Sustainability College Students

Introduction

While a number of universities highlight sustainability on campus and in the curriculum, few (if any) have brought light to how the social arrangements of student life has made a difference on their ultimate environmental impact. Understanding the environmental consequences of interactions between living in residential halls and student behaviors can help universities realize much innovative and practical sustainability goals related to water consumption while at the same time reducing expenses. Water use is an important target of campus’ ability to sustain initiatives because typical US college students, and others in the age group seventeen to twenty-four, consume more water per capita for personal use than either children

This period of development includes intense identity exploration and a relative lack of responsibility to others. Unsurprisingly, studies of students residing in on-campus residence halls have found that peers have a uniquely strong influence on behaviors like substance use, exercise habits, diet, and academic performance. However, social influence studies on emerging adult behaviors have not addressed environmental behaviors. Similarly, few studies on environmental behavior have even touched upon the peers influence on the environmental behaviors of emerging adults. Thus, we have little to no empirical data about how students or any other emerging adults differ from the general population in respects to the factors that motivate them to conserve water or any other

Unfortunately, despite the variety of models developed to predict environmental behaviors, none has a high predictive value across different environmental behaviors in different populations. In fact, even scientists who helped develop these models, such as P.C. Stern, would likely agree with their colleague Andrea McMakin’s assessment that “Empirical study, tailored to each housing situation and population, is imperative for improving our understanding of conservation