Sustainability Perspectives Among Montana State University Billings Students

Abstract

The Honors Inquiry and Research class at Montana State University Billings set out to conduct a survey about sustainability amongst their fellow peers. The goal of this survey was to determine the knowledge and efficacy of students and to see if there were any trends or developments. Some of the trends examined were between political parties, knowledge and efficacy relationship, and gender. It was determined that Democrats were significantly more worried about climate change than Republicans and as an overall group they cared and knew more about sustainability. The hypothesis that higher knowledge means a higher efficacy was also proven correct. On average if respondents knew more about sustainability they also cared more. The next major category was gender trends between males and females. It was shown that not one gender knew more about sustainability. The gender-based knowledge data came out relatively evenly making it difficult to decipher if one gender was more knowledgeable. However, when it came to caring about sustainability there was a significant difference. Women cared much more about sustainability and sustainability issues than men. These trends provide a perspective about what the next generation feels about sustainability.