| Overall Rating | Platinum - expired |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 85.74 |
| Liaison | Sam Lubow |
| Submission Date | June 28, 2017 |
| Executive Letter | Download |
Stanford University
EN-6: Assessing Sustainability Culture
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
1.00 / 1.00 |
Moira
Hafer Sustainability Specialist Office of Sustainability |
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)?:
Which of the following best describes the cultural assessment? The assessment is administered to::
Which of the following best describes the structure of the cultural assessment? The assessment is administered::
A brief description of how and when the cultural assessment(s) were developed and/or adopted:
A survey gauging individual sustainability attitudes and behaviors is offered to the entire campus community (faculty, staff, and students) through the My Cardinal Green action network. The survey was developed to directly inform the My Cardinal Green program, which offers personalized sustainability action recommendations to individuals based on their survey responses. Thus, the survey contains questions that are tailored to the actions included in the network in order to inform the recommendations that teach individual receives. After taking the survey once, each individual is automatically prompted to take the survey again after one year. In addition to directly informing the My Cardinal Green action recommendations for each individual, the survey tool also provides valuable data to the Office of Sustainability regarding campus-wide sustainability attitudes and behaviors and how they change over time that serves to inform other sustainability programming on campus.
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 survey differs slightly for students vs. faculty and staff. The version available to students is attached above, and the version available to faculty and staff is attached as additional documentation for this credit.
A brief description of how representative samples were reached (if applicable) and how the cultural assessment is administered:
The survey is directly accessed online at http://sustainable.stanford.edu/cardinal-green/my-cardinal-green. Respondents access the survey with their Stanford online IDs, which allows the survey to be tracked to each individual. The survey is offered to all faculty, staff and students and is pushed out via multiple channels, including emails to student, faculty and staff listservs and promotions in the Stanford Report.
A brief summary of results from the cultural assessment, including a description of any measurable changes over time:
Overarching results indicating general attitudes about sustainability on campus are included separately for faculty/staff and students below.
Faculty/Staff:
1) 73% of respondents consider sustainability/environmental impact when making decisions either "a good deal" or "very much so."
2) 91% of respondents feel that it's important for Stanford leadership to prioritize sustainability
3) The top three barriers for participating in sustainability efforts are not having enough time, not knowing what to do, and not feeling that it's encouraged by their supervisors.
Students:
1) 62% consider sustainability/environmental impact when making decisions either "a good deal" or "very much so."
2) 81% feel that it's important for Stanford leadership to prioritize sustainability.
3) The top three barriers for participating in sustainability efforts are not having enough time, not knowing what to do, and other (with comments typically pointing to policy barriers or not feeling like individuals have an impact).
Overall, more than 60% of follow-up respondents indicate that they have deliberately reduced their environmental footprint since taking the preliminary survey. The number of participants who "consider the environmental impact of their decisions increases from an average of 44% from the preliminary survey to 50% in the follow-up survey. Finally, more than 90% of respondents indicate that they've learned something new since taking the preliminary survey as a result of participation in the My Cardinal Green program, and that they would keep the actions up that they adopted in that time frame.
The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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.