Building off of past efforts in social scientific sustainability assessment from 2010 - 2014, five faculty and staff members of the ESS Lab have developed an ambitious, campus-wide sustainability survey intended to both answer specific research questions and provide a source of valuable longitudinal (panel) data on OSU student’s sustainability perceptions, values, and behaviors.
In addition, portions of the survey were collaboratively developed with partners including the Sustainability Institute (formerly The Sustainable and Resilient Economy Discovery Theme and the Office of Energy and the Environment), the ENGIE-Axium energy partnership, and The Office of Student Life, Facilities, Operations, and Development (FOD) to inform important efforts on campus such as sustainability curriculum development and campus initiative assessment. Please see below for a summary of our approach and scales used:
Data from this survey also contributes to OSU’s campus STARS reporting (the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System by AASHE).
Future plans: The 2021 online data collection (20,500 Undergradaute students on the Columbus campus) took place in October, 2021 and the curriculum report is available here.
Planning for the 2022 data collection is underway.
Please contact the lab manager at ESSL@osu.edu if you have any questions about this effort or the ASK scale.