Towards a campus culture of environmental sustainability: Recommendations for a large university

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 im...

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