Overall Rating Silver
Overall Score 58.26
Liaison Caitlin McLennan
Submission Date Oct. 10, 2022

STARS v2.2

Utah State University
EN-6: Assessing Sustainability Culture

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.50 / 1.00 Alexi Lamm
Sustainability Coordinator
Facilities
"---" 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::
Longitudinally to measure change over time

A brief description of how and when the cultural assessment(s) were developed and/or adopted:
In the 2020-2021 academic year, we piloted a sustainability culture and literacy assessment. It included relational values, self-assessed importance of sustainability, sustainability knowledge, self-assessed sustainability knowledge, and demographics. Over 500 students participated, taking the assessment at the beginning and end of a class.

1. An 12-question Assessment of Sustainability Knowledge (ASK)
2. An 8-question assessment of students’ relationship to nature (relational values)
3. Questions on a students’ self-assessment of sustainability knowledge and the importance of sustainability to them

Categories two and three were considered sustainability culture questions with no right or wrong answers.

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:
For example, these are some of the relational values questions.

Please rate each statement from strongly disagree to strongly agree.

How we manage the land, both for plants and animals and for future people, reflects my sense of responsibility to and so stewardship for land.

There are landscapes that say something about who we are as a community, a people.

I often think of some wild places whose fate I care about and strive to protect, even though I may never see them myself.

A brief description of how representative samples were reached (if applicable) and how the cultural assessment is administered:
Faculty volunteered to give pre- and post-assessments in their classes.

A brief summary of results from the cultural assessment:
1. Self-assessed sustainability knowledge and self-evaluation of sustainability importance significantly increased between pre- and post-assessments
2. The objective Assessment of Sustainability Knowledge indicated a significant change in distribution of scores but a minimal increase in mean.
3. Relational values did not significantly change between pre- and post-assessments.

Optional Fields 

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