Purpose
– The authors led an interdisciplinary team that developed recommendations for building a ″culture of environmental sustainability″ at the University of Michigan (UM), and the purpose of this paper is to provide guidance on how other institutions might promote pro-environmental behaviors on their campuses.
Design/methodology/approach
– The authors synthesize research on fostering environmental behavior, analyze how current campus sustainability efforts align with that research, and describe how they developed research-based recommendations to increase environmental sustainability on the UM campus.
Findings
– Analyses of prior research suggest that there are five factors that influence individuals' pro-environment behaviors: knowledge of issues; knowledge of procedures; social incentives; material incentives; and prompts/reminders. Given these factors, UM should pursue three types of activities to support the development of pro-environment behaviors: education, engagement, and assessment.
Practical implications
– The specific recommendations in this report are for the University of Michigan. However, other institutions interested in fostering a culture of environmental sustainability might benefit from undertaking similar comprehensive assessments of how they could support community members' development of pro-environment behavior and knowledge.
Originality/value
– The paper builds on prior research to offer a new vision for how to develop a culture of environmental sustainability on a large university campus.
Mobil →
↑ http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/14676371211262317