Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 50.80
Liaison Allie McAllister
Submission Date March 27, 2018
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

Villanova University
EN-6: Assessing Sustainability Culture

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.25 / 1.00
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution conduct an assessment of sustainability culture (i.e. the assessment focuses on sustainability values, behaviors and beliefs, and may also address awareness of campus sustainability initiatives)?:
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:

A survey was sent out to a representative sample of the student population regarding their understanding and participation in sustainability efforts. the survey was sent out fall of 2015.


A copy or sample of the questions related to sustainability culture:
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A sample of the questions related to sustainability culture or the website URL where the assessment tool is available:


What words do you associate with the meaning of sustainability?

Please rank the following in order of greatest importance to you (from 1 to 6)
- Access to food, water, shelter
- Safety
- Equality
- Social Justice
- Economic stability
- Climate change

In any given week how often do you do the following?
- make a conscious effort to recycle
- use alternative transportation when traveling off campus
- set computer to power saving mode
- unplug chargers when not in use
- take 5 minute showers
- actively choose a meatless meal option

Given this definition of sustainability: "to meet the needs of the present without compromising future generations to meet their own needs," please indicate whether you agree or disagree with this statement: Villanova has a responsibility to consider sustainability concerns when making decisions.


A brief description of how representative samples were reached (if applicable) and how the cultural assessment is administered:

The university uses Qualtrics to administer surveys. Built into Qualtrics is the ability to choose a representative sample of the student body population. this allows for smaller surveys to go out more often without worrying about survey fatigue.


A brief summary of results from the cultural assessment, including a description of any measurable changes over time:

Students tend to associate sustainability with the more environmentally focused topics, and not the economic or social justice topics.
Students cared very much about access to food, water and shelter, and very little about climate change. But when asked what they do in a given week, very few noted that they take shorter showers or choose to eat meatless meal options.
Lastly, 97% of responding students felt Villanova had a responsibility to consider sustainability concerns when making decisions.

This last point will be used to help justify more sweeping changes to the university's approach to sustainability. The other responses helped us identify event topics that would pull together areas of low understanding or confusion between action and believe.


The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives 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.