University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
AC-6: Sustainability Literacy Assessment

Follow up survey questions: 1.Imagine that you are a business person, an elected official, or even the head of your household. What variables do you consider when making decisions? 2.Silent Spring, written by Rachel Carson in 1962 has become one of the most famous and influential books on environmentalism of the 20th century. Which of the following statements are true of her legacy? 3.Only 1% of the Earth's water is fit and available for human selection. Where is the remainder of the water? 4.Select all of the following that you believe are important for social sustainability 5.The price you pay at the pump doesn’t cover the full cost of the gas in your tank, which of the following are hidden costs of fossil fuels? 6.“The ability for an economy to support a defined level of economic production indefinitely” is the definition of what sustainability concept? 7.The United States contains 5% of the world’s population, and yet, as US citizens we use approximately 1/3 of the world’s paper, 1/4 of the world’s fossil fuels, and generate 1/2 of the world’s solid waste. With this in mind, please select any of the following statements that most closely reflect your feelings and opinions. 8.Extreme poverty in developing countries (as defined by the World Bank) is the equivalent of living on roughly $1 US/day, while poverty is defined as living on roughly $2 US/day. At these levels of poverty nutrition is poor; capital accumulation is difficult; quality of healthcare and education are poor; and access to clean water, electricity and sanitation are limited. How many people do you believe are living at or under $2 US/ day? 9.If you want to be certain that the item you’re buying was produced so that workers received fair wages with safe, equitable working conditions; and child labor is completely prohibited, which of the following labels should you look for? 10.Please select any of the following that reflect your own opinions and experiences of public transportation. 11.Wisconsin gets about 62.5% of its electric power from coal-based power plants. Which of the following are true about the impacts of coal? 12.Biodiversity is the variety of life found on earth or in a particular ecosystem. Please select any of the following statements that reflect your own opinion about the importance of biodiversity and our role in protecting it. 13.Which of the following is true about Earth Day? 14.Imagine you go into a store and you see several brands of paper towel. You notice there's a brown paper towel that one has a big "green" label, exhorting its virtues of recycled material. It's also 5 cents more expensive than the normal off-brand kind. You think to yourself... 15.Please rank these Campus Sustainability issue in order of importance from 1-10 with 1 being the most important. 16.What type of Landscaping would you like to see as the dominant landscaping feature on campus? 17.Which one of these is the active ingredient in the herbicide Round-up? 18.There are conflicting reports about the safety of Round-up. Please select the answer that best fits how you feel about the risks that Round-up poses to people and animals that come in contact with it. 19.How much more would you be willing to pay per academic year in student fees to have a herbicide free landscaping on campus? 20.Please select your education level 21.Please select the college of your major

We reviewed sample literacy assessments posted in AASHE resources and wrote our own assessment so it was relevant to our university and state issues. We included both fact-based questions and value-based questions. Upon reviewing results of the first survey, we took the questions that had the most incorrect answers and reworded them into new questions - our goal being to educate. We included many more value-based questions on the follow-up survey, as well as several questions very specific to our campus, for example we included questions specific to herbacide use on campus, an issue we are currently working on to improve.

All current students were sent the assessments via email and were asked to complete them within a two week period. We received 1,035 responses of over 9,300 total students surveyed. We received slightly over 200 responses from the follow-up survey. Our sample included ~35% responses from College of Letters & Science; ~30% College of Natural Resources; ~23% College of Professional Studies and ~9% from College of Fine Arts & Communication and undecided ~3% Responses by education level: Freshman 13%; Sophomores 19%; Juniors ~22%; Seniors ~35%; graduate level students ~11%

We identified 11 of 25 fact-based questions that had <50% correct responses. Results indicated that most students are concerned or somewhat concerned with sustainability issues. Top-rated campus issues (that we should work on) include: increased renewable energy production on campus, increased purchases of local and organic food in dining services, becoming a zero-waste campus and working to meet our carbon neutrality committment deadlines.