• Sustainability encompasses three pillars; the environment, theeconomy, and social equity.

• By combining these three pillars, sustainability meets the needs ofpeople today without negatively affecting future generations or theenvironment.

• Knowledge about sustainability is crucial to shaping the future of theplanet.

• To assess current knowledge of sustainability and environmentalattitudes, we surveyed undergraduate students at the University ofCentral Florida (UCF).

Hypothesis

With the notion that a student’s academic College would affect theiranswers, we expected to see a correlation between academic Collegeand their sustainability knowledge and environmental attitude.

• Evidence supports hypothesis.

• There is a correlation between academic College and sustainabilityknowledge and College and environmental attitude.

• Figure 3 shows how each pillar plays into the College’s view ofsustainability.

• Based on the data, we can see that the College of UndergraduateStudies (IDS) scored the highest, most likely due to the largenumber of Environmental Science majors.

• Further research can be focused on identifying which UCF Collegespresent the most knowledge of sustainability and offer methods ofimproving sustainability education.

• McFarlane, Donovan A. and Agueda G. Ogazon. Fall 2011. “The Challenges of Sustainability Education.”Journal of Multidisciplinary Research. Vol. 3 p.81-107.

• Rideout, Bruce E. August 2013. "The liberal arts and environmental awareness: Exploring endorsement of anenvironmental worldview in college students." International Journal of Environmental & Science Education.Vol. 9

• Opp, S. M., & Saunders, K. L. (2013). Pillar Talk: Local Sustainability Initiatives and Policies in the UnitedStates--Finding Evidence of the “Three E’s”: Economic Development, Environmental Protection, and SocialEquity. UrbanAffairs Review. Vol 49. p. 678–717

• Burns, H. (2013). Meaningful Sustainability Learning : A Study of Sustainability Pedagogy in Two UniversityCourses, 25(2), 166–175.

Sustainability Assessment of College Undergraduates

Edgar Castro Tello, Amanda Faunce, Kristen Garcia, Catalina McEachern, and Cody Sparaco

Alaina Bernard and Jennifer Elliott

1. Created survey which directly focused on the three pillars ofsustainability• Included one free-response question: personal definition of

sustainability• Followed with 15 Likert questions: 5 concentrated from each pillar• Gathered demographic data: biological sex, year in school, and

academic college

2. Conducted surveys: online and in-person, on campus• Collected 435 surveys

3. Analyzed data from surveys• Computed Likert scores• Scored free response answers based on number of pillars addressed

(0-3)• Performed one-way ANOVA: College/Likert scores and College/Pillar

scores and a Chi-squared on Pillar scores- Independent variable: UCF academic College- Dependent variables: Pillar scores, Likert scores

• There is a significant correlation between both College and pillar scores and Collegeand Likert scores.

• ANOVA gave a 0.001 significant p-vaule for Likert scores (Figure 1)• ANOVA gave a 0.0001 significant p-value for Pillar scores• Chi squared test gave a 0.0346 significant p-value for Pillar Scores (Figure 2)

− Introduction −

− Discussion −

− Methods −

− Results −

− References −

Figure 1: Distribution of Likert Scores Per College. The middle line in the diamond represents theCollege’s mean score. The height of the diamond represents confidence and the width representsnumber of responses.

Figure 2: Distribution of Pillar Scores Per College. Color represents how many pillars mentioned.Width represents number of responses. Height shows response probability with the entire sampleequaling 1. The right side column shows the proportions for all Colleges combined.

1311

8

11

7 13

10

6

32

18

14

1217

14

919

6

5 15

21

1214

9 10

1116

5 424

26

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Pro

po

rtio

n M

en

tio

ne

d

UCF Academic Colleges

environment

equity

economy

Figure 3: Distribution of Pillar Categories Mentioned Per College.

To determine if a correlation exists between undergraduate students’academic College at UCF and their sustainability knowledge andbetween their academic College and environmental attitude.

− Objective −

Contingency Analysis of Pillar Score By Academic Colle

Mosaic Plot

Re

sp

onse

Pro

ba

blit

y o

f P

illa

r S

co

re

0

0.25

0.5

0.75

1

AR

TS

BA

ED

EN

G

HP

A

ME

D

NU

RS

RO

SE

N

SC

I

UN

/ID

S

Academic College

0

1

2

3

Contingency Table

Acad

em

ic C

olle

ge

ARTS

BA

ED

ENG

HPA

MED

NURS

ROSEN

SCI

UN/IDS

163.688.79

39.02

122.768.63

29.27

112.53

12.5026.83

20.467.694.88

173.919.34

41.46

143.22

10.0734.15

71.617.95

17.07

30.69

11.547.32

255.75

13.7454.35

112.537.91

23.91

71.617.95

15.22

30.69

11.546.52

276.21

14.8451.92

173.91

12.2332.69

61.386.82

11.54

20.467.693.85

245.52

13.1952.17

173.91

12.2336.96

51.155.68

10.87

00.000.000.00

143.227.69

32.56

143.22

10.0732.56

112.53

12.5025.58

40.92

15.389.30

51.152.75

26.32

92.076.47

47.37

30.693.41

15.79

20.467.69

10.5316

3.688.79

57.14

92.076.47

32.14

30.693.41

10.71

00.000.000.00

296.67

15.9339.19

235.29

16.5531.08

184.14

20.4524.32

40.92

15.385.41

92.074.95

20.00

132.999.35

28.89

173.91

19.3237.78

61.38

23.0813.33

419.43

419.43

4610.57

5211.95

4610.57

439.89

194.37

286.44

7417.01

4510.34

18241.84

13931.95

8820.23

265.98

435

Pillar ScoreCountTotal %Col %Row %

0 1 2 3

Tests

N435

DF27

-LogLike22.686212

RSquare (U)0.0427

TestLikelihood RatioPearson

ChiSquare45.37241.776

Prob>ChiSq0.0148*0.0346*

Warning: 20% of cells have expected count less than 5, ChiSquare suspect.

Oneway Analysis of Likert Score By Academic College

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

Lik

ert

Sco

re

AR

TS

BA

ED

EN

G

HP

A

ME

D

NU

RS

RO

SE

N

SC

I

UN

/ID

S

Academic College

Oneway Anova

Summary of FitRsquareAdj RsquareRoot Mean Square ErrorMean of ResponseObservations (or Sum Wgts)

0.0627430.0428950.4978973.960575

435

Analysis of Variance

SourceAcademic CollegeErrorC. Total

DF9

425434

Sum ofSquares7.05302

105.35814112.41116

Mean Square0.7836690.247902

F Ratio3.1612

Prob > F0.0010*

Means for Oneway AnovaLevelARTSBAEDENGHPAMEDNURSROSENSCIUN/IDS

Number41414652464319287445

Mean3.973903.868053.927613.781923.954783.935353.972633.840714.024054.26800

Std Error0.077760.077760.073410.069050.073410.075930.114230.094090.057880.07422

Lower 95%3.82113.71523.78333.64623.81053.78613.74813.65583.91034.1221

Upper 95%4.12674.02094.07193.91764.09914.08464.19714.02574.13784.4139

Std Error uses a pooled estimate of error variance