Over the course of the semester, Lehigh students, faculty and staff responded to an email survey administered by the Office of Sustainability in April 2018. The purpose of the survey was to gauge where Lehigh members stand on various topics related to the environment, the university’s role in sustainability, and sustainable habits and behaviors. The results offered a glimpse into the views of 496 faculty and staff members as well as 339 current students. More females than males responded to the survey in both categories. “Both categories” refers to the student category as well as the faculty/staff category. All colleges were represented in the data.
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61 percent of each category see climate change as a “very important” issue facing the country
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Approximately 52 percent of each category believe it is “very important” for Lehigh to be a leader in sustainability
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Between 85 and 90 percent of respondents in both categories believe climate change will be a major problem for future generations; however, while 61 percent of students believe climate change will be a major issue in their lifetimes, only 52 percent of faculty and staff agreed that it will be a major problem in their lifetimes.
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Fewer than 15 percent of respondents in each category strongly agree that since their time at Lehigh they have learned much about energy conservation practices and have understood more about the human’s role in climate change, how Earth’s climate system works and the sources of greenhouse gases.
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Females reported to be significantly more aware of environmental initiatives on campus, rating themselves as “more aware” compared to males on Lehigh’s reusable mug program, Eco-Rep program, and reusable to-go container program, among others.
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But still, 56 percent of students were not aware of the Green Fund, 69 percent were not aware of the club rental dishware program and 64 percent were not aware of the Greening Your Room Certificate. However, awareness has increased since the 2013-14 survey.
Barbara Malt, a professor of psychology and cognitive science at Lehigh, commented on some of the results. She said some of the results mirror national trends.
“The gender difference shown at Lehigh has been found in studies with other populations. It has been suggested that this is because women have a greater role as family caretakers and are more concerned about issues that impact health as a result,” Malt said. “A slightly different take on this is… that caring in general, and taking actions that are pro-environmental, are seen as more feminine traits, whereas shows of power are seen as masculine.”
Malt said that this gender difference is not found in all other countries, suggesting a link to cultural roles and attitudes present in America.
She suggested that an apparent lack of knowledge in Lehigh sustainability programs is due to an information overload, in which students select only the “most critical” emails to read and pay attention to. Going forward, Lehigh Sustainability will leverage this information in order to more effectively communicate to the community about various environmental initiatives and issues on campus, especially considering the Path to Prominence’s bold plans for the university.