The University introduced an online sustainability pledge for employees and students yesterday to dispel the notion that one person's efforts to be sustainable only nominally affect the greater society and to relay information about environmentalism. Although the pledge brings students to the University's sustainability website, the campaign falls short of its goal because of problems with implementation and ensuring the message hits home.
That the campaign aims to ensure students are committed to making significant changes in their lives to be more sustainable is ambitious for an electronic pledge. The President's Committee on Sustainability must make an aggressive effort to follow up with those who submit a pledge to trumpet the campaign's message. Because the pledge collects user information, the Committee can send surveys to these individuals to determine whether the campaign is fulfilling its mission or to gauge student awareness.
Apart from these problems with the program's execution, there also are small details that may hinder the campaign's effectiveness. The confirmation page invites students to join the sustainability mailing list and to learn more about sustainability in general, but the page is limited in content and visual appeal when compared to the rest of the rest of the website. As a result, students may not pay attention to these resources. Also, the campaign's mission is not explicitly stated on the webpage or pledge and therefore may be lost on students. Additionally, the website allows for multiple submissions, which may pose a problem if the Committee plans to use the pledge to examine the campaign's numerical success.
Even so, the pledge campaign has the potential to be more successful in the long run than April's Earth Week. The series of events were supposed to be organized by an umbrella committee, but wound up being somewhat disorganized because of the number of groups that sought to contribute. The week also lacked a specific focus, other than the broad goal of increasing awareness of sustainability. Moreover, Earth Week took place in late April - when classes start to wind down and when students begin to prepare for final exams. The event may have brought attention to environmental sustainability, but what students learned could have been lost in the midst of academic commitments. The pledge campaign has the potential to do more by focusing on the project for the long run rather than just for one week. The larger window of time may allow for greater student participation and University-wide impact.
Even though the campaign has more potential for success than Earth Week, there are still issues to be addressed. Its underlying message may not be presented in such a way that causes students to respond. Nevertheless, encouraging sustainability at the University is a big effort, and this grassroots campaign could be one way to remind students that they have a role to play. A pledge is a good method to bring students and employees to the website to learn more about sustainability, but ultimately that is only the first step toward changing habits and creating a sustainable solution.
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