PULSE Sustainability Survey

Sustainability PULSE Survey Overview

The Sustainability PULSE Survey gathered feedback on students’ knowledge of and participation in Penn State’s sustainability efforts on Penn State’s University Park campus. Results from the Fall 2018 administration of the survey reveal that:

Sustainability efforts and programs at Penn State

• Overall, a majority “somewhat agree” or “strongly agree” that sustainability is a University-wide goal and that opportunities and resources are being provided by Penn State in these matters.
• When asked about their level of awareness, participation, and use in the sustainability efforts/programs at Penn State, students most often used the CATA bus service and recycling/composting programs.

Personal sustainability actions and barriers

• Overall, more than 80.0% of students reported that they make an effort to be knowledgeable about sustainability issues and would like to learn more about sustainability while at Penn State.
• Among students who do not recycle on a regular basis, the top three barriers were not always being sure which items are recyclable or which bins their items should be placed in (59.9%), inconvenience (37.2%), and not knowing how to recycle properly (27.9%).

Information/resources and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

• Students indicated that social media (53.3%), on-campus signs (47.8%), and email (47.2%) were resources that they would find to be most beneficial to help them learn more about sustainability.
• SDGs represent characteristics of a sustainable global society. The top SDGs among Penn State students were quality education” (40.6%), good health and well-being (38.2%), clean water and sanitation (37.1%), and no hunger (34.3%).

For more information, please visit the PULSE Archive Page to view or download the Sustainability Survey.