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Student Attitudes Towards Sustainability at Macalester College

Macalester College

Science and Social Inquiry Professor Erik Larson

May 9th, 2013

Miranda Adams Jacob Kunkel

Gabby Queenan Rosie Wiggins

Sarah Coppock-Pector

Student Attitudes Towards Sustainability 2

Executive Summary As a private institution with an interest in the future, one of Macalester College’s goals is

to promote sustainability. This goal must be realized through both the academic curricula and the exemplary efforts of the institution. Macalester has made a commitment to sustainability, with an overarching goal to achieve climate neutrality by 2025 and zero waste by 2020. In this study our goal was to analyze students attitudes towards Macalester’s current efforts towards sustainability, the addition of more sustainability courses across departments, and more specifically, to evaluate whether the additional push of adding a “sustainability” emphasis within the Environmental Studies major would interest students. Key Findings

Students were relatively unaware of Macalester’s institutional definition for sustainability and which practices were most effective; however, most students considered the components of Macalester’s definition to be important to their own personal definitions of sustainability.

In looking at specific campus initiatives towards sustainability, it would seem that students see the most visible and convenient initiatives as having the greatest impacts, identifying recycling, paper reduction, the bottled water ban, and subsidized bus passes as highly impactful, regardless of these initiatives actual impact on sustainability. The opposite occurs with less-publicized, but more effective measures like green buildings, light bulb upgrades, and refurbishing of inefficient buildings, which most students had never heard of or considered to be less impactful.

Our analysis indicated a majority of students feel proud about Macalester’s sustainability efforts, and feel that the efforts affect their institutional pride. Many feel that being a leader in sustainability is part of Macalester’s mission, and that Macalester has a genuine responsibility to sustainability. However, this pride might have been misplaced, those who were the proudest of the college were the least aware of Macalester’s sustainability efforts.

Regarding sustainability curricula we found Non-ES majors showed little to no interest in pursuing a major with a sustainability focus. Interestingly, however, non-ES majors viewed the possibility of sustainability related elective courses outside the department positively. Overall, a majority of students feel that there are slightly too few or far too few courses that incorporate sustainability. ES majors overwhelmingly support the addition of sustainability courses both within and outside of the ES department. Furthermore, we found that ES majors are more likely to support the creation of a sustainability graduation requirement. In addition, ES majors demonstrated interest in the option of a sustainability emphasis being added to the major. These data point to a deficit in the Macalester sustainability curricula. Conclusions and Suggestions

The institutional definition of sustainability is not well known, however, it does match well with students’ personal definitions of sustainability. Overall, the lack of awareness of Macalester’s sustainability definition and efforts suggest a need for increased dialogue surrounding sustainability. We suggest the introduction of more sustainability-related (not necessarily sustainability-focused) courses and the addition of sustainability “emphasis” to the Environmental Studies major. Additionally, increasing convenience and publicity surrounding the highest-impact sustainability initiatives could combat the lack of awareness, particularly in regard to things like composting. Clearly, students want to see Macalester as a sustainable place, but are largely unclear as to exactly what that means to them and for the institution. Creating a forum for open discussion will be crucial to integrating sustainability more deeply with the institution.


Introduction Macalester College has a goal of creating a more environmentally sustainable campus and

has made many notable strides towards that goal. The overarching goal of the Sustainability

Office is to achieve climate neutrality by 2025 and zero waste by 2020. The campus has taken on

a number of initiatives to encourage sustainability on campus. Macalester College has overseen

and implemented a bottled water ban, a bike share program, subsidization of public

transportation, a switch to environmentally friendly light bulbs in school buildings, a composting

program, the construction of “green” buildings, the construction of a wind turbine, the creation

of a number of gardens on campus, and a campaign to encourage students to adopt sustainable

practices.

Our research gauges student attitudes towards the current sustainability efforts as well as

potential future sustainability efforts. This research was compiled at the request of the Macalester

College Sustainability Office. One proposed strategy is the addition of more courses with a

sustainability focus, which would be available in various disciplines. A second possible strategy

is adding a sustainability graduation requirement in the same vein as the existing

multiculturalism, internationalism, or quantitative requirements. We also set out to find whether

or not students in the Environmental Studies (ES) department would be interested in a

sustainability emphasis within the major. The current interdisciplinary emphases within the

department include Climate Science and Policy, Community and Global Health, Environmental

Justice, Environmental Science, Environmental Thought and Values, International Environment

and Development, Sustainable Design.

Methods To answer these questions, we created a survey sent via email to Macalester students. We

used a survey because we felt it would be the best way to gauge a wide variety of students’


opinions. A survey can address many topics in a short period of time by providing options for

students to choose from, in contrast to in depth interviews. Surveys also enable us to collect

consistent responses to questions.

Before writing our survey we identified areas of potential concern and made efforts to

solve these problems in order to minimize confusion and bias. We were concerned that the term

“sustainability” would turn some students off to the survey before even opening it. We were also

concerned about the potential desirability bias that would be inherently introduced because

sustainable behavior is often seen as desirable, especially at Macalester. We did not want

students to exaggerate their opinions or actions regarding sustainability because they felt that

there was a “right” answer. In order to avoid this, we used language that was focused on the

school’s actions rather than the actions of the individual students. We also ensured anonymity

through the use of the private online survey where students could feel safe from judgment. We

tried to structure all questions neutrally, avoiding questions that would encourage students to

exaggerate in order to appear more knowledgeable. Additionally, we avoided loaded terms, such

as “sustainability literacy.”

An inherent problem in addressing sustainability is the breadth and vagueness of the term

itself and the various definitions people may assign to it. In order to ensure that respondents

thought critically about how Macalester practices sustainability, we began by asking students to

gauge which aspects of sustainability are important in their personal definitions of sustainability.

To do this, we broke down the various components of Macalester’s definition and asked students

to rate the importance of each to them personally. This ensured that all students began the survey

with the same breakdown in mind.


After writing and organizing our questions, the link to the online survey was sent to a

sample of all Macalester students. Because we were interested in gauging interest in adding a

Sustainability Emphasis to the Environmental Studies major, an additional sampling frame was

created and we oversampled Environmental Studies students in order to ensure a large enough

response rate. Similarly, we thought there might be a sampling bias in so far as students who

have strong opinions about sustainability are more likely to respond. To correct for this issue, we

omitted the word “sustainability” from the title of the email and survey title. As a result, when

analyzing our data that included both Environmental Studies majors and non-Environmental

Studies majors, we adjusted the weight of the responses from the ES majors based on the

probability of response from an ES major versus the probability of a response from a non-ES

major1. When we analyzed questions that were answered only by ES majors, we did not weight

those responses. Whenever we report frequencies of responses that include both ES majors and

non-ES majors, they are adjusted estimates based upon this weighting, counting each ES major

as only a fraction of a student to account for the fact that the sample includes a disproportionate

number of ES majors.

Analysis of Data: Frequencies and Descriptive Statistics Student Attitudes Towards Sustainability

Definitions of Sustainability

One goal of our analysis was to test whether students’ personal definitions of

“sustainability” coincided with the definition of sustainability provided by the Macalester

Sustainability Office. The Macalester definition is as follows:

1 The sampling weight was 0.24. This weight was calculated by subtracting the number of responses from Environmental Studies majors from the total number of responses received. This number was divided by the total number of respondents to calculate the final sampling weight.


Sustainability is the continuous effort to meet the needs of the present generation without

compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs by working toward a

healthy environment, social justice, and a strong economy. At Macalester, sustainability

is infused throughout our core values of academic excellence, internationalism,

multiculturalism, and service to society (Sustainability Plan 2012).

We asked students to rate how important each of the components were to defining sustainability

in their lives using a seven-point response scale: “not at all important,” “somewhat important,”

“marginally important,” “important,” “important, but not essential,” “very important,” and

“essential”.

Over fifty percent of the students identified “the ability to satisfy the needs of future

generation,” “the ability to satisfy the needs of the present generation,” “maintaining a healthy

environment,” “social justice,” and “service to society” as very important and essential

components to their personal definitions of sustainability.

In order to analyze, overall, which aspects of Macalester’s definition students associated

most positively or negatively with their definitions of sustainability, we examined the

distribution (See Appendix C, Charts 1-8) of the responses for each component. We compared

our responses to an expected distribution. For our data, a normal distribution would mean that

most respondents felt that the component of Macalester’s definition was “important”. In looking

at the distributions, every aspect of the definition produced a distribution indicating that

Macalester students associated that component positively with their personal definition. The

most positive association was “maintaining a healthy environment” and the least positive was

“multiculturalism”. From looking at the frequencies and distributions, we can conclude that

while, on average, students believe that all the components of Macalester’s definition play a role


in their personal definitions of sustainability, Multiculturalism, Internationalism, and a Strong

Economy play significantly less of a role than maintaining a healthy environment and the ability

to satisfy the needs of future generations. In response to the question “is this definition of

sustainability appropriate for the Macalester community?” most students responded “most likely”

and “definitely”. Interestingly, students who did not say Multiculturalism, Internationalism, and

a Strong Economy play an important role in their personal definitions of sustainability still

thought that including them in Macalester’s definition was appropriate.

Cross-tabulating how people responded to pairs of individual items, we found that people

who identified “service to society” as a very important or essential component of their definition

of sustainability were significantly more likely to identify “internationalism,” “multiculturalism,”

and “social justice” as very important or essential components of their definition.

We also looked at how aware students were of Macalester’s definition of sustainability.

On the survey, we provided the definition of sustainability used by the Sustainability Office, and

asked students how aware they were of this definition. Less than 7 percent of students knew the

definition well, and 31.8 percent had never even heard it before. Almost 43 percent of students

felt they had a vague sense of it. With over 70 percent of students having little or no knowledge

of this definition, it is clear more effort needs to be taken by the Sustainability office to make it

known. In response to the question “is this definition of sustainability appropriate for the

Macalester community?” most students responded “most likely” and “definitely”. Interestingly,

students who did not say Multiculturalism, Internationalism, and a Strong Economy play an

important role in their personal definitions of sustainability still thought that including them in

Macalester’s definition was appropriate.

Desirability of Sustainability at Macalester


A key issue we attempted to investigate was whether Macalester students want

Macalester to become more sustainable. To assess this, we asked students to tell us the extent to

which they agreed with 4 statements about Macalester. The following segment of analysis

examines the responses on a question-by-question basis, as each question provides a separate

finding.

When asked to what extent students agreed that Macalester’s mission gives the college

the responsibility to be a leader in sustainability, a majority, 72.2, percent of respondents agreed.

When asked if Macalester has a genuine commitment to sustainability, 68.5 percent of the

students agreed with the statement. When asked if the respondents agreed with the statement; “I

am proud of Macalester’s current efforts to be sustainable”, 56.7 percent of students agreed. We

asked respondents to what extent they agree with the statement; “the stronger Macalester’s

record on sustainability, the more pride I have in the college.” 67 percent agreed with the

statement while only 8.6 percent disagreed, none of who were ES majors. The questions “to what

extent do you agree that Macalester has a genuine commitment to sustainability” and “to what

extent are you proud of Macalester’s current efforts to be sustainable” were cross tabulated with

the series of questions about specific efforts that have improved sustainability at Macalester. The

results showed that students who believed that the construction of green buildings had a large

improvement on sustainability at Macalester also tended to agree that Macalester has a genuine

commitment to sustainability and reported being proud of Macalester’s current efforts. Factors

that influenced students’ pride in the college’s efforts were the composting program, the

subsidization of public transportation, the use of compostable dishware in Café Mac, and the

zero waste goal. The school’s efforts to improve and facilitate recycling had an affect on both the


pride students reported having in Macalester’s efforts as well as their belief that Macalester has a

genuine commitment to sustainability.

Sustainability Efforts Thus Far We also sought to determine student awareness of sustainability on campus. Of the

fifteen sustainability initiatives we asked about, there was an interesting divide between what

students believed improved sustainability at Macalester and what Suzanne Hansen, the head of

the Sustainability Office, said has actually improved sustainability at Macalester. For example,

41.5 percent of students reported feeling that public transportation subsidization had a large

improvement on sustainability efforts at Macalester, although, according to the Sustainability

Office, subsidization has not had a very large impact. Bus passes have a very visible and

immediate impact on students’ lives, unlike initiatives such as sustainable investment, where

26.3 percent of students reported never having heard of Macalester’s sustainable investment

efforts. This trend is present in the responses to other initiatives insofar as efforts that are visible

in students’ day-to-day lives were rated as more effective than the less visible ones. For example,

almost half of all students that responded said that the campus ban on bottled water has had a

large improvement on sustainability at Macalester, while in fact the ban has not done a

significant amount to improve sustainability. The lack of bottled water on campus is obvious and

students are informed about it the moment they step on campus for orientation. This awareness

may make students believe it is more effective than it actually is. The wind turbine is an

exception to this pattern. The turbine is very obvious and very well promoted, but 40 percent of

students stated that it has not improved sustainability at Macalester at all. Students may view it

as merely symbolic, as it does not provide very much actual power for the buildings and was

broken for a few years.


Convenience also seems to affect how much of an improvement students believe an

initiative has created. Almost 45 percent of students felt that recycling made a large

improvement on sustainability, while only 30 percent felt composting made a large improvement.

Recycling bins are present in almost every single room on campus and are much more accessible

to the average student than the composting bins, which are currently only in the Campus Center,

Carnegie, and Olin Rice. If composting were expanded to the same scale as recycling, that

percentage would most likely be much higher, as 37 percent already believe it has had moderate

success, and increased access and use could make a big difference.

There are also many initiatives that students had never heard of, including ones that have

actually been very effective. Some of the less visible green building initiatives have made a huge

difference in energy efficiency and sustainability, but many students had not heard of them or did

not believe that they had any large improvement. Replacing old light bulbs with more energy

efficient ones has had a strong impact on sustainability, but only 14 percent of students believed

that it has had a large improvement on sustainability at Macalester, while almost 30 percent were

unaware of the initiative. These results are similar to students’ opinions on the refurbishment of

inefficient buildings, an initiative that in reality has greatly improved efficiency and

sustainability. Both of these initiatives take place outside of the daily lives of students and are

not advertised to the extent that the newer green building efforts, such as the LEED Certified

buildings, have been. Only 2.9 percent of students were unaware of green buildings on campus,

and almost 30 percent believed that have greatly improved sustainability at Macalester. These

buildings have large plaques announcing how green they are, Macalester recruitment literature

discusses the new certifications at length, and when the buildings were constructed there was a

lot of school publicity around the certifications. This again reflects how much advertising and


promotion affects student awareness of sustainability projects, and that direct, daily student

interaction with the initiatives makes students believe they have larger impacts.

Environmental Studies majors appear to be better at identifying which initiatives are

effective than their non-ES peers. As mentioned previously, there were certain initiatives that

students believed had a large improvement on sustainability that actually did not, or vice versa.

Compost has had a large improvement on sustainability on campus, but only 30 percent of non-

ES majors thought it did, compared to over 40 percent of ES majors. This trend is also clearly

visible in the questions regarding the refurbishment of inefficient buildings and light bulb

replacement, among others.

Environmental Studies majors were, on the whole, more likely to have heard of any given

initiative than non-Environmental Studies majors, which is unsurprising. For example, only 9

percent of ES majors were unaware of light bulb replacement, while almost 30 percent of non-ES

majors had not heard of the initiative. What is surprising is that ES majors were less likely to say

something had a large improvement on sustainability than non-ES majors. While present for

many of the more-well advertised initiatives, the trend is most obvious in students’ opinions on

green buildings. While over 50 percent of both ES and non-ES majors responded that green

buildings had either some or large improvement on sustainability at Macalester, a much higher

percentage of non-ES majors believed it had a large improvement than did ES majors, 29 percent

versus 20 percent. This could indicate that ES majors are either more realistic or more cynical

about “green” initiatives, depending on the viewpoint.

These results raise two interesting questions regarding the differences in attitudes toward

current sustainability efforts at Macalester between Environmental Studies and non-

Environmental Studies majors. As reported earlier, we asked students to what extent they agreed


with the following statements: “Macalester has a genuine commitment to sustainability” and “I

am proud of Macalester’s current efforts to be sustainable.” We examined whether this increased

knowledge and more cynical viewpoints of ES majors were associated with different answers to

those questions, and found a substantial difference of opinion between ES and non-ES students.

While 15 percent of non-ES majors strongly agreed that they were proud of Macalester’s current

sustainability efforts, not a single ES major strongly agreed; a significantly higher percentage of

ES majors disagreed with the statement, at 20.8 percent, compared to 6 percent of non-ES majors.

This same disillusionment was evident in the responses to the question regarding whether they

believed Macalester had a genuine commitment to sustainability. Again, 0 percent of ES majors

strongly agreed with the statement, while 13.1 percent of non-ES majors did strongly agree, and

20.8 percent of ES majors disagreed, and only 9.1 percent of non-ES majors disagreed. There are

multiple explanations for these disparities, most likely related to ES majors’ greater knowledge

of sustainability efforts on campus, as well as their lower likelihood of stating that any initiative

has had a large improvement on sustainability.

Sustainability in Macalester’s Curriculum Prominence and Interest in Macalester’s Sustainability Curriculum

One of the main purposes of this survey was to address whether students were satisfied

with the current level of sustainability in the curriculum and whether they wanted to see more or

less sustainability course material in the future. Questions addressing student attitudes toward

these issues were directed to both Environmental Studies majors and non-Environmental Studies

majors.

Students were first asked to consider the number of sustainability classes they had taken

this past semester. We distinguished between sustainability-focused and sustainability-related

courses: “sustainability-focused courses” concentrate on the concept of sustainability, including


its social, economic, and environmental dimensions, or examine an issue or topic using

sustainability as a lens while “sustainability-related courses” incorporate sustainability as a

distinct course component or module, or concentrate on a single sustainability principle or issue.

Table 1: Number of Classes Taken This Semester That Are Sustainability-Focused

Frequency Percent

0 classes 88 81%

1 class 14 13%

2 classes 4 3.9%

3 classes 2 1.8%

4 or more classes 0 0%

Total 109 100%

N = 109 Table 2: Number of Classes Taken This Semester That Are Sustainability-Related

Frequency Percent

0 classes 65 60.3%

1 class 31 28.7%

2 classes 8 7.3%

3 classes 2 1.6%

4 or more classes 2 2.1%

N = 109 The majority of respondents answered that they had taken no sustainability-focused classes and

less than a quarter of students had taken one or two classes that were sustainability-focused.

Based on this analysis, students who had taken sustainability-focused classes were more likely to

also take sustainability-related classes.

We next asked students whether they thought Macalester had enough sustainability

courses. Students were asked to rate the number of courses that included sustainability, first


rating all the courses at Macalester and then rating only courses outside of the ES department.

Students were given the options of “there are far too few courses”, “there are slightly too few

courses”, “there are just enough courses”, “there are too many courses”, and “there are far too

many courses”. When considering courses, including the ones in the Environmental Studies

Department, over half of the students surveyed (a total of 50.6 percent) felt that there are too few

courses that incorporate sustainability. When excluding courses offered by the Environmental

Studies Department, the majority, 68.7 percent, of the students felt that there are too few or far

too few courses that incorporate sustainability.

Both ES majors and non-ES majors were asked questions that addressed two separate

elements of sustainability curricula. First, the students were asked how likely they would be to

take a class that incorporates sustainability as at least one element the class material. Of the

student responses that were collected, the majority would at least be somewhat likely to take a

class with sustainability as an element. Additionally, students were asked how interested they

would be in the adoption of a general learning requirement that all Macalester students take a

sustainability focused course before graduation. Students were evenly divided in their support for

a sustainability requirement: about one-third had a strong interest in such a requirement, one

quarter had no interest in a sustainability requirement, and the remaining 40 percent had little to

some interest in a sustainability requirement.

Our survey incorporated a series of questions, which only Environmental Studies majors

were asked. These questions investigated their experiences and attitudes regarding Macalester

sustainability curricula. The 23 ES majors who responded were asked to describe their interest in

taking courses within their major that had a sustainability focus. Over half of the students

responded with a “very strong interest” in pursuing these courses while almost a quarter of the


students responded with a “strong interest” in pursuing these courses. The ES majors were next

asked how interested they would be in taking courses outside of their major or electives that had

a sustainability focus. Almost two thirds of students responded with at least some interest in

taking sustainability courses outside of their major.

A cross-tab analysis of students’ likelihood to take a class with at least one element of

sustainability versus whether or not students were Environmental Studies majors demonstrated

that 42.8 percent of students that were Environmental Studies majors were “very likely” to take a

class with at least one element of sustainability in the class material, compared to 17 percent of

non-Environmental Studies majors. This relationship, however, was not statistically significant.

In examining whether support for a graduation requirement differed by student major,

half of the Environmental Studies majors indicated that they had a “very strong interest” in the

adoption of a sustainability graduation requirement, compared to 27 percent of the non-

Environmental Studies majors who indicated that they had “no interest” in the adoption of a

sustainability graduation requirement and 19 percent of the respondents who had a “limited

interest” in the adoption of this requirement. Environmental Studies majors have a greater

interest in the adoption of this sustainability requirement than non-Environmental Studies majors.

However, these relationships are not statistically significant.

Table 3: Strength of Interest in Adoption of a Sustainability Graduation Requirement Frequency Percent

No interest 28 26.5%

Limited interest 20 18.5%

Some interest 22 20.8%

Strong interest 18 17.1%

Very strong interest 18 17.0%

N = 107


Two cross-tabulation analyses were of particular interest and proved to be significant. We

found that students who stated that Macalester does not offer enough sustainability related

courses were more likely to take a course with a sustainability focus. Students that said there

were just enough courses were not as likely to take a class with a sustainability focus. This

relationship was found to be statistically significant. Furthermore, the students that were

“somewhat likely” to take a class with a sustainability focus responded that “there are slightly

too few courses”. In addition almost a third of the students who were “very likely” to take a class

with a sustainability focus also responded, “there are slightly too few courses”. In contrast,

students who were not as interested in taking sustainability-focused courses seemed to be more

satisfied with sustainability-related course offerings.

Another cross-tab analysis compared responses of whether there were enough

sustainability focused courses outside the Environmental Studies Department and how likely

students would be to take a class that had a sustainability focus in at least one element of class

material. Students that said there were too few courses that incorporate sustainability at

Macalester were more likely to take a class with a sustainability focus, while students that said

there were just enough courses not as likely to take a class with a sustainability focus. These

relationships were found to be statistically significant.

Non-Environmental Studies Majors and Sustainability Curricula Non-Environmental Studies majors were asked a series of questions regarding their

experiences and attitude toward sustainability curricula. The students were first asked how strong

their interest would be in pursuing a major that had a sustainability focus, not from the

Environmental Studies Department. A third of students surveyed had “no interest” in pursuing a

major with a sustainability focus. On the other hand, a quarter of the students that responded had

“some interest” in pursuing a major with a sustainability focus. Students were next asked how


strong their interest would be in pursuing a non-major, elective, course that had a sustainability

focus. Over half of the respondents had at least some interest in pursuing elective courses that

would have a sustainability focus.

Adoption of a Sustainability Emphasis for an Environmental Studies Major One element of particular focus was if ES majors would be interested in the adoption of a

sustainability emphasis within the Environmental Studies major. When asked how likely they

would have been to pursue this emphasis, the options were “not likely at all”, “not very likely”,

“somewhat likely”, and “very likely”. The response to this question with the highest overall

frequency was “somewhat likely” at 36.4 percent of all respondents. However, 22.7 percent of

respondents also responded with “very likely”. The majority, 59.1 percent, would be likely to

choose to pursue an Environmental Studies major with a sustainability emphasis.

Final Conclusions and Recommendations Our analysis revealed that the student body is often divided in its approach to issues of

sustainability. In addressing student attitudes towards sustainability initiatives, students overall

expressed a desire for more sustainability initiatives and a greater commitment from the college

in regards to sustainability efforts. To that extent, student awareness of these sustainability issues

was limited to initiatives that affected them directly, suggesting that students are not as

sustainably conscious as they may claim to be. In addressing the addition of sustainability

courses, students’ responses indicate that overall Macalester does not have a sufficient amount of

sustainability courses across departments. Within the Environmental Studies Department,

Environmental Studies majors felt that there were not enough sustainability-focused courses. For

non-Environmental Studies majors, while they felt that Macalester lacked sustainability courses,

their responses indicate that they would be less likely to take courses outside of their major that

had a sustainability focus. In addressing the possible addition of a sustainability emphasis,


Environmental Studies majors had a strong reception to this idea and would be likely to consider

pursuing this emphasis.

As with any cross-sectional survey, ours measures attitudes and behavior at a single point

in time and current events can have an impact on respondents’ attitudes. In the weeks prior to

sending out our survey, there was an increase in conversations around campus regarding the

“Divestment in Fossil Fuels” campaign and a high profile visit from Bill McKibben. These

events may carry some weight in explaining students’ responses. The events may have inspired

more students to respond to the survey or influenced students to be more or less critical of

Macalester’s sustainability practices. As a result, the attitudes reflected in our analysis may be

more or less intense.

Notwithstanding these cautions, we do feel confident in concluding that most students

feel that Macalester has a genuine commitment to sustainability, and that the stronger

Macalester’s record on sustainability, the more pride they have in the college. Based on these

results, students clearly support sustainability at Macalester, both actions taken in the past and

ones that may take place in the future.

Our analysis suggests a variety of challenges Macalester could take on to increase student

conscientiousness and reception to sustainability as a whole. To address issues of student

attitudes towards sustainability, our project indicates that students who are more aware of

sustainability issues are more conscious of sustainability efforts at Macalester. We suggest that

the Sustainability Office make more of an effort to publicize the initiatives that have had a large-

scale impact on Macalester as a whole. We suggest that Macalester continue to promote the

smaller, but still impactful efforts that students are already most aware of. Within the scope of

students ability to make an impact on Macalester sustainability, these smaller efforts are still of


significance. Additionally, Macalester's definition of sustainability should be publicized for the

general student body. Students that are more aware of these efforts are more likely to be realistic

of the impact of Macalester's sustainability initiatives. In addition, in order to increase student

awareness of sustainability issues, we suggest the expansion of sustainability curricula. The

student responses indicate that there is interest among the student body and students identified a

lack of sustainability courses across departments. We feel that it would be best to implement

more sustainability-related courses across departments in order to increase student consciousness

of sustainability issues. After adding these courses to the Environmental Studies department and

all other departments, we feel that the Environmental Studies department should adopt a

sustainability emphasis. Students that have already taken sustainability-focused or sustainability-

related courses will have developed some preliminary interest or consciousness of sustainability

issues, increasing the likelihood of student pursuit of such an emphasis.


References "Social, Economic and Environmental Sustainability at Macalester College." Sustainability Plan

(December 2012). 8 May 2013.

Appendix A: Frequency Tables of Key Variables

Table 1. Students’ perceptions of impacts of various Macalester sustainability initiativesa Extent of improvement created by initiative: I have not heard of this None Almost none Slight Some Large Total Initiative Bottled water ban Frequency 4 7 3 15 26 51 105 Percent 3.7 6.5 3.0 14.0 23.7 47.4 96.3 Percent (valid) 3.8 6.6 3.0 14.3 24.1 48.3 100

Composting Frequency 3 3 5 17 33 43 105 Percent 3.0 2.8 5.0 25.4 30.2 40.0 96.3 Percent (valid) 3.1 2.9 5.2 16.0 31.3 41.5

Public trans. Subsidies Frequency 3 3 5 17 33 43 105 Percent 3.0 2.8 5.0 15.4 30.2 40.0 96.3 Percent (valid) 3.1 2.9 5.2 16.0 31.3 41.5 100

Sustainable endowment investment Frequency 28 8 9 22 22 15 106 Percent 25.5 7.8 8.7 20.2 20.7 14.2 97.2 Percent (valid) 26.3 8.0 9.0 20.8 21.3 14.6 100

Green Buildings Frequency 3 2 14 30 25 29 104 Percent 2.8 1.8 12.9 28.1 23.0 26.9 95.4 Percent (valid) 2.9 1.9 13.5 29.4 24.1 28.2 100.0

a Frequencies are weighted to reflect oversampling of environmental studies majors (weight=0.22) and thus do no reflect actual counts.

Table 1. (cont’d)b Extent of improvement created by initiative: I have not heard of this None Almost none Slight Some Large Total Initiative Light bulb replacement Frequency 30 4 8 21 25 15 1.3 Percent 27.9 3.7 7.3 19.8 22.7 13.8 95.2 Percent (valid) 29.3 3.9 7.7 20.8 23.9 14.5 100.0

Refurbishing inefficient buildings Frequency 25 1 12 21 33 11 104 Percent 23.0 1.1 11.5 19.1 30.5 10.1 95.4 Percent (valid) 24.1 1.2 12.1 20.0 32.0 10.6 100

Wind turbine Frequency 6 43 23 22 9 2 106 Percent 5.5 39.3 21.6 20.2 8.5 2.1 97.2 Percent (valid) 5.7 40.4 22.2 20.8 8.8 2.1 100

Recycling Frequency 0 2 3 14 39 47 105 Percent 0 1.8 3.0 12.9 35.6 43.0 96.3 Percent (valid) 0 1.9 3.1 13.4 37.0 44.6 100.0

b Frequencies are weighted to reflect oversampling of environmental studies majors (weight=0.22) and thus do no reflect actual counts.

Table 2. Opinions Regarding Course Offerings that incorporate sustainabilityc Rating of Number of Courses Far too few Slightly too few Just enough Too many Far too many Total Out of all Courses Frequency 15 40 48 1 1 105 Percent 13.6 37.0 44.6 1.1 .9 97.2 Percent (valid) 13.9 38.0 45.9 1.2 .9 100 Excluding course in the Environmental Studies department Frequency 39 36 29 0 1 105 Percent 35.8 32.9 26.5 .2 .9 96.3 Percent (valid) 37.2 34.1 27.5 .2 1.0 10

c Frequencies are weighted to reflect oversampling of environmental studies majors (weight=0.22) and thus do no reflect actual counts.

Table 3. Number of Courses Taken Pertaining to Sustainabilityd

Number of courses 0 1 2 3 4 or more Sustainability-focused Frequency 88 14 4 2 0 109 Percent 81.0 13.0 3.9 1.8 .2 100 Percent (valid) “ “ “ “ “ “ Sustainability-related Frequency 65 31 8 2 2 109 Percent 60.3 28.7 7.3 1.6 2.1 100 Percent (valid) “ “ “ “ “ “

d Frequencies are weighted to reflect oversampling of environmental studies majors (weight=0.22) and thus do no reflect actual counts.

Table 4. Likelihood of Pursuing Emphasis or Courses with Sustainability Focuse Likelihood Not at all likely Not very likely Somewhat likely Very likely ES Majors Likelihood to pursue emphasis with Sustainability focus Frequency 1 1 2 1 5 Percent (valid) 13.6 27.3 36.4 22.7 100 All Majors Likelihood to pursue courses with sustainability focus Frequency 23 23 41 20 107 Percent 21.2 20.9 37.5 18.5 98.2 Percent (valid) 21.6 21.3 38.2 18.9 100

e Frequencies are weighted to reflect oversampling of environmental studies majors (weight=0.22) and thus do no reflect actual counts.

Table 5. Interest in Adoption of Sustainability Grad. Requirement, Sustainability Focus and Sustainability Emphasis Coursesf Level of interest None Limited Some Strong Very Strong All Students Adoption of sustainability graduation requirement Frequency 28 20 22 18 18 107 Percent 26.0 18.2 20.5 16.8 16.7 98.2 Percent (valid) 26.5 18.5 20.5 17.1 17.0 100 Non-ES majors Taking a sustainability-course outside your major Frequency 20 24 26 18 13 101 Percent 18.4 22.1 24.0 16.6 12.0 93.1 Percent (valid) 19.8 23.8 25.7 17.8 12.9 100.0 ES-majors Taking ES courses with sustainability focus Frequency 0 0 1 1 3 5 Percent 0 0 20 20 60 100

f Frequencies are weighted to reflect oversampling of environmental studies majors (weight=0.22) and thus do no reflect actual counts.

Table 6. Importance of Various Aspects of Sustainability Definitiong

Importance Not Somewhat Marginally Important Important but not Very Essential Total at all important important essential important Aspect Ability to satisfy needs of generations Frequency 0 0 5 1 15 39 47 108 Percent 0 0 4.6 1.1 14.3 35.6 43.4 99.1 Percent (valid) 0 0 4.7 1.2 14.4 36.0 43.8 100.0 Ability to satisfy needs of present generation Frequency 1 0 3 2 37 26 39 109 Percent .9 0 3.0 2.1 343 24.1 35.6 100 Percent (valid) “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ Maintaining a healthy environment Frequency 1 0 1 3 10 27 65 108 Percent .9 0 .9 2.8 9.4 25.1 60.0 99.1 Percent (valid) .9 0 .9 2.8 9.5 25.3 60.5 100.0 Internationalism Frequency 6 6 13 18 18 27 19 108 Percent 5.5 5.5 12.0 16.3 17.0 25.3 17.5 99.1 Percent (valid) 5.6 5.5 12.1 16.55 17.2 25.5 17.6 100 g Frequencies are weighted to reflect oversampling of environmental studies majors (weight=0.22) and thus do no reflect actual counts.

Table 6. Importance of Various Aspects of Sustainability Definition (cont’d)h

Importance Not Somewhat Marginally Important Important but not Very Essential Total at all important important essential important Aspect Social Justice Frequency 6 3 5 11 16 28 38 108 Percent 5.5 2.8 4.6 10.6 14.7 25.7 35.2 99.1 Percent (valid) 5.6 2.8 4.6 10.6 14.7 25.7 35.2 100 A strong economy Frequency 3 6 10 15 30 30 13 109 Percent 3.0 5.8 9.7 14.0 28.0 17.9 11.7 100 Percent (valid) “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ Service to society Frequency 2 7 8 13 20 33 26 109 Percent 1.8 6.7 7.4 11.9 18.1 30.1 23.9 100.0 Percent (valid) “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ Multiculturalism Frequency 9 5 12 18 25 20 18 107 Percent 8.3 5.0 11.5 116.3 22.7 18.6 16.3 98.9 Percent (valid) 8.4 5.1 11.6 16.5 23.0 18.8 16.5 166

h Frequencies are weighted to reflect oversampling of environmental studies majors (weight=0.22) and thus do no reflect actual counts.

Appendix B: Selected Cross-tabs

Cross-tab 1. Likelihood of pursuing a course with a sustainability focus and Rating of number of all sustainability-focused courses offered at Macalesteri

Rating of number of courses Total Far too few Slightly too few Just enough Too many Far too many Likelihood of taking course with sustainability focus Not likely at all 21.8% 35.7% 7.9% 25.5% 100% 100%

Not very likely 20.8% 7.1% 10.5% 34.0% 0.0% 0.0%

Somewhat likely 38.6% 21.4% 52.6% 34.0% 0.0% 0.0%

Very likely 18.8% 35.7% 28.9% 6.4% 0.0% 0.0%

N= 101 14 38 47 1 1

Chi-square: 30.556 (p = .002) Kendall’s Tau-b: -0.304 (p = .001)

i Frequencies are weighted to reflect oversampling of environmental studies majors (weight=0.22) and thus do no reflect actual counts.

Cross-tab 2. Likelihood of pursuing a course with a sustainability focus and rating of number of sustainability-focused courses offered outside the Environmental Studies Dept. j

Rating of number of courses outside the ES dept. Total Far too few Slightly too few Just enough Too many Far too many Likelihood of taking course with sustainability focus

Not likely at all 21.6% 18.9% 16.7% 35.7% 0% 1%

Not very likely 19.6% 108.% 16.7% 35.7% 0% 0%

Somewhat likely 39.2% 37.8% 44.4% 35.7% 0% 0%

Very likely 19.6% 32.4% 22.2% 0.0% 0% 0%

N = 102 37 36 38 0 1

Chi-square: 19.194 (p = .084) Kendall’s tau-b: -0.279 (p = .000)

j Frequencies are weighted to reflect oversampling of environmental studies majors (weight=0.22) and thus do no reflect actual counts.

Cross-tab 3. Select Variables from Table 1 (Perceived impacts of various sustainability initiatives) and presence within Environmental Studies Major Major Total Non-Environmental Studies Environmental Studies Initiative Composting Have not heard of this 3.1% 2.0% 4.2%

No improvement 2.5% 3.1% 0.0%

Almost no improvement 1.6% 2.0% 0.0%

Slight improvement 23.8% 25.5% 16.7%

Some improvement 37.7% 37.8% 37.5%

Large improvement 32.0% 29.6% 41.7%

N = 122 98 24

Chi-square: 3.093 (p = .686) Kendall’s tau-b: 0.110 (p = .184) Green buildings Have not heard of this 2.5% 3.1% 0.0%






N = 121 97 24

Cross-tab 3: Select Variables from Table 1 (Perceived impacts of various sustainability initiatives) and presence within Environmental Studies Major (cont’d) Major Total Non-Environmental Studies Environmental Studies Initiative Green buildings

Chi-square: 3.528 (p = .619)

Kendall’s tau-b: -0.025 (p = 0.752) Lightbulb replacement Have not heard of this 25.8% 29.9% 8.7%






N = 120 97 23

Chi-square: 6.984 (p = .222) Kendall’s tau-b: .123 (p = .097)

Refurbishing inefficient buildings

Have not heard of this 20.7% 24.7% 4.2%


Cross-tab 3. Select Variables from Table 1 (Perceived impacts of various sustainability initiatives) and presence within Environmental Studies Major (cont’d) Major Total Non-Environmental Studies Environmental Studies Initiative Refurbishing inefficient buildings Almost no improvement 11.6% 12.4% 8.3%




N = 121 97 24

Chi-square: 9.621 (p = .087) Kendall’s tau-b: 0.210 (p = .005)

Cross-tab 4. Interest in sustainability focused courses, sustainability graduation requirement, and presence within Environmental Studies Major Major Total Non-Environmental Studies Environmental Studies Likelihood of taking sustainability-focused course Not at all likely 18.5% 22.0% 4.2%

Not very likely 20.2% 22.0% 12.5%

Somewhat likely 37.1% 39.0% 29.2%

Very likely 24.2% 17.0% 54.2%

N = 124 100 24

Chi-square: 15.740 ( p = 0.001) Kendall’s tau-b: 0.297 ( p = 0.000) Interest in supporting adoption of a sustainability graduation requirement

No interest 23.4% 27.0% 8.3%

Limited interest 17.7% 19.0% 12.5%

Some interest 21.0% 21.0% 20.8%

Strong interest 15.3% 18.0% 4.2%

Very strong interest 22.6% 15.0% 54.2%

N = 124 100 24

Chi-square: 18.911 ( p = 0.001) Kendall’s tau-b: 0. 260 ( p = 0.002)

Cross-tab 4. Interest in sustainability focused courses, sustainability graduation requirement, and presence within Environmental Studies Major (cont’d) Major Total Non-Environmental Studies Environmental Studies Rating of number of any courses that incorporate sustainability at Macalester Far too few 13.8% 14.0% 13.0%

Slightly too few 40.7% 37.0% 56.5%

Just enough 43.1% 47.0% 26.1%

Too many 1.6% 1.0% 4.3%

Far too many 0.8% 1.0% 0.0%

N = 123 100 23

Chi-square: 5.182 ( p = 0.269) Kendall’s tau-b: -0.097 (p = 0.244) Rating of number of courses outside the ES department that incorporate sustainability Far too few 39.3% 36.4% 52.2%

Slightly too few 33.6% 34.3% 30.4%

Just enough 25.4% 28.3% 13.0%

Too many 0.8% 0.0% 4.3%

Far too many 0.8% 1.0% 0.0%

Cross-tab 4. Interest in sustainability focused courses, sustainability graduation requirement, and presence within Environmental Studies Major (cont’d) Major Total Non-Environmental Studies Environmental Studies Rating of number of courses outside the ES department that incorporate sustainability. N = 122 99 23

Chi-square: 7.513 ( p = 0.111) Kendall’s tau-b: -0.120 ( p = 0.161)

Cross-tab 5. Student Perceptions of Macalester’s sustainability efforts and presence in Environmental Studies major Major Total Non-Environmental Studies Environmental Studies Extent of agreement with following statements: Macalester’s mission gives the college a responsibility to be a leader of sustainability issues. Strongly agree 30.9% 28.0% 43.5%

Agree 43.9% 45.0% 39.1%

Neither agree nor disagree 19.5% 21.0% 13.0%

Disagree 3.3% 3.0% 4.3%

Strongly disagree 2.4% 3.0% 0.0%

N = 123 100 23

Chi-square: 2.998 ( p = 0.558) Kendall’s tau-b: -0.123 ( p = .148) Macalester has a genuine commitment to sustainability. Strongly agree 10.6% 13.1% 0.0%

Agree 58.5% 57.6% 62.5%


Disagree 11.4% 9.1% 20.8%


Cross-tab 5. Student Perceptions of Macalester’s sustainability efforts and presence in Environmental Studies major (cont’d) Major Total Non-Environmental Studies Environmental Studies Extent of agreement with following statements: Macalester has a genuine commitment to sustainability. N = 123 99 24

Chi-square: 7.239 ( p =0.124) Kendall’s tau-b: 0.145 ( p = 0.075) I am proud of Macalester’s current efforts to be sustainable. Strongly agree 12.1% 15.0% 0.0%

Agree 44.4% 43.0% 50.0%


Disagree 8.9% 6.0% 20.8%


N = 124 100 24

Chi-square: 10.403 ( p = 0.034) Kendall’s tau-b: 0.154 ( p = 0.064 ) The stronger Macalester’s record on sustainability, the more pride I have in the college. Strongly agree 37.9% 33.0% 58.3%

Cross-tab 5. Student Perceptions of Macalester’s sustainability efforts and presence in Environmental Studies major (cont’d) Major Total Non-Environmental Studies Environmental Studies Extent of agreement with following statements: The stronger Macalester’s record on sustainability, the more pride I have in the college. Agree 33.1% 34.0% 29.2%


Disagree 6.5% 7.0% 4.2%


N = 124 100 24

Chi-square: 6.400 ( p = 0.171) Kendall’s tau-b: -0.204 (p = 0.010)

APPENDIX C: Selected Charts Referenced In Text

Charts 1-8: Distributions of Variables from Table 6

Chart 9. Distribution of Key Variables Table One

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