Chapter 12 - UHM Earth Day Survey Project

Sustainability is an important topic and major focus within higher education institutions today, but is not an area that institutional research offices often provide support for. The Mānoa Institutional Research Office (MIRO) has supported campus sustainability efforts with their skills of survey design, data analysis, and data tool building at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.

Abstract

Introduction

Collaborating with the University of Hawai‘i (UH) Sustainability Office, the Mānoa Institutional Research office (MIRO) conducted a multi-year Earth Day Survey project to help better understand student perspectives on sustainability, climate change, and resilience issues. With the newfound information, the project aimed to support the university’s sustainability initiatives and curriculum design. The survey was first administered in 2018 and was sent to all students and employees at UH Mānoa. When COVID-19 began, MIRO then revised the survey questionnaire to include questions related to the pandemic and sent the survey in 2020. To compare mindsets between the beginning of the pandemic and one year after, MIRO administered a third survey in 2021.

Each Earth Day Survey yielded large amounts of quantitative and qualitative data, including thousands upon thousands of narrative responses. This chapter will share key elements of the survey design, highlight key data findings, demonstrate how to pull data from MIRO’s surveys, and show some examples of how to conduct data analysis and tell stories using those data tools.

The Survey Design

When the survey was first administered in 2018, the UH Mānoa community was asked four open-ended questions: (1) which sustainability and climate change issues concerned you the most? (2) where did you learn about those issues? (3) which topics would you like to learn more about? (4) in what ways have sustainability and climate change issues influenced your decisions and life choices?

The survey also asked three multiple choice questions. The first question asked people for their level of concern about climate change, the second asked about their level of interest in seeking more information about sustainability issues, and the third question served as a follow-up if they wanted to receive additional information about sustainability and climate change.

The second version of the Earth Day Survey in 2020 included all the questions from the 2018 Earth Day Survey with a few additional questions regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly how the pandemic has impacted their concern about sustainability and climate change issues. For the third survey in 2021, MIRO kept all questions both new and old to compare how the pandemic influenced people in the beginning of the outbreak versus one year later.

The Earth Day Surveys were all conducted online in April during International Earth Day, and were open for two weeks for all students, faculty, and staff. The response rate of the 2018 survey was close to 10% among students, and 8.4% among employees, which is quite desirable for these kinds of open-ended surveys. The 2018 survey sample analysis shows the percentage of respondents compared to UH Manoa's demographics. Figure 1 and Figure 2 show that the samples are quite representative for each demographic; the female group is a unique exception since it is common to have a higher percentage of female survey respondents. Survey response rates in 2020 and 2021 were slightly lower. Altogether, MIRO received over 20,000 narrative responses from the open-ended questions which provide extremely valuable, insightful, and actionable data.

Figure 1: Student Survey Sample Analysis
(Corresponding Video Here)

Figure 2: Employee Survey Sample Analysis
(Corresponding Video Here)

2018 Earth Day Survey Findings

When answering how concerned they are regarding sustainability and climate change issues, 95% of UH Mānoa’s community members said they were very concerned or somewhat concerned. Results show that students from the continental US, or "mainland," and US national/CFAS regions, have a much higher percentage of choosing “very concerned” (around 70%) compared to students from the state of Hawai’i and foreign countries who have less than a 60% response rate.

When looking at the “level of concern” data among employees, there is a similar trend that employees from the professional schools have a lower percentage of choosing “very concerned” when compared to non-professional ones.

Figure 3: Students’ Level of Concerns by Colleges
(Corresponding Video Here)

Female survey respondents have a slightly higher level of concerns than male respondents. For student respondents, 95% of female students and 90% of male students said they were very or somewhat concerned about sustainability issues. This trend is also seen among the faculty as 99% of female faculty said they were concerned compared to the 98% male faculty response rate.

Although 95% of survey respondents said they were concerned about sustainability issues, only 84% said they are interested in learning more. Female students expressed a higher level of interest in seeking more information; 86% of females selected “very interested” or “somewhat interested” in receiving more information compared to 78% of male student responses. For faculty members, on the other hand, this trend flipped and 93% of male faculty said they were interested compared to their female colleagues with an 89% response rate. When asked whether they would like to be contacted to receive related information, 73% of all the survey respondents said yes.

The open-ended questions offer the opportunity for community members to express their thoughts and feelings about the university while remaining anonymous, in turn helping MIRO collect valuable data. Within the survey, community members are asked to share what sustainability and climate change issues concern them the most (see Figures 4 and 5). There are a lot of overlapping areas between undergraduate and graduate students, as well as between faculty and other employees, with only slight differences in sequence.

Figure 4: Top Issues Students are Concerned About
(Corresponding Video Here)

Figure 5: Top Issues Employees are Concerned About
(Corresponding Video Here)

In case users want to see another visual component, MIRO's Earth Day web app can generate another visual component, MIRO’s Earth Day web app can generate WordCloud graphs based on the data user’s desired survey responses. Figure 6 shows that global warming, ocean, sea level rising, waste, and plastic, are among the most frequently mentioned keywords in student narrative responses regarding issues they are most concerned about.

Figure 6: WordCloud of Students’ Comments on Most Concerning Issues
(Corresponding Video Here)

The Earth Day Surveys also asked what issues people are most interested in learning about. Figure 7 showcases the biggest concerns from the four major groups on campus: undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, and other employees. This information can help MIRO design learning opportunities that target each group’s interests.

Figure 7: Most Concerning Issues Across Campus
(Corresponding Video Here)

In order to better understand how to effectively communicate sustainability issues, the Earth Day Survey asked people how they learned about those issues in the first place. Figure 8 shows that faculty mainly receive information through news platforms and articles whereas students are informed through other sources like social media and their classes.

Figure 8: Where People Retrieve Information
(Corresponding Video Here)

Across the board, both students and employees receive their information from various news outlets such as newspapers, online articles, television, YouTube, and UH newsletters. UH News is an important source of information that introduces new sustainability-related research and other important sustainability related issues. News stories can also help generate new topics for classroom discussions, research, and more, making it all the more valuable in a higher education institution.

Students wrote about how they learned about sustainability and climate change issues from courses in their academic departments. Some of the frequently mentioned departments were biology, geology, oceanography, natural resources and environmental management, meteorology, botany, urban planning, travel management, and political science. One student said, “I have learned a large amount about climate change from my Oceanography courses this semester, including OCN 623, OCN 627, and OCN 628. Also, I'm a TA for OCN 201- I try to teach my students about climate change and end up learning a bit too, myself!”

We noticed that students also learn about sustainability and climate change issues through other integrated approaches like movies, research projects, and more. For example, a student said that they learned about climate change issues from the Manoa's Office of Sustainability, UHM's event calendar, the Sustainability Council, the Student Organic Farm Training (SOFT), and even had active conversations with building and groundskeepers since they work with so much disposable waste.Aside from finding where students and employees obtain information, MIRO was interested in knowing how sustainability and climate change issues impact their choices and decisions. The WordCloud in Figure 9 shows ways that students and employees have started caring more for their environment, highlighting keywords regarding recycling, waste, plastic, and reusability. This implies that they actively work towards environmental sustainability in their daily lives.

Figure 9: Ways in Which People Make Different Choices
(Corresponding Video Here)

The table of contents shows the frequency of issues that students have mentioned. “lifestyle” and “sustainable lifestyle” are most frequently mentioned, indicating students’ strong desire and passion for changing their lifestyles to become more sustainable. Results show that sustainability and climate change issues have changed people’s mindsets about various aspects from their daily lives. These choices range anywhere from daily purchases, transportation, and recycling, to major decisions on academic programs, research projects, careers, employers, political decisions, financial investments, and places to live or retire. From this qualitative data, we can learn a lot from what students and fellow colleagues do on a daily basis, and can transform that knowledge into making better choices for a more sustainable lifestyle.

2020 & 2021 Earth Day Survey Findings

As mentioned before, MIRO conducted the Earth Day Survey again in 2020 and 2021, and added additional questions related to COVID-19. Some of the questions asked whether the pandemic changed the level of concern and interests regarding sustainability/climate change issues, how the university could transform to better serve a post-pandemic Hawaiʻi, and whether the pandemic prompted people to take–or consider taking–certain actions. In both 2020 and 2021 surveys, MIRO found that 93% of the entire UH Mānoa community said they were either “very concerned” or “somewhat concerned” when it came to sustainability and climate change issues. Students reported a higher level of concerns in 2020 when the pandemic just started than in 2018, that 68% chose “very concerned” in 2020 vs. 62% made the same choice in 2018. Interestingly, this number dropped to 62% in 2021, one year into the pandemic.

Figure 10: Percentage of Students Who Chose “Very Concerned” (Corresponding Video Here)

Survey results show that faculty had the highest percentage, choosing “very concerned.” With COVID-19-specific questions, 51% of the 2020 survey respondents reported a raised level of concern about sustainability due to COVID 19. In April 2021, this number slightly increased to 52%. Due to the university’s ten-year accreditation reaffirmation visit and other office priorities, MIRO was not able to spend the same amount of time to do a full scale analysis with the surveys like they did in 2018.

Making Data Useful

Now that MIRO has such valuable data and resources, how can this information be used to empower Mānoa community members? In 2018, MIRO was asked to use the survey results to generate actionable strategies to achieve sustainable goals. If we only collected quantitative data, it would have been very challenging to provide specific actionable suggestions. Thanks to the qualitative data provided by students and employees, MIRO was able to generate a four-part action plan as its recommendation to campus decision makers:

Increase visibility about sustainability challenges and solutions.

a. Host campus-wide seminars, workshops, social gathering and movie viewing on issues and solutions to issues that people are most concerned about. Some of the biggest concerns include sustainable lifestyles (vs. consumer culture), climate change mitigation, ocean and beach, food systems and renewable energy.
b. Utilize electronic screens in public gathering spaces on campus to display information about campus events and quotes from campus surveys.
c. Work with UH News to develop strategies that can better educate, engage, and equip the UH community with more information and resources such as information displays, newsletters, etc.
d. Offer solutions of all kinds – from small things people can do in their daily lives to large-scale, outcomes-based, applied research to solve complex sustainability challenges.
e. Work with the bookstore, food service, and commuter service to provide more green options and merchandise.

2. Offer sustainability related courses, majors, and careers.

a. Make sustainability courses more visible.
b. Develop sustainability certificates, majors, and post-graduate programs.
c. Create a repository to share sustainability-related research projects more easily.
d. Make scholars, and subject matter experts more visible and accessible.
e. Provide more information sessions on relevant career opportunities.
f. Invest in student leadership development for sustainability.

3. Provide opportunities for people to make more sustainable lifestyle choices.

a. Help people to improve waste reduction, plastics reduction, reducing/reusing/recycling in daily interactions with the campus environment.
b. Increase the number of water refill stations on campus and reduce single-use plastic options.
c. Implement composting and other measures to divert waste from landfill.
d. Increase healthy, local, and ethically sourced food options.

4. Inform the campus community of progress regarding the university’s sustainability goals, community’s feedback to improve the campus, and opportunities to contribute.

a. Create UH News stories using information gathered from the Earth Day Survey (main findings, pro’s stories, and sustainability initiatives on-campus).
b. Create an online dashboard to publicly track & monitor progress on the university’s sustainability goals.
c. Inform the campus community about volunteer opportunities on-campus.

Closing Remarks

The online data reporting tools that the Manoa institutional research office created were incredibly helpful in creating powerpoint reports and an executive summary to share survey results with the campus. The data MIRO collected has brought positive changes to the campus and continues to benefit many. For example, when the university was searching for evidence on the need for more refillable water stations, the MIRO team took seconds to find relevant comments using the qualitative data tools. Although only a handful of survey respondents suggested having more refillable water stations, students and employees’ testimonies about their everyday experience is very powerful, and the data helped to convince University of Hawaiʻi’s Board of Trustees to approve the proposal of doubling the refillable water stations on campus. As a sustainability officer once mentioned, “this survey has made a big difference in getting the campus community on board with some of these efforts!”

Figure 11: Community Feedback Brought more Refillable Water Stations on Campus
(Corresponding Video Here)

Institutional researchers have powerful and relevant skills that can help institutions advance their sustainability goals. We hope that MIRO’s Earth Day Survey Project can inspire more collaboration between IR offices and sustainability offices. Together we can better steward our resources to contribute to climate change and sustainability efforts, enhancing communities and our planet.