Assessing General Attitudes Towards Sustainability Policies Among Key Stakeholders In Higher Education

This study investigated, through the use of semi-structured interviews, the general attitudes and perceptions held by key stakeholders at Appalachian State University towards sustainability policies. Key stakeholders were determined by their relationship to directives and initiatives stated in Appalachian State’s Strategic Plan, an overarching directional policy that includes an emphasis on sustainability. The Strategic Plan outlines many goals and includes evaluation metrics that are largely quantitative. This study aimed to balance this quantitative data with a qualitative investigation centered on the effective implementation of policy. Overall, faculty and staff expressed ownership and understanding of goals in many of the sustainability initiatives on campus. One theme expressed was that these efforts were built upon momentum already in place within departments, and were thus not initiated by the Strategic Plan. The Strategic Plan represented a culmination of all these separate efforts and gave higher level administrators the mandate and backing to enact more change within their departments. This study helped to identify barriers to sustainability policy implementation at AppState, including concerns about cost/return on investment issues and student buy-in/acceptance of programs. The findings in this study will be used to inform the development of further studies of sustainability policy at AppState.