Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS)
EN-6: Assessing Sustainability Culture

A test was developed in 2023 by the Sustainability Office to assess the knowledge and practices of INRS’s community regarding sustainability. The test "Connaissances et mobilisation de la communauté INRS en matière de développement durable" was sent to all employees and students in September 2023, for three weeks. The test consisted of 27 questions including:
9 questions related to sustainable development;
4 questions specifically focused on INRS sustainability practises;
5 questions and 1 subquestion about sustainability culture;
3 free-form text fields for general comments;
5 demographic questions.
After responding to the test, respondents had access to their score, and resources and explanations were given for each question.

The test was initially formulated by the INRS sustainable development team during summer 2023. Questions 7, 16 and 20 were sourced from The USask Sustainability Literacy Assessment (by Erin Akins, Matt Wolsfeld, Aditi Garg, and Sabrina Kehoe at the University of Saskatchewan, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (https://sustainability.usask.ca). A draft of the test was then submitted to for review and comment to:
- Scientific Director;
- Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) team (particularly regarding questions related to respondents’ identification (gender, age, etc.) and "social pillar" questions;
- Data management research advisor.

In the future, the community will be tested every three years. We will use this first test as a baseline. Using Office 365 authentication, it will be possible to compare cohorts. Post-assessment is scheduled for March 2026.

11) INRS has adopted the SDGs as the frame of reference for its sustainable development action plan.
- True
- False
- I don't know

12) INRS has set itself the goal of achieving carbon neutrality (reducing and then offsetting its categories 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions) by...
a) 2030
b) 2040
c) 2050
d) Carbon neutrality is not an INRS objective.
e) I don't know

13) Which of the following committees are you familiar with at INRS?
- Institutional Sustainable Development Committee
- 490 Green Committee
- Ecoactifs Committee
- UCS Green Committee
- Comité DD EMT
- I don't know any

14) Please state your position on the following statements (Totally agree, Somewhat agree, Slightly agree, Slightly disagree, Somewhat disagree, Totally disagree, Not applicable):
- It's important to me that INRS is committed to improving its social and environmental impact and participating in the socio-ecological transition.
- I try to make socio-eco-responsible decisions in my daily life.
- I chose INRS partly because of its reputation for sustainable development.
- I chose my field of study/research so that my profession could have an impact on the environment.

16) During the past year, on a scale of 1-5 (1 = never and 5 = always, or N/A) please rank how often you did the following when you had the opportunity:
a. Adjust thermostats to save energy (cooler in winter, warmer in summer)
b. Turn off lights when not used
c. Turn off power strip/electronics when not used
d. Recycle electronics
e. Print double-sided
f. Wash clothes in cold water
g. Reuse containers/bags
h. Walk, skate, bike, bus, van, or carpool

17) Have you engaged in voluntary service in any areas related to sustainability/environmental/eco-social justice issues in the past year? Oui, dans le domaine de l’environnement
- Yes – environmental / sustainability area
- Yes – eco-social justice area
- No.

18) If the answer is yes, for how many hours did you engage in voluntary service last year?

19) I consider that my way of travelling or going on vacation is influenced by its environmental footprint.
For example, going on vacation in your own province/state rather than abroad, favouring virtual participation in conferences, prioritizing collective and ground transportation methods (bus, train, carpooling) for any journey that takes less than 12 hours, etc. (Likert scale)
a. Not at all
b. A little bit
c. Moderately
d. Strongly
e. Totally

20) How do you feel when thinking about global environmental change – including climate change?
a. Concerned/overwhelmed; it’s a huge problem, but you do not know how we can ever solve it.
b. Concerned/motivated to act and make positive change.
c. Guilty; you think it’s a problem and wish you could do more to address it, but there are just too many other issues in your life preventing you from taking action.
d. Not concerned; climate change is not the major issue it is made out to be and will not affect us in major ways.
e. Not concerned; climate change is not caused by humans and there is no cause for concern/action to be taken.
f. Annoyed; you feel like you’re expected to care about it more than you actually do.
g. Meh; I haven’t really thought about climate change and have no emotional response to it.

21) I consider that I integrate principles of sustainable development (SD) and/or equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) into my work (whether it's in my working methods or in my research subject). (Likert scale)
SD:
1. Strongly disagree
2. Disagree
3. Neither agree nor disagree
4. Agree
5. Strongly agree
EDI:
1. Strongly disagree
2. Disagree
3. Neither agree nor disagree
4. Agree
5. Strongly agree

The test was sent to the 1708 members of our community on Sept. 18, 2023. Respondents had until October 9 to answer it. One reminder email was sent, and there was a prize draw among respondents.
243 people responded to the online test, for a rate of 14,2%. The margin of error is 6%, at a 95% confidence level.
Proportionally, 50% of the executive staff responded, 18% of professors, 27% of staff, and 6% of students.
75% of respondents are between 25 and 54 years old. 59% of respondents identified themselves as women. 20% of respondents were in their first year at INRS.

When asked about their knowledge of INRS's SD efforts, the responses were quite good:
- 91% were aware that INRS has chosen the SDGs as the frame of reference for its SD action plan.
- Only 18% were aware that INRS's target date for becoming carbon neutral is 2040 - the majority of respondents chose 2030, or "I don't know".
- The institutional SD committee is known to 62% of the community. The Quebec City green committee (comprising the ETE Centre and the administration) is the best known of the local SD committees.
- The questions on INRS's commitment to SD are interesting: 72% of respondents totally agree and 23% tend to agree that it is important for INRS to be committed to improving its social and environmental impact by participating in the socio-ecological transition (on 1% were against the idea). 52% of respondents totally agree and 39% tend to agree that they try to make eco-responsible decisions in their daily lives. However, only 21% said they chose INRS in part because of its reputation in SD. However, 52% of respondents chose their field of study or work to have a positive impact on the environment and society.

In the sustainability culture section, we asked participants about their personal sustainability practices:
- The vast majority of respondents (from 65% to 93%, depending on the question) always, most of the time or often carry out actions such as adjusting the thermostat, using reusable bags, recycling electronics, saving water, etc.
- 37% of respondents volunteered in the past year (with an average of 82 hours per year): 55% of volunteering was done in the environmental field and/or 67% in the community field (social justice). PhD students are the biggest volunteers, followed by MSc students and faculty.
- While pleas to reduce air travel are coming from all sides, it's interesting to note that only 22% of respondents consider the environmental footprint of their travel choices.
- When asked how they feel about the climate and biodiversity crisis, 62% of respondents answered that they are concerned but motivated, 44% are worried and discouraged, while 23% feel guilty and can't take action. Only 1% don't believe it's human activity that has caused these crises, and 2% haven't thought about the issues. Finally, 7% of respondents are annoyed by these issues.