Lani St. Hill is a May 2024 Master of Arts in Liberal Studies graduate from NC State University. Her interdisciplinary degree focused on climate justice, specifically how cultural change is integral to climate justice and best practices for implementing that cultural transformation.
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Everyday Environmentalism: Fostering Climate Justice In Higher Education
Lani St. Hill, NC State University
As the world faces increasingly complex challenges caused by climate change, institutions of higher learning are responding by preparing future graduates with the knowledge and skills needed to solve these problems. This approach most often focuses on the transference of scientific and technical knowledge within academic settings. However, there is a growing recognition that it is the students themselves who wield immense power to influence their institutions and communities to address these issues. This acknowledgment underscores a growing realization that students, through their advocacy, desires, and everyday actions, play a pivotal role in fostering change within and beyond the academic sphere.
“Everyday Environmentalism,” a digital campaign at NC State University, highlights this paradigm shift by promoting students who champion positive change inspired by their diverse backgrounds, interests, and cultures. “Everyday Environmentalism” demonstrates how everyday choices can create a significant ripple effect. Rooted in the principles of social marketing and behavioral sciences, by featuring NC State students, the campaign brings to light students making a sustainable impact. The goal is to inspire broader change, fostering a campus environment where sustainable choices become the norm to then influence the culture of the community and beyond.
The complexity of climate change demands a mix of approaches, yet one aspect is clear: as culture has shaped the values, beliefs, and behaviors that have created a climate crisis, it also provides a path to a sustainable future for both people and planet. “Everyday Environmentalism” will hopefully stand out as a source of inspiration, demonstrating that any person can be a force for positive change through simple daily actions.
Background
Sustainability lives at the intersection of “social justice, cultural diversity, and economic and environmental responsibility.”[1] Higher education institutions play a vital role in promoting sustainability by integrating cultural values and norms into sustainability initiatives.[2] Beyond traditional formal teaching methods, universities can effectively engage students through informal learning and socialization where values, attitudes, and behaviors centered on everyday life are internalized.[3]
Because research has shown that these internalized feelings affect actions toward climate change issues,[4] weaving cultural perspectives into an institution’s digital storytelling can provide students with a nuanced understanding of sustainability within diverse cultural contexts. This not only broadens the scope of environmental education but also helps to shape civic values and align institutional practices with the principles taught inside the classroom.[5]
Moreover, individual decisions and actions that support sustainability are directly influenced by social settings[6] which now include social media.[7] Digital campaigns featuring diverse perspectives allow students to envision themselves performing these everyday environmental actions, fostering a willingness to engage in these actions.[8] This engagement with students is vital to facilitate advocacy centered on climate action and justice[9] by creating bottom-up initiatives that enable university-wide[10] campus cultural transformation.
Research also supports the idea that social comparisons have a larger effect as an intervention to increase pro-environmental behaviors, even over financial incentives, feedback, or education.[11] Social comparisons occur when individuals evaluate their own abilities or accomplishments in relation to others, playing a significant role in shaping self-perception and motivation. Because universities are spaces for normative influence by which the actions and discussions occurring on campus can shape and amplify discussions and actions related to global warming, student perceptions about what their friends and family are doing—and also what their friends and family expect them to do–—are crucial.[12]
Because of this, universities should take a proactive role in inspiring sustainable behaviors by leveraging their communications to highlight existing student social norms and illuminate the interconnectedness between everyday environmentalism and future action on climate.[13] This approach thus reshapes social norms and values, “possibly leading to changes in policies and regulations’’ along with “individual consumption and lifestyle decisions.”[14]
The Power of Students
Students are key to driving environmental change. The Pew Research Center in 2021 found that 60% of Gen Z (those born after 1996) and Millennials (those born between 1981 and 1996) say they have participated in an action to address climate change, such as volunteering or contacting an elected official. They are also more willing than older generations to phase out fossil fuels, oppose offshore oil and gas drilling, and prioritize alternative energy development.[15] Additionally, these generations are more willing to support policy and funding to support climate action, including renewable energy research and regulating carbon emissions.[16]
Student engagement and activism could be because Americans aged 18-34 are more accepting of global warming and increasingly worried about its impacts.[17] Moreover, 60% of Gen Z and Millennials in the United States are “alarmed” or “concerned” about global warming.[18] In addition, research has also found that younger generations, both Gen Z and Millennials, interact more with climate change content on social media. This engagement includes 45% of Gen Z and 40% of Millennials in the U.S. who either follow accounts, like or comment on posts, or post and/or share content about the need for action on climate change. This is a drastic difference between older generations, with Gen X (those born between 1965 and 1980) at 27% and Baby Boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) at 21% who engage with climate change content.[19]
For these reasons, NC State students were chosen for the “Everyday Environmentalism” campaign, and the University Sustainability’s Instagram was selected as the primary platform. Research indicates that 74% of adults aged 18–29 use multiple social media sites, with 78% preferring Instagram.[20] Because university students are the most active demographic on social media, prioritizing engagement with them through Instagram is essential. This approach has the potential to drive meaningful change in the attitudes, behaviors, and policies related to climate action among students. Consequently, the influence wielded by students can contribute to robust programs, policies and legislation on campus, in the community and globally.
Communicating the Campaign
“Everyday Environmentalism” demonstrates the efficacy of choosing specific communication frames. As discussed in the Psychology of Climate Change Communication, framing is the presentation of information in a particular way that shapes how audiences perceive and interprets that information.[21] It can also motivate viewers to engage in certain behaviors and actions.
Key to “Everyday Environmentalism” is selecting frames that align with the target audience’s interests and motivations, emphasizing the importance of pro-environmental behaviors. Selected frames include:
Local Frame: This showcases activities at NC State directly appealing to the local audience. Highlighting concrete actions taken by students on campus helps viewers envision themselves participating, fostering pride and ownership in their campus community.
Solutions-Focused Frame: This emphasizes current behaviors and programs with immediate positive impacts and long-term benefits. By highlighting present, the campaign attracts viewers who prefer solutions-based stories[22] that media firm SmithGeiger found most people believe are essential when addressing local concerns (79%) that can be most trusted (83%).[23]
Social Identity Frame: Utilizing inclusive language like “NC State Wolfpack,” “We,” and “Students at NC State” creates a “sense of belonging and shared identity” to mobilize social change.[24] This connection encourages students to collaborate and participate in pro-environmental behaviors, fostering a culture of collective responsibility. The language and visuals chosen not only directly speaks to the audience but also amplifies positive emotional responses, instilling confidence in the audience’s ability to contribute to meaningful change.[25]
Supporting Theories
“Everyday Environmentalism” is supported by the following behavioral science theories in promoting individual actions to create a collective commitment to sustainability:
Theory of Planned Behavior: The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) suggests that attitudes, social pressures, and perceived control impact a person’s intentions and predict behavior.[26] In essence, people are more likely to engage in a behavior if they have a positive attitude toward it, perceive social norms supporting it, and believe they can perform it. “Everyday Environmentalism” aligns with TPB by creating positive attitudes with uplifting content, connecting with social norms through inclusive language, and presenting actions as easily achievable.
The Norm Activation Theory: The Norm Activation Theory[27] supports the efficacy of “Everyday Environmentalism” by emphasizing personal norms, awareness of consequences, and a sense of personal responsibility. The campaign frames sustainability as a personal and collective responsibility, using inclusive language like “We” and “NC State Students” to establish pro-environmental behaviors as normative. This motivates students to engage in actions aligned with the perceived social norms.
Theory of Change: The Theory of Change in social marketing suggests that sharing systems and solutions knowledge through interpersonal communication can positively shift attitudes and behavior intentions.[28] “Everyday Environmentalism” leverages social media to raise awareness and share practical knowledge about sustainability. As students discuss, share, and internalize the content, they are more likely to adopt sustainable behaviors. The campaign’s focus on social identity and positive language further reinforces collective commitment to sustainability at NC State.
About Everyday Environmentalism: A Capstone Project
“Everyday Environmentalism” is based on three pillars of engagement that were shared online over four weeks, starting Saturday, March 9 through Friday, April 5, 2024. Additionally, a best practices guide was created to help communicators use the campaign as a model for fostering a culture of sustainability on their campuses.
Pillar I: Student-Generated Content
Student-generated images and text were provided as part of a Science, Technology, and Society 323 extra-credit assignment during the 2023–2024 academic year. Sixty-two students completed the assignment, and four were selected to be shared online via University Sustainability’s Instagram account, @NCStateSustain (see Table 1). These contributions used personal photos (versus public domain images) and captions of themselves engaging in sustainable actions on campus and in the community.
Pillar II: Highlighting Selected Students
The second pillar of the “Everyday Environmentalism” campaign features videos, images and interviews of three undergraduate students and one graduate student. The students were asked to share a sustainability-related activity of personal importance. Their reflections create a sense of authenticity that foster a sense of trust between the student and the viewers, serving as examples for others. It also emphasizes that students can make sustainability on campus an everyday part of life. This form of social comparisons creates positive peer influence and is critical for promoting behavioral change (see Table 2).
Pillar III: In-Person Everyday Environmentalism
The third pillar of “Everyday Environmentalism” leverages social media to spotlight and promote student-led events on campus. The primary objective for this pillar is to encourage in-person engagements to increase understanding about environmental issues and be inspired by their peers’ leadership abilities to create change. This can then empower attending students to take similar actions on campus.
Promoting these events also helps the broader community become aware of student interest in sustainability. This awareness can attract the attention of university administrators, leading to increased institutional support. It can also help build a wider network of individuals who share a passion for sustainability.
Promotions of student-led events occurred by using Instagram in the general feed (see Table 3a) and Instagram Stories, which run for 24-hours then disappear from the audiences’ view (see Table 3b).
Pillar IV: Communicating Sustainability in Higher Education
The final pillar to this campaign is the creation of a toolkit to help others design digital campaigns to engage higher education students in sustainability. This guide, “Communicating Sustainability: A Toolkit for Engaging University Students in Sustainability,” is designed to assist those who want to communicate sustainability but who are new to social marketing. The complete guide is available as an online appendix.[29]
Impact Review
Assessing success across individual, campus, and societal change is complex. However, social media analytics can provide valuable quantitative insights into a campaign’s impact.
Metrics such as accounts reached, impressions, and interactions provide tangible data that aid in measuring engagement. In addition, these data can also help better understand a campaign’s influence.
For “Everyday Environmentalism,” the data collected reveal that videos shared on Instagram garnered the greatest reach, impressions, and interactions (see Table 4). Also, four of the five top-performing social media shared in this campaign were videos (see Table 5).
Ongoing and Future Considerations
While “Everyday Environmentalism” is built on behavioral sciences theories, social media best practices, and appealing communication frames, the campaign is not immune to potential criticism. These challenges provide valuable insights that allow for improvement and ongoing evolution and impact.
A valid major criticism of the campaign is its overemphasis on individual actions that shift responsibility away from systemic issues and institutions. Structural changes are necessary for addressing the climate crisis. However, “Everyday Environmentalism” is just one of many possible solutions that should be enacted simultaneously. Focusing on individual actions in this campaign does not mean that other efforts to address systemic issues should not be implemented. Rather, this specific campaign is built on using individual actions to create a culture of sustainability that then sparks collection action.
To address this criticism, however, future enhancements could include more content discussing systemic challenges and solutions, featuring initiatives by researchers and experts, and collaborating with activist groups.
Concerns about the simplification of complex issues by presenting them in short, visually appealing formats also hold merit. This perspective sees the simple approach as leading to superficial understanding of the challenges. However, by keeping information simple, positive, and easy to understand and share, students will be more inclined to seek out that information while simultaneously engaging in behaviors that have a tangible impact on campus culture. The campaign’s simplicity can prime students to accept more complex information when faced with it in other social or academic situations.
A final potential critique may revolve around the campaign’s methods for measuring impact and sustaining long-term engagement. To address this, “Everyday Environmentalism” could incorporate third-party analytics that provide more robust data collection to evaluate audience engagement. It could also collaborate with research teams to provide external validation using surveys, polls, or focus groups of students who engaged or did not engage with the campaign.
Acknowledging and addressing criticisms can only strengthen the effectiveness of “Everyday Environmentalism” and inform changes to ensure the campaign remains accessible, inclusive and engaging. This helps the campaign stay attuned to students, ensuring its relevance and influence in fostering sustainable behaviors at NC State and beyond.
Conclusion
“Everyday Environmentalism” emphasizes the crucial role that social media and university institutions have in driving meaningful change. By highlighting university students’ stories, initiatives, and everyday actions, the campaign amplifies the voices of those who wield immense power now and in the future. Moreover, by integrating diverse perspectives and experiences, the campaign underscores the importance of cultural values and norms in shaping attitudes and behaviors towards sustainability.
Rooted in the principles of social marketing and behavioral science, supported by academic research, and data-driven, this campaign exemplifies one approach of promoting sustainability. Although the campaign may face valid criticisms, it remains adaptable and open to improvement.
“Everyday Environmentalism” serves as a model for universities worldwide seeking to empower students as agents of change. By nurturing a culture of sustainability and advocacy, this campaign can transform campus environments and contribute to broader societal shifts towards a more just, vibrant, and environmentally responsible future for all.
Notes
[1] Lynn Payne and Joy Kcenia O’Neil, “Cultural Sustainability in Higher Education,” in Encyclopedia of Sustainability in Higher Education (Springer, Cham,2019), 361.
[2] Payne and O’Neil, 356.
[3] Tristan Ferguson, “Climate Change Education for Sustainable Development,” in Encyclopedia of Sustainability in Higher Education, ed. by Walter LealFilho (Switzerland: Spring Nature, 2019): 226, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63951-2_109-1.
[4] Tobias Brosch, M.K. Patel, and David Sander, “Affective Influences on Energy-Related Decisions and Behaviors,” Frontiers in Energy Research 2, no. 11 (2014): 2. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenrg.2014.00011
[5] Giulia Sonetti, Mark Brown, and Emanuele Naboni, “About the Triggering of UN Sustainable Development Goals and Regenerative Sustainability in Higher Education,” Sustainability 11, no. 254 (2019): 12. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11010254
[6] Matthias Barth et al., “Developing Key Competencies for Sustainable Development in Higher Education,” International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education 8, no. 4 (2007): 416-430. https://doi-org.prox.lib.ncsu.edu/10.1108/14676370710823582
[7] Ilona Otto et al., “Social Tipping Dynamics for Stabilizing Earth’s Climate by 2050”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117, no. 5 (2020): 2361. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1900577117
[8] Michael Anft, “How Colleges Ignite Civic Engagement,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 7, 2018. https://proxying.lib.ncsu. edu/index.php/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/trade- journals/how-colleges-ignite-civic-engagement/docview/2001100917/se-2
[9] Charlie J. Gardner et al., “From Publications to Public Actions: The Role of Universities in Facilitating Academic Advocacy and Activism in the Climateand Ecological Emergency,” Frontiers in Sustainability 2 (2021). https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsus.2021.679019
[10] Eveline Verhulst and Wim Lambrechts, “Fostering the Incorporation of Sustainable Development in Higher Education: Lessons Learned from aChange Management Perspective,” Journal of Cleaner Production 106 (2015): 189-204. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.09.049
[11] Magnus Bergquist et al., “Field Interventions for Climate Change Mitigation Behaviors: A Second-Order Meta-Analysis,” Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences 120, no. 13 (2023): 1-10. https://www.pnas. org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2214851120
[12] Matthew Ballew et al., “Who is Most Likely to Talk About Climate Change?” (New Haven: Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, May 18, 2023). https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/ publications/who-is-most-likely-to-talk-about-climate-change/.
[13] Verhulst and Lambrechts, 2015.
[14] Otto et al., 2361.
[15] Cary Funk, “Key Findings: How Americans’ Attitudes about Climate Change Differ by Generation, Party and Other Factors,” Pew Research Center, May 26, 2021. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/05/ 26/key-findings-how-americans-attitudes-about-climate-change-differ-by-generation-party-and-other-factors/
[16] Jennifer Marlon et al., “Younger Americans are Growing More Worried about Global Warming,” Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, December 15, 2022. https://climatecommunication.yale. edu/publications/younger-americans-are-growing-more-worried-about-global-warming/
[17] Marlon et al., 2022.
[18] Matthew Ballew et al., “Global Warming’s Six Americas across Age, Race/Ethnicity, and Gender” (New Haven: Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, April 5, 2023). https://climatecommunication. yale.edu/publications/global-warmings-six-americas-age-race-ethnicity-gender/
[19] Claudia Thigpen and Alec Tyson, “On Social Media, Gen Z and Millennial Adults Interact More with Climate Change Content than Older Generations,” Pew Research Center, June 21, 2021. https://www. pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/06/21/on-social-media-gen-z-and-millennial-adults- interact-more-with-climate-change-content-than-older-generations/.
[20] Jeffrey Gottfried, “Americans’ Social Media Use,” Pew Research Center, January 31, 2024. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2024/01/31/americans-social-media-use/
[21] Center for Research on Environmental Decisions, “The Psychology of Climate Change Communication: A Guide for Scientists, Journalists, Educators,Political Aides, and the Interested Public” (New York: Center for Research on Environmental Decisions, 2009): 6. https://coast.noaa. gov/data/digitalcoast/pdf/psychology-climate-change-communication.pdf
[22] Nic Newman, “Overview and Key Findings of the 2023 Digital News Report.” Reuters Institute, June 14, 2023. https://reutersinstitute. politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2023/dnr-executive-summary
[23] Solutions Journalism, “The Top 10 Takeaways from the Newest Solutions Journalism Research,” The Whole Story, April 27, 2021. https:// thewholestory.solutionsjournalism.org/the-top-ten- takeaways-from-the-newest-solutions-journalism-research-9d4cbbed7578
[24] Viviane Seyranian, “Social Identity Framing Communication Strategies for Mobilizing Social Change,” The Leadership Quarterly 25, no. 3 (2014): 468-486. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2013.10.013.
[25] Seyranian, 483.
[26] Icek Ajzen, “The Theory of Planned Behavior: Reactions and reflections.” Psychology & Health, 26, no.9 (2011): 1113–1127. https://doi.org/10.1080/08870446.2011.613995
[27] Marc J. Stern, “The Norm Activation Theory,” in Social Science Theory for Environmental Sustainability: A Practical Guide 31, based on Schwartz, 1977.
[28] Kevin Green et al., “A Meta-Analysis of Social Marketing Campaigns to Improve Global Conservation Outcomes,” Social Marketing Quarterly 25, no. 1 (2019): 69–87. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524500418824258
[29] https://www.canva.com/design/DAF-eWz0XNU/c-Se2g2WRErKSiwU_ hUgtA/view?utm_content=DAF-eWz0XNU&utm_campaign= designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=viewer
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