Abstract
Campus sustainability is essential for any university. Campus sustainability denotes the potential of the university to develop new ideas regarding sustainability through research, teaching, and practices. It necessitates improved academic infrastructures, setting right faculty priorities and practices that ensure that the university community is aware of sustainable practices, and that its practices reflect sustainability. This study assesses college students' knowledge and awareness of sustainability issues. After IRB approval, data were collected using the campus sustainability questionnaire. Students from a university in the southeastern part of Texas in the United States were selected and asked to participate in the study voluntarily by answering a self-report questionnaire. Findings indicate that only a minority of the students knew what sustainability was, but 95.8% indicated it was important. Although the university has committed to climate and sustainability agreements, majority of the students were not aware of it and only about 17% knew that the University's Strategic Plan has a sustainability component. Nearly 36% of the students reported receiving information about sustainability during their campus orientation. In terms of recycling, majority of the students indicated unawareness of e-waste recycling on campus; however, more than 70% reported that the library limited free printing in computer labs. More than half of the students also indicated that sustainability issues were not infused into curriculum courses or programs, and they had no knowledge of any alternative power source for the university. We concluded that a majority of the students were not conversant with sustainability issues and were largely unaware of campus sustainability initiatives. We recommended more effort to increase sustainability initiatives on campus by involving faculty, staff, and students in such endeavors. Educational programs should incorporate sustainability into their curriculum to increase students' knowledge and consciousness regarding these issues.
Highlights
Healthy ecosystems and environments provide vital goods and services to humans and other living organisms [1,2,3]
Agreed that the university advocates for policies that promote campus sustainability, about 60% do not have knowledge on whether or not the university has signed the “American college and university presidents climate commitments,” nor do they know whether the university is a member of “the association for the advancement of sustainability in higher education.”. Another area of concern is the campus-wide effort on sustainability awareness. These results show that students indicated that at the organizational level, sustainability is not embedded into the strategic plan and majority of the students were not aware of a personnel at the university level spearheading sustainability efforts
This study reveals students’ level of knowledge and awareness of sustainability efforts on campus
Summary
Healthy ecosystems and environments provide vital goods and services to humans and other living organisms [1,2,3]. Human inability to fit their activities into a pattern that conserves the environment and saves energy is fundamentally changing the planetary system [4]. Such patterns as well as rising energy consumption are depleting natural resources and degrading the environment [5]. To meet the need of the present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs, sustainable development is fundamental [6,7].
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
