The Limit DOES exist!...kind of...

In every research project, there are limitations that can potentially give skewed results.  The limitations in this project lie in the area of reliability.  In his study on environmental attitudes and actions, Bickman questioned people on their outlook on littering and then observed their behaviors when presented with an opportunity to pick up litter.  He concluded that there was a large gap between attitudes and behaviors (Bickman, 1972).  Because my research consists of student surveys and not observed behaviors, I fall under this conclusion. 

Another reliability issue is the inaccuracy and inflation of self-reported behaviors.  A study on the inaccuracies in self-reports was conducted in the 1980s.  Researchers in this study conducted surveys on energy use and compared them with actual utility bills.  The results attributed inaccuracies to two reasons:  1) the design of the survey, and 2) the desire of participants to give a socially desired response to keep up with the perceived social norm.  In the case of my research, the notion of sustainability is widely known.  Sustainable behavior is desirable is today’s society, but unfortunately, it is not always common.  Reporting behaviors that society desires instead of the reality of personal actions is a common problem among researchers (Warriner, McDougall, & Claxton, 1984).  To obtain accurate self-reports, two things must be accomplished.  The respondent must be able to answer correctly, meaning the survey must be well designed and the appropriate answer is available.  Second, the respondent must be willing to answer correctly and not give in to the social pressure.  Nonetheless, this study concluded that there was not a good reason for the respondents to “systematically distort their response”.  These results are also relevant for daily activities, which applies to my research on daily sustainable behavior (Warriner, McDougall, & Claxton, 1984).


Sample size also a limitation in my research.  While surveying the NSCS offers a controlled and reliable audience, it is a very limited sample of the general student population.  It focus on specific elite group of students and may be more or less likely to perform a behavior based on this affiliation.  

Check Yes or No

The best practices report was used to design a survey.  This process is the quantitative portion of my research and will operationalize the variables.  The survey will question a sample of students at TAMU and CU about their current green practices and behaviors as well as their attitudes toward the best practices report.  While trying to decide how to evaluate the survey results I came across Michael Tarrant's study on the five different evaluation scales for attitude behavior consistency.  According to the results of his study, the Awareness of Consequences (AC) scale would be most appropriate for my research.  It is best for determining results for general populations.  While this population is specifically higher educated, the generality applies to the use of both genders as a subject (Tarrant, 1997).  The results will be used to determine a current level of typical green behavior for students on the different campuses.  It will also establish a level of compromise needed between the best practices and students’ attitudes to develop green practices that are unique to the culture at Texas A&M.  These practices will help the campus redefine a student’s typical green behavior and level of environmental responsibility. 

Incentive for Survey

The research grants I have received from the TAMU Undergraduate Research Scholars Program and TAMU College of Architecture are used as an incentive for the target audience to take the survey.  All students at the selected schools are eligible to participate in the survey, but the incentive is offered to the selected national organizations at the schools.  If the organizations participate, I will donate a sum of money to them.  Organizations will be used instead of individual students because it is a more controlled audience and it narrows the scope of my research.  The organization must be a national organization with an active branch at both selected schools.  The National Society of Collegiate Scholars has active chapters at both TAMU and CU.  It also has a range of ages and majors.  For these reasons, I will use the NSCS as my surveyed organizations.

Carbon Footprint Reality

While working on my Best Practices Report, I came across a link on the TAMU website that calculates your carbon footprint.  I like to think that I'm below average on my carbon footprint, but I took the test to make sure!  Turns out... I really am a little below the national average!  What I thought was really cool about this site was that it showed you the state average and how you compared also.  Also, I've been reading about the inconsistency on self reported surveys, and I found myself doing the very thing that I had been reading about...giving the answers that I thought were socially desired, not the what I was actually doing!  So click go to the Nature Conservancy Website and see what your carbon footprint is!  I challenge you to be brutally honest and don't over/underestimate your impact!

Currently on Campus

Texas A&M was among the schools that participated in the College Sustainability Report’s survey. This survey asks about the President’s Climate Commitment, but Texas A&M is currently not a part of it. At this time, Texas A&M diverts only about 10% of trash and only recycles paper, cardboard, aluminum, and some plastics. Although 99% of landscape waste is composted on campus, there are no other bins for combustibles. Single stream recycling is one way to improve this statistic. The three bin recycling collection system makes “recycling almost as easy as using the trash can”.  One bin is for all recyclables, one is for combustibles, and the last one is for the remaining trash. By combining bins and reducing the amount of sorting, it increases the ease and convenience of recycling.

There are no sustainability themed residence halls, but there is a Residence Hall Energy Challenge in which resident halls attempt to decrease energy use by 5%. There are no internship positions available, but there are several student organizations that provide opportunities for students to take a stand for sustainability. They are: Association for Social Entrepreneurship, Environmental Issues Committee, One Love, Community Garden and Sustainability Council. Texas A&M has 727 buses in their transportation fleet, 79 of which operate on biofuels, 10 are hybrid, and 39 use Flex Fuel. While there is no bike-sharing program, there is a car sharing program that is made up of 10 cars, and 45% of people use environmentally friendly transportation to campus.

Overall we have improved our grade from a C+ in 2009 to a B- in the 2010 report. Two of the eight goals in Texas A&M’s master plan goals have to do with sustainability. They are to “establish an accessible, pedestrian campus” and to “promote sustainability by teaching and acting in an environmentally sustainable manner”. These goals are being worked toward, but based on the sustainability ratings, there is still a lot to be done before they are achieved.

The second annual Campus Sustainability Day is one step toward reaching them. Student organizations at Texas A&M came together to promote sustainability on campus. Many organizations passed out fliers and pamphlets to raise awareness about energy, water, and recycling efforts on campus among students. Students were also given the opportunity to purchase fresh produce at this event. In Ann Littmann's article in the Battallion, Campus Sustainability Officer Kelly Wellman said, "This is part of our culture and we have sustainability integrated into our curriculums. These issues are important and we are preparing our future leaders to address them." She also said "Sustainability is so much more than going green. It's about making choices that respect our resources and the financial impact of our decisions… Sustainability is about finding the balance between a healthy environment, social equity and economic growth”. This shows that there are people at Texas A&M that are dedicated to improving our environmental culture.

Ready? Set. RANK!

There are several sustainability rankings for universities that are universally used for comparison. The first is the College Sustainability Report Card at greenreportcard.org. This ranking is made on a 4.0 scale. The highest score for the 2010 report card was an A-. The following schools ranked overall an A- and had an A in the categories of Recycling and Food, Transportation, and Student Involvement. Each of these Universities and many more have their surveys posted online. This provides incite on the common sustainable practices and goals to the general public.

Arizona State University- Temple
Brown University
University of California- San Diego
Carleton College
University of Colorado
Middlebury College
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Oberlin College
Pacific Lutheran University
University of Pennsylvania
Pomona College
Smith College
Stanford University
Williams College
Yale University

The next popular rankings cite is the Sierra Club. This organization is the “most influential grassroots organization in the United States.” They rank sustainable universities by the following eight categories: efficiency, energy, food, administration, purchasing, transportation, waste, and administration. Their top ten universities and colleges are (in order of rank):

A+   1) University of Colorado
A+   2) University of Washington
A+   3) Middlebury College
A+   4) University of Vermont
A+   5) College of the Atlantic
A+   6) Evergreen State College
A     7) University of California, Santa Cruz
A     8) University of California, Berkeley
A     9) UCLA
A    10) Oberlin College

The Princeton Review is known for helping prospective students select and get into a school, and because of the growing desire for sustainability in a university, they came out with a Green Honor Roll. The Green Honor Roll measures how “environmentally friendly” a school is. Surveys for this ranking were developed with ecoAmerica and are considerably shorter than the College Sustainability Report. For 2010, 697 schools were surveyed and 371 were published in the three Princeton Review books. The following schools are the top 15, all with the highest possible score of 99:

Arizona State University at the Tempe campus
Bates College (Lewiston ME)
Binghamton University (State Univ. of New York at Binghamton)
College of the Atlantic (Bar Harbor ME)
Colorado College (Colorado Springs CO)
Dickinson College (Carlisle PA)
Evergreen State College (Olympia WA)
Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta)
Harvard College (Cambridge MA)
Middlebury College (Middlebury VT)
Northeastern University (Boston MA)
University of California - Berkeley University of New Hampshire (Durham)
University of Washington (Seattle)
Yale University (New Haven CT)

After reviewing these surveys and comparing them with Texas A&M's benchmark schools, I will post a best practices report. This report will be the basis for the surveys I will conduct with students here at Texas A&M.