Weber State University
AC-6: Sustainability Literacy Assessment

A copy of the survey instrument is uploaded. Note that sustainability literacy questions are found in Block 1 Part 1.

The second round of the WSU Sustainability Survey was deployed in February 2024. 

This survey was first developed under the lead of the director of the Sustainability Practices and Research Center, predominantly during 2019, through a process of reviewing other institution's surveys, literature on assessing sustainability literacy, and discussion with the WSU sustainability team (staff) and members of the faculty Environmental Initiatives Committee. The survey has been designed and adopted with the intent of its being a longitudinal survey given to a representative sample of students, faculty and staff every 3-4 years. It is also designed to assess sustainability literacy and culture through questions on sustainability knowledge, attitudes, behavior, as well as awareness and engagement with campus sustainability initiatives, programs, events and courses. Thus, this same survey is also the source of data for EN 6 (Assessing Sustainability Culture).

The survey received approval by the Institutional Review Board prior to being used. It was first used in AY 2019-2020 (January 2020) and was recently deployed as a slightly revised version (but with nearly all the same literacy questions) February 7-March 9, 2024 in cooperation with the Office of Institutional Research.  It will be given again in 3-4 years (2027/28)

The slightly revised survey has a total of 36 questions (3 are multi-sectioned matrix questions) with 19 of them focused-on sustainability knowledge. Part 1b of the survey (see attached survey instrument) includes the sustainability knowledge questions. Twelve of the 19 questions are from the Assessing Sustainability Knowledge (ASK) instrument (developed and tested by Adam Zwickle, et al., 2014) which includes equal attention to the environmental, social, and economic realms of sustainability. Three are knowledge questions around climate literacy from other published studies (Bedford 2016). Another three questions focus on Utah environmental issues (contributors to air pollution, main source of electricity generation, and water use), with the final literacy question on knowledge of WSU’s Carbon Neutral Goal.  The use of questions used elsewhere enables future comparisons with other institutions/locations.

The remainder of the survey pertains to the assessment of sustainability culture (EN-6) and is described with that entry.

A representative sample of students, faculty and staff was requested from and provided by the Director of Academic Analytics in the Office of Institutional Effectiveness. A total of 2499 emails were provided, which included 1499 students and 1000 faculty and staff. 

The survey was administered via Qualtrics and recruitment of participants was via a personalized email invitation to those pulled as the representative sample, followed by three reminders to non-respondents. The response rate was 28% with 658 complete surveys (some questions have more responses), 271 students, 179 faculty, and 249 staff. All colleges and divisions of campus were represented in the survey, with somewhat more responses coming from the College of Health Professions.

The composite score of correct answers for students on 11 of the 12 ASK questions (one question still needs analysis) was 61.0 % (n= 157) and for faculty and staff it was 74% (n= 120 for faculty and 217 for staff).  These results are essentially the same as the 2020 survey.  As seen previously, the question related to the depletion of fish stocks in the Atlantic ocean had the lowest correct responses (24%) across all respondents, perhaps in connection to our landlocked geographic location in the western U.S.

Climate literacy, as measured by correct responses to three questions, was 63.3% students, 75.6% for faculty and 71% for staff.   Student and faculty scores were slightly lower compared to the 2020 overall % (68.4% for students and 78% for faculty), while the staff composite score was the same (71%).

Knowledge of local (Utah) issues was lowest with students and highest for staff:  composite scores were 40% (students), 55% (faculty), and 57% (staff). 

Faculty had slightly higher knowledge scores on the climate questions, but staff scores were very similar on the local issues and ASK questions.

Questions used for assessing sustainability literacy included those from the Assessing Sustainability Knowledge (ASK) instrument developed by Zwickle, et al., 2014 and three on climate literacy used in other published studies (Bedford 2016). References: Bedford, Daniel, 2016. Does Climate Literacy Matter? A Case Study of U.S. Students’ Level of Concern about Anthropogenic Global Warming, Journal of Geography, Vol. 115, No. 5, 187-197. Zwickle, A., Koontz, T., Slagle, K. and Bruskotter, J., 2014. Assessing Sustainability Knowledge of a Student Population: Developing a Measure Knowledge in the Environmental, Economic, and Social Domains, International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol.15.No.4, 375-389.

Eventually a web link will be provided to a summary report of the 2024 survey results.