Overall Rating Silver
Overall Score 59.88
Liaison Alex Frank
Submission Date April 14, 2022

STARS v2.2

University of Wisconsin-Madison
EN-6: Assessing Sustainability Culture

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.25 / 1.00 Alex Frank
Sustainability Analyst
Office of Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution conduct an assessment of sustainability culture?:
Yes

Which of the following best describes the cultural assessment? The assessment is administered to::
A subset of the campus community or a sample that may not be representative of the entire community

Which of the following best describes the structure of the cultural assessment? The assessment is administered::
Without a follow-up assessment of the same cohort or representative samples of the same population

A brief description of how and when the cultural assessment(s) were developed and/or adopted:
Dr. Asli Gocmen developed the survey based upon previous research she conducted and in consultation and collaboration with the Office of Sustainability.

A copy or sample of the questions related to sustainability culture:
A sample of the questions related to sustainability culture or the website URL where the assessment tool is available:
The full instrument is attached, behavioral and cultural questions begin on page 3.

A brief description of how representative samples were reached (if applicable) and how the cultural assessment is administered:
The survey was distributed to a randomly selected sample of half of all undergraduate students and analysis of respondents confirmed it was representative of the undergraduate student body. In total, 1,081 responses were received with 945 being complete and included in the results analysis. The survey was distributed by email with completion of the survey rewarded by being entered into a drawing for small prizes.

A brief summary of results from the cultural assessment:
A few important take-aways from the assessment include:
- On average, students receive the majority of their information on environment and sustainability from sources other than UW-Madison; 11% of participating students stated receiving most of their information and 26% stated receiving some of their information from UW-Madison.
- Roughly one third (34%) of the students have not had any courses on campus on environmental topics addressed in our survey, 26% have taken one course, 16% two courses, and 22% three or more courses.
- Water appeared to be the area where students practiced most conservation behaviors, followed by energy and solid waste areas. Behaviors pertaining to the food area appeared to be practiced less frequently compared to the other areas.
- The majority of the students report being very or extremely familiar with two of ten presented campus sustainability programs, namely free or discounted bus passes followed by meat-free meal choices in campus dining facilities. Another item related to campus dining facilities followed in high familiarity: composting programs; however, only about one-third of the students indicated familiarity with the composting programs.

Optional Fields 

Website URL where information about the assessment of sustainability culture 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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