Posters and Online Posters
Engaging in Pro-Environmental Actions May Predict Subjective Well-Being
Virtual Poster Shawna Jordon, Carole Dennis, Srijana Bajracharya
This study provides information on the relationship between sustainable behaviors and subjective well-being among employees from a Northeastern College in the United States, providing detailed results and conclusions. Recent research suggests that participating in sustainable behaviors may lead to increased positive feelings. This study relates sustainable behaviors (SB), including altruism, frugality, pro-ecological behaviors, and equity, with subjective well-being (SWB). Using tools that assessed participation in sustainable behaviors and perception of subjective well-being, we surveyed 402 adults employed at a northeastern college. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results indicated that sustainable behaviors predicted 6.5% of the variance in subjective well-being in this sample. The results suggest that the more pro-ecological, altruistic, frugal, and equitable a person reports to be, the higher his or her own perception of well-being will be. The study provides strong evidence to support the concept that sustainable behaviors may not only solely benefit the planet, but may also positively influence humanity's overall well-being.
Building a Website to Aid in Food Recovery Efforts: Creating a Sustainable Collaborative Model
Poster/Exhibit Session Ritika Gupta, Stefanie Choi, Reine Abubakar, Irini Spyridakis
Between 30-40% of food goes uneaten in the U.S. and 15% of U.S. households struggle with food insecurity (USDA). At the University of Washington (UW), Seattle, Washington, dining halls work with food delivery groups to transport leftover food to non-profit agencies, but these groups have limited capacity and need help. Our project is addressing this issue by creating an open source website to pair-up UW cafeterias with non-profit agencies. This website facilitates the transportation of food waste from UW Food Services to local agencies with the help of UW student groups. It also facilitates timely identification of food location and volume. With collaboration of dining halls, student delivery groups, and agencies in need, this website can help reduce food waste and feed people in need. Our website addresses social, cultural, and economic issues surrounding food waste and food insecurity. Irini Spyridakis, a UW faculty member, and Madison Holbrook, a UW student (both from the Department of Human Centered Design and Engineering) are leading an interdisciplinary team of approximately thirteen undergraduate and graduate students to research, design, and build the responsive website. We have met with and surveyed numerous dining hall managers and over fifty food shelters. We are in the process of testing and finalizing the website and training student groups for delivery, and will have results in spring 2018. (1. United States Department of Agriculture, U.S. Food Waste Challenge, FAQs, Information Sources. https://www.usda.gov/oce/foodwaste/sources.htm. Accessed 16 February 2018.)
Sustainability and Personal Finance
Poster/Exhibit Session Kenneth White, Kimberly Watkins
Sustainability concepts have been integrated into finance by using environmental science to explore topics such as corporate social responsibility, socially responsible investing, sustainable finance, and sustainable banking. However, this connection has not yet been made at the household level to explore financial decision making surrounding money management, budget, saving, spending, risk tolerance, and time horizons. Neither has the link been made to mental health well-being related to stress from finances. Positive attitudes about sustainability may be a way to improve normative financial behaviors leading to positive overall financial and mental health. Sustainability and household finance both involve allocating limited resources over time to strike a balance between use today and use tomorrow. Sustainability addresses responsible consumption, waste reduction, well-being, socially responsible investment and finance, equality, and sense of community. These topics are relevant for individuals and families managing limited resources, but research on sustainability has tended to overlook its connection to personal financial management. The sustainability movement is growing on campuses nationwide; therefore, examining the relationship of sustainability and personal financial management among college students is a natural place to build on this emerging literature. This knowledge is important given the challenges facing young people in the establishment and maintenance of personal financial well-being. APLUS Waves 1-4 (panel data) collected at University of Arizona is used to explore the link between sustainability and personal finance among undergraduate students. Regression and structured equation modeling are used to estimate correlations between sustainability and personal finance.
Evolution of Plastic and Its Detriment to the Environment
Poster/Exhibit Session Nicholas St Angelo
Plastic is an increasingly problematic issue around the world because it is destroying our environment. Its most common uses are for the bottles we drink out of every day and the bags we carry out our groceries in. Since plastic has been around for decades, it begs the question of why action has not been taken to aid in this epidemic. Advances have been made in the past with reusable bags, and currently, there are bans being put in place to stop plastic usage altogether. These efforts can only move so quickly. Until more laws and restrictions are put into place, our planet’s future continues to degrade because of the amount of plastic still being produced. The discoveries in new technology and advances in policy reform around plastic have not been accessible at a consumer level. Right now, the few ways to help reduce plastic usage are by recycling or buying alternative products. When plastic items are recycled responsibly curbside, only a small percentage of those items are actually recycled while the remaining sits in landfills - and often takes over five hundred years to decompose. In order for change to happen at a rapid pace, there needs to be more involvement at a community level. This may include educational participatory programs as well as low-cost micro recycling centers. This study explores the troubling issues and both of these options, which would allow everyone to learn more about the negative effects of plastic and move toward sustainable alternatives.
Toward Adequate Treatment and Disposal of Industrial Waste
Virtual Poster Carlos Alberto Chaves, Wainer Da Silveira E Silva
The objective of the work is to present a systemic approach for the elaboration of projects aimed at providing an adequate treatment and disposal of industrial waste, considering the issue from a holistic and sustainable point of view. The study identifies key sectors of metal production where solid waste generation occurs and alternatives are discussed to minimize the generation and recycling of the same. A practical methodology is proposed for the implementation of projects and actions aimed at minimizing the generation of waste, including technical, environmental, and economic techniques. This is applied to the recycling of Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) dust and waste from the zing mining industry and smelting of non-ferrous metals. In these cases, the industry is still looking for technologies to reduce the generation and recycling of industrial waste. The relevance of the study is in use of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) methodology for selection of the best alternative available for the treatment and recycling of EAF dust. A typical problem faced by the industry that it often adopts costly and palliative solutions, delaying a definitive solution to the problem. As a result, it demonstrates an effective use of the methodology applied to a zinc-containing waste recycling enterprise implemented by Votorantim Metais, a company in the city of Juiz de Fora, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil.
When a School-based Health Needs Assessment Reveals Environmental Injustice: What Next?
Virtual Poster Anne Scheer
While our research team was originally commissioned to conduct a school health needs assessment in a small rural town in the Midwestern United States, we came across an environmental injustice in the process. Like other small towns in the area, this one struggles with economic and educational achievement, offering its residents sufficient and desirable employment opportunities, and in general creating and maintaining a town that is perceived as desirable for all generations who reside there. But the town was also the site of a zinc smelter that closed down in the mid-1980s. Since then, the site of the former smelter has been declared an EPA Superfund site. Materials from the smelter (cinder blocks, fill dirt, etc.) were widely distributed to community members for use in residential construction projects after the smelter closed down, disregarding possible contamination of these materials and the corresponding potential health hazards this posed for residents. While EPA soil sampling did find several residential yards with elevated lead levels that were attributed to materials from the former smelter, community members’ accounts of EPA interactions suggest that health hazards were downplayed. Our team feels that the scope of testing and the way and extent health hazards have been communicated to community members leaves much to be desired. At the same time, we face a dilemma about next steps if and when community members signal that they don’t want to pursue questions of environmental injustice.
Sustainable Colours: StrC - a Rich Prospect Taxonomic Interface
Poster/Exhibit Session Carlos Fiorentino
Colour in nature has evolved to be efficient, meeting the highest standards of sustainable design and achieves environmentally, socially, and economically balanced outcomes. Structural colour in particular is one of the most promising areas for biomimicry innovation, it is a way to produce colour without relying on toxic chemistry, pollution, and wasteful processes. In physics, structural colour is described as “light interference” and is produced by the very small-scale structures of some materials. While the invitation to innovate with structural colour is attractive to many designers - finding, understanding, and implementing scientific information into the design process is a major challenge. This project will address the gaps in communication between science and design disciplines that prevent accessing knowledge to develop biomimetic design applications using structural colour. To bridge this gap I proposed creating an ecosystem of digital tools inspired by Academic Prototyping and Rich-Prospect Browsing methods. This approach brings new insights on creating and manipulating colour without using pigments, inviting exploration of the natural world and learning how this knowledge can be shared effectively with a broader audience. The ultimate intent is to improve communication between scientists and designers involved in biomimetic projects on structural colour, and to inspire new projects.
Urban Metabolism and Sustainability Indicators for Caribbean Cities: The Case of Juan Ponce de León Avenue, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Poster/Exhibit Session Maria Luengo
This research considers indicators of urban sustainability and its possibilities of reconfiguration from the urban metabolism of the streets. It is based on the premise that streets systems have a significant impact on energy, the flow of materials, the connectivity between biological structures, and sociocultural behavior and relationships. These aspects have a decisively affect urban sustainability. The Juan Ponce de León Avenue is presented as a case study. To describe the structural and functional properties of this avenue, parametric and Geografical Information Systems (GIS) is used, as well as measurements and official data. This work presents results obtained from the research and a discussion aimed at identifying aspects related to the urban metabolism of the street that affect sustainability indicators in order to establish patterns of reconfiguration towards more sustainable schemes.
Developing Action Skills in Education for Sustainability in Primary School
Poster/Exhibit Session Veerle Vandelacluze, Vanessa Meersdom
A growing number of primary school teachers consider it important to integrate sustainability education into their teaching. Although urgent problems like climate change and plastic pollution in the oceans require immediate action, learning at school rarely leads to behavioural changes in everyday life or at home. Therefore, how do we teach children to act for sustainable development? In our teacher training programme at VIVES Tielt-Kortrijk University of Applied Sciences, a group of final-year students wrote their dissertation on the topic of Education for Sustainable development (ESD). They applied some basic principles of design research. Our students experienced that it is not that difficult to change children's opinions and behaviour. Change among parents is a bigger challenge. Yet students experienced that parents are quite sensitive to children's ideas and desires related to sustainability. To promote sustainability and to stimulate behavioural change, it is therefore important to develop primary school projects involving the whole school: children, teachers and parents. Through practice-based examples we want to emphasize the importance of giving young children positive experiences while acting for sustainability. Not only to strengthen their confidence, but even more to reinforce the conviction that even their actions matter and support (global) change. Given the urgency of many sustainability issues, it is our firm belief that, even in the early stages of primary education, ESD should focus on developing action skills. Our poster presentation presents the results of several dissertations focusing on these action skills, by demonstrating didactic material to use in primary education.
Sustainability Education in Higher Education: Program Availability and Course Selection among Colleges and Universities with Opportunities in Aviation View Digital Media
Virtual Poster Tyler Spence, Scott Winter
Sustainability education now focuses the interaction of links between social, operational, economic, and environmental impacts. Education opportunities at colleges and universities are at the front of giving the future generational leaders and decision-makers the knowledge and skills to be forward thinking in this rapidly changing twenty-first century. The aviation industry is a leading example of rapid transformations and community investment in order to secure the future. If educators do not help the current generation of students understand the role aviation plays in the ecosystem of world progress, and do not protect that ecosystem for the future generations, then society likely will not be able to rely on aviation as a means of reliable transportation, remote locations will not be able to get necessary survival supplies, and negative health and environmental effects will fail to be appropriately mitigated. We assess the commitment of a variety of colleges and universities to sustainability education through their published program offerings. The researchers evaluate the extent to which universities that have a facet of technology studies, as identified by membership participation in the University Aviation Association, have an avenue to teach their students about various aspects of sustainability. The school analysis will be conducted by exploring the extent to which each school offers degrees, certificates, or specializations in sustainability. In addition to the program titles, the researchers will identify key courses in sustainability and the extent to which all four pillars are addressed.
Evaluation of an Environmental Education Program through Social Network
Poster/Exhibit Session Mariko Matsumoto, Izuru Saizen
Environmental education, together with peer pressure, is deemed to develop public awareness, change people’s behavior, and effectively address environmental problems, in addition to existing tools such as regulations and market-based incentives. In Philippines, to develop people’s awareness of solid waste problems and encourage segregation, the Republic Act 9003, also known as the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, mandates the inclusion of environmental learning as a school subject and the implementation of an environmental education program, since an increase in solid waste production, caused by rapid urbanization and population growth, has been recognized as a critical issue. In accordance with the Act, Calamba City, the site examined in this study, has implemented an environmental education program for proper solid waste management in schools since 2010, with “school eco-centers” facilities that fulfill the segregation function. A questionnaire survey was administered to grade six students to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. Since Stern (2014) elucidated that knowledge could be the most useful index for environmental education evaluation, we tested students’ knowledge of solid waste management and questioned their best friends in their social network. After controlling for individual characteristics, the results suggested that friendship networks affected students’ scores of solid waste management awareness. This study, therefore, identified the existence of peer influence on environmental education and the importance of commitment of both teachers and students.
Metro Vancouver's Social Media Presence in a Post-Truth World
Poster/Exhibit Session Lois Evans
Given climate change denial, do audiences believe the sustainability messaging they read on social media? Since 2010, Metro Vancouver, a Canadian inter-governmental agency representing twenty-three local governments, has referenced a Sustainability Framework in delivering core services, meeting planning and regulatory responsibilities, and acting as a political forum for its membership. Social media has become an important component of Metro Vancouver’s communications strategy, but there are increasing concerns around fake news, algorithm biases, and bot activity from automated computer programs. This poster will present the results of a research project that examined the extent of Metro Vancouver's social media presence and analyzed three Facebook campaigns totaling twelve million impressions, and conclude with four recommendations for managing social media in the local government context.
Inspiring Sustainability Education for University Students through Personal Connections, Understandings, and Action
Poster/Exhibit Session Deanna Kulbeth
Sustainability is a multi-faceted mindset and value system that includes viewing daily decisions of consumption and production through the lens of environmental responsibility. It also has the attention of universities and educational institutions as they prepare students for the scope of problems triggered by environmental change. Commitment to sustainability requires adjustments to curriculum and campus operations, as well as departmental and faculty engagement. To help strengthen sustainability education at the University of Arizona, the College of Education’s Cooper Center for Environmental Learning created a unique pilot project for adding the often-missing ingredient of educational components to sustainability initiatives. Funded by the UA campus Green Fund, research-based ecological practices and educational philosophies are being translated into sustainability education for UA students by a student-led Outreach Team via events and campaigns. As students participate in an event, such as a hike and yoga experience, they learn about and enjoy new emotional connections to the natural world. As students awaken to their personal environmental impact and connect with nature, they are invited to retain positive feelings by spending time in nature and changing their habits. In a campaign, goal-oriented partnerships are created between student, staff and community groups, which may look like constructing educational recycling and composting programs and signage in an effort to engage the entire campus in habit changes. All of this is geared to inspire the integration of sustainability throughout campus and ultimately to prepare students from every field to graduate with solid comprehension of and inclination for sustainable living.
The George Gordon Climate Observatory : An Inter-generational Perspective on Climate Change and Environmental Stewardship
Poster/Exhibit Session Wilfred Bitternose, David Fortin, Scott Barnes
The George Gordon Climate Observatory is a three-year community-based climate monitoring program developed by George Gordon First Nation, located in southern Saskatchewan. Objectives for this project are to foster climate change awareness, inform community adaptation actions, and address climate data gaps. Our approach integrates Ecological Traditional Knowledge, Youth involvement and the acquisition and analysis of environmental datasets. The George Gordon traditional territory is located in the prairie ecozone, a region characterized by common water deficits on a yearly to decadal time scale and periodic droughts. Over the past decades, Gordon First Nation has experienced dramatic changes in the volume of surface water, with small lakes, or ‘sloughs,’ appearing and disappearing over the landscape. This pattern creates the potential for water quality issues for the community. Changes in vegetation and wildlife have also recently occurred, impacting the traditional activities and the economy of the community. As the impact of climate change is expected to exacerbate the water deficit in the region and induce frequent and prolonged droughts, acquiring baseline monitoring data along historical evidence of change in water availability and quality is a priority. We present here a narrative of these environmental changes, using an approach that combines instrumental science, historical sources, and the experience of land users and holders of the traditional ecological knowledge. We also illustrate how technology can be used to raise awareness among the Youth, and how the knowledge collected by the younger generation can be included into an inter-generational perspective on climate change, environmental stewardship.
Kikâwînaw askiy Observatory: Mother Earth Observatory
Poster/Exhibit Session Naomie Little Light, Scott Barnes, David Fortin
The Kikâwînaw askiy Observatory is a Community-Based Climate Initiative led by Star Blanket Cree Nation of Treaty 4 Territory in Fort Qu’Appelle Saskatchewan. Working in collaboration with the Calling Lakes Eco Museum and the Department of Geography of the University of Regina. Started in July 2018, the project objective includes monitoring and documenting the effects of climate change on the Star Blanket Nation Traditional territory, to gather traditional ecological knowledge relative to climate and environmental changes and to increase climate change awareness among the Youth. Our project looks at environmental and climate changes in a holistic way with a specific focus on water availability and water quality. Fort Qu’Appelle is located at the center of a chain of lakes along the Qu’Appelle River that forms the Pasqua, Echo, Mission and Katepwa Lakes. The area is regularly impacted by droughts and floods, and water quality is dramatically affected by agricultural and land use practices. Through a series of interviews with Traditional Knowledge Keppers, water quality measurements, the installation of a weather station and the analysis of historical documents we present here a narrative of past and ongoing environmental changes that affect Star Blanket Cree Nation. From this narrative, we advocate for policy changes and resilience strategies that will allow the Qu’Appelle Valley to continue being a thriving environment for the future generations.
Peoples of the Forest - Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Mycorrhizal Networks: The Great Bear Rainforest as a Place of Knowledge Convergence
Poster/Exhibit Session Huamani Orrego
Indigenous peoples have survived millennia by having an intimate connection with their local ecosystems, commonly based on epistemologies grounded in reciprocity and interconnection between humans, non-humans and other-than-human beings. Mycorrhizal Networks (MNs) research – the intricate interaction between trees and plants in the forest, via symbiotic relationships with fungi - has allowed for new understandings of forest ecosystems, showing that plants and trees communicate and behave in ways that engender forest diversity, community, health, productivity, adaptability, and resilience. Mycorrhizal fungi have the capacity to connect the roots of individual plants of the same or different species, therefore enabling the formation MNs, otherwise known as the Wood Wide Web. This phenomenon notably challenges and revolutionizes the current theories of competition as the main driver for evolution, suggesting cooperation as the main factor in plant and fungi survival. This scientific understanding, which is becoming ever more suggestive of sentience in forests, resonates with Indigenous wisdom and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). Founded on different philosophical teachings and employing differing methods, TEK and Western Scientific Knowledge can represent parallel complementary knowledge systems. These cultural traditions have equal authority and validity informing our understanding of ecosystems and how to behave within them. My research explores if forest ecosystems provide a place of convergence between TEK and Western Science. My approach is to take this exploration as an invitation to ponder and reach out to Indigenous communities to engage in conversations about this new ecological paradigm.
Exploring Sustainable Development of College Students in Taiwan
Poster/Exhibit Session Ruo-Lan Liu
The need to improve the quality of student learning should be foremost in higher education in terms of designing the educational environment and programs that engage students and produce critical outcomes. The purpose of this study is to examine an impact model considering college students’ family backgrounds, campus involvement, and learning outcomes (LOs) for sustainable development (SD).This study uses data obtained from the “Junior Survey in Taiwan-Academic Year 2011” from the Taiwan Integrated Postsecondary Education Database (TIPED). The data in this study contains information from 50,890 students in general universities and 42,161 students in institutes of technology. Statistical analysis was performed using structure equation model (SEM) analysis to test the proposed model’s goodness of fit. Our research shows that the general universities students scored higher in active learning, education quality, participating in extracurricular lectures, activities, peer relationships, and competency development than students in institutes of technology. The proposed model shows acceptable goodness of fit, and all direct effects are significant. This study underlines the importance of campus involvement for influence on LOs for SD and some practical suggestions for educators in higher education to design effective programs and build seamless learning environment in different institutes. This is the first study to apply the data base to exam the causal model of campus experiences on LOs for SD for college students in Taiwan. The model was based on established theories and concepts and the findings are valuable across higher education.
Rural Systems Visioneering: Paradigm Shift from Reductionist Science to Sustainability Science
Poster/Exhibit Session Joon Kim
Sustainability science is an emerging transdisciplinary research which necessitates not only the communication and collaboration of scientists, practitioners and stakeholders from different disciplines and interests, but also the paradigm shift from deterministic and reductionist approaches to the old basic. Ecological-societal systems (ESS) are co-evolving complex systems having many interacting agents whose random interactions at local scale give rise to spontaneous emerging order at global scale (i.e., self-organization). Here, the flows of energy, matter and information between the systems and their surroundings play a key role. We introduce a conceptual framework for such continually morphing dynamical systems, i.e. self-organizing hierarchical open systems (SOHOs). To understand the structure and functionality of SOHOs, we revisit the two fundamental laws of physics. Re-interpretation of these principles helps understand the destiny and better path toward sustainability, and how to reconcile ecosystem integrity with societal vision and value. We then integrate the so-called visioneering (V) framework with that of SOHOs as feedback/feedforward loops so that ‘a nudged self-organization’ may guide systems’ agents to work together toward sustainable ESS. Finally, an example is given with newly endorsed Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Lab (i.e., ‘Rural systems visioneering’) by Future Earth, which is now underway in rural villages in Tanzania.
Enough Is Enough: Seeking the Good Life through Voluntary Simplicity
Poster/Exhibit Session Debra Moffatt
Despite capitalism’s assurances that satisfaction, happiness, and purpose will be found in the pursuit of “more”, a growing population is waking up to the realities of an excessively materialistic existence and seeking simpler, more meaningful ways of living. Countering the competitive orientation and scarcity mindset found in consumerist societies at large, the voluntary simplicity lifestyle flips the story to one of abundant, albeit different pleasures than those offered by the work-to-spend cycle (Elgin, 2010). Too often, however, the voluntary simplicity lifestyle is misunderstood as one of sacrifice, regression, poverty, and extremism. Leaning on performance theory and ecopsychology, the purpose of this interdisciplinary work is to help make the voluntary simplicity lifestyle more accessible and appealing to a mainstream audience by focusing on its connections to the “good life”. This in-progress autoethnography is a combination of the researcher’s personal data as a new simplifier, supplemented by additional insights from extensive, in-depth interviews with three experienced simplifiers, all of whom have unique motivations for choosing to live more simply. Although analysis is in its early stages, it is clear that moving beyond social norms for how (1) well-being, prosperity and success are defined, and (2) identity is (re)constructed all play critical roles. Tapping into the opportunities offered by creative (non)fiction arts-based research and public ethnography principles to produce accessible, evocative work, narrative inquiry is being used to collect and analyze stories (“data”). Final representation(s) will be untraditional in form and content, intended for both general and academic audiences: an illustrated fairy tale.
