Stakeholder Perceptions of Campus Sustainability Efforts: Lessons from Vermont

Abstract

Universities have begun to officially recognize advancing sustainability as an institutional goal. This paper reports on research on students’ awareness, attitudes, and behaviors at the University of Vermont as a means of understanding cultural acceptance of sustainability. We report on the results of a survey administered by an applied research methods class working in partnership with the University’s Office of Sustainability. Survey respondents report strong understanding of sustainability and believe it is important. They perceive the University’s performance as strongest along environmental efforts and weakest along economic lines. Respondents were most likely to engage in sustainability behaviors, like waste and energy reduction, and least likely to attend campus events regarding sustainability. Responses to open-ended questions suggest skepticism of the University’s commitment to sustainability, seeing it as more of a marketing effort, and express a desire for more concrete initiatives to foster sustainable behaviors and culture on campus. Our implications focus on ways to promote a more holistic and nuanced understanding of sustainability.

Development of the University Food Environment Assessment (Uni-Food) Tool and Process to Benchmark the Healthiness, Equity, and Environmental Sustainability of University Food Environments

“…This is consistent with several studies that have explored actions taken by universities to promote environmentally sustainable food practices [22,42,43]. While there have been some positive steps taken in the U.S.A in particular, the implementation of initiatives has been piecemeal with few examples of universities that have adopted a comprehensive suite of actions [44,45].…”

Organizational Change Management for Sustainability in Higher Education Institutions: A Systematic Quantitative Literature Review

“…This is due to most scholars including context factors to describe the study background (e.g., [44,45]), usually to enhance transferability of the change approach taken. Several papers pointed out the importance of certain contexts to enable change, ranging from general recommendations (e.g., [46,47]) to the definition of success factors for specific interventions (e.g., [18,48]). Only four papers highlighted how context factors can impact organizational change.…”

“…A shared understanding of what sustainability means in a HEI context is often seen as a basic prerequisite for organizational change [54,63]. Since sustainability is a highly ambiguous term with multiple potential interpretations [64], scholars suggest participatory approaches to enhance conceptual understanding and consensus-building [48,65]. A divergent point of view is put forward by Sylvestre et al [66], claiming that rather than trying to define sustainability in one way, a continuous dialogue and multiple visions of sustainability should be developed.…”

“…Other prevalent factors are perceptions and attitudes (n = 8) and empowerment (n = 6). Perceptions and attitudes are seen as key for measuring the impact of engagement campaigns (e.g., [58]) or to inform a HEI's sustainability strategy (e.g., [48]). As for empowerment, providing stakeholders with the necessary skills and resources to foster sustainability at HEIs is a dominant theme (e.g., [51]), as is the interplay between academic freedom, culture in HEIs, and organizational change towards sustainability (e.g., [68]).…”

Funding Campus Sustainability through a Green Fee—Estimating Students’ Willingness to Pay

“…In Europe, researchers found that faculties of science and engineering have the greatest changes in environmental attitudes and the highest level of sustainability knowledge based on a survey of 504 students from a Spanish university [11]. In the U.S., the authors of [12] studied students' awareness and attitudes at the University of Vermont and found a strong understanding of sustainability and that students consider sustainability to be important.…”