs on a rotating basis throughout the year. Newer programming like Campus as a Living Lab seems to be growing traction as it went from the least well known program in 2022 to the third least known in 2023. Bike lockers and shelter remained the most well-known in both years, with the Western Community Garden the second most known.

Incentives are a key driver for participation in sustainability events/initiatives and behaviour change such as sustainable transportation choices. This can be incorporated into our programming to help increase participation through prizes, meals, or other perks that will help continue increasing participation at events and through individuals’ sustainable choices.

It was interesting to note that while levels of interest in most sustainability topics remain fairly consistent year to year, the campus community’s interest in Waste grew substantially greater in 2022 compared to 2021. We expect this is likely due to the return to in-person learning in 2022, whereas 2021 was more of a hybrid year and therefore campus waste was less visible.

The Sustainability Pulse was designed to measure change over time by keeping key questions consistent year-to-year. For example, each year the culture assessment asks whether respondents are aware of specific sustainability-related programs. While there may be small changes made to the survey if programs have ended, or new programs have launched, overall this section provides insight on level of awareness of campus sustainability programming from year-to-year. Another example is a measurement of personal sustainability choices around transportation. Each year the survey asks how often respondents take different forms of transportation such as personal vehicle (gas-powered), personal vehicle (EV), carpool, public transit, bicycle, or walk. There is also opportunity for respondents to share insights as to incentives that would encourage more sustainable choices, and current barriers.

In the annual analysis of findings, we are able to compare results by year and gauge changes in our campus community’s interest and awareness in various sustainability topics and programs.

The Sustainability Pulse is administered to all students via mass email on an annual basis to ensure a representative sample of the student population completes the survey. Incentives are included as part of the survey communication to encourage greater participation, and incentives are selected that would be enticing to all members of our campus community, rather than a “sustainability-related incentive” that may bias the results as the incentive would be more enticing to a select group of people.

Of the 3,200 survey responses received, 2,200 responses were from students. The student sample includes representation across all academic faculties, and a representative mix of undergraduate and graduate students.

The Sustainability Pulse is administered to all employees via mass email on an annual basis to ensure a representative sample of the employee population completes the survey. Incentives are included as part of the survey communication to encourage greater participation, and incentives are selected that would be enticing to all members of our campus community, rather than a “sustainability-related incentive” that may bias the results as the incentive would be more enticing to a select group of people.

Of the 3,200 survey responses received, 1,000 responses were from employees. The employee sample includes representation across all academic faculties, all major staff units, and a mix of faculty and staff employees.