Texas A&M University
EN-6: Assessing Sustainability Culture

The cultural assessment was created by Office of Sustainability staff. We looked at similar assessments done by STARS peers as a starting point and then integrated our own specific TAMU questions. We combined the assessment of culture and literacy into one survey instrument.

We completed our first survey of the campus community during the Fall 2016 semester. This is an annual survey and we completed our first follow-up assessment during the Fall 2017 semester and have done so since, including Fall 2019. Due to COVID-19 ramifications, we decided to put our annual survey on hold for Fall 2020. We plan to redesign the survey and be back to an annual schedule for Fall 2021.

Additionally, Residence Life is on a 3 year cycle with the Educational Benchmark Institute (now SkyFactor) in administering a resident satisfaction survey which includes two questions about sustainability. Q093--As a result of your on-campus housing experience, you are better able to discuss sustainability issues and Q094--As a result of your on campus housing experience you are better able to alter your actions to live a sustainable life.

See attached document.

We worked with the Office of Institutional Effectiveness & Evaluation (experts in designing and deploying surveys for our campus community) to design and administer the survey. They used email to randomly sample a representative portion of the entire campus community (students, faculty, and staff). The survey was sent as a qualtrics link to randomly selected campus members.

Office of Sustainability Staff evaluate survey results and uses the findings to gain better understanding of the strengths and weakness’ of campus sustainability culture.

Highlights from the 2016 survey include: 95.93% of our campus community thinks sustainability is very or somewhat important, 86.7% thinks Climate Change is very or somewhat important, 87.19% think biodiversity loss is very or somewhat important, 90.68% think social justice and equity are very or somewhat important, and 82.7% think diversity and inclusion are very or somewhat important. 88.26% of our campus community always or mostly uses reusable bottles or mugs, 59.36% always or mostly takes shorter showers, 39.7% eats less meat always or mostly, 97.95% turns off the lights in unused rooms always or mostly, 81.22% always or mostly recycles, and 33% participates in diversity and cultural activities always or most of the time. 92.57% of our campus community thinks it is very or somewhat important to incorporate sustainability into their everyday lives.

Highlights from the 2017 survey include: 94.9% of our campus community thinks sustainability is very or somewhat important, 84.9% thinks Climate Change is very or somewhat important, 85.41% think biodiversity loss is very or somewhat important, 86.57% think social justice and equity are very or somewhat important, and 80.6% think diversity and inclusion are very or somewhat important. These numbers all slow decline by 1-5 percentage points from the 2016 results. 88.86% of our campus community always or mostly uses reusable bottles or mugs, 61.34% always or mostly takes shorter showers, 34.35% eats less meat always or mostly, 96.68% turns off the lights in unused rooms always or mostly, 78.88% always or mostly recycles, and 28.03% participates in diversity and cultural activities always or most of the time, while 34.05% does so sometimes. 89.85% of our campus community thinks it is very or somewhat important to incorporate sustainability into their everyday lives. While a couple of these have improved, most have declined by 1-5 percentage points from the 2016 results.

Highlights from the 2018 survey include: 96.79% of our campus community thinks sustainability is very or somewhat important, 87.74% thinks Climate Change is very or somewhat important, 88.93% think biodiversity loss is very or somewhat important, 88.7% think social justice and equity are very or somewhat important, and 83.46% think diversity and inclusion are very or somewhat important. These numbers all show increase by 1-5 percentage points from the 2017 results. 89.04% of our campus community always or mostly uses reusable bottles or mugs. 59.73% always or mostly takes shorter showers. 30.09% eats less meat always or mostly. 95.09% turns off the lights in unused rooms always or mostly. 78.92% always or mostly recycles. 29.69% participate in diversity and cultural activities always or most of the time, while 36.94% does so sometimes. 91.58% of our campus community thinks it is very or somewhat important to incorporate sustainability into their everyday lives. About half of these measures have seen slight improvement and the other half have seen slight decline, all within 1-5 percentage points of 2017 findings.

Highlights from the 2019 survey include: 96.69% of our campus community thinks sustainability is very or somewhat important, 87.8% thinks Climate Change is very or somewhat important, 89.19% think biodiversity loss is very or somewhat important, 89.2% think social justice and equity are very or somewhat important, and 83.91% think diversity and inclusion are very or somewhat important. These numbers mostly show slight increases from the 2018 results. 89.95% of our campus community always or mostly uses reusable bottles or mugs. 62.1% always or mostly takes shorter showers. 32.54% eats less meat always or mostly. 95.94% turns off the lights in unused rooms always or mostly. 79.44% always or mostly recycles. 32.39% participate in diversity and cultural activities always or most of the time, while 36.2% does so sometimes. 93.10% of our campus community thinks it is very or somewhat important to incorporate sustainability into their everyday lives. Most of these measures have seen slight improvement from the 2018 findings.