54
L. L. Brandli et al.
3.3 The College Sustainability Report Card, 2011
On the third step, based on the latest available version of The College Sustainability
Report Card, best practices applied in American and Canadian universities were
searched. The College Sustainability Report Card was a comparative guide/report
card to sustainable practices in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) on the United
States and Canada. It was developed by the Sustainable Endowments Institute, and
generated the Green Report Card, a report that analyses these HEIs at the perspective
of sustainability (Sustainable Endowments Institute 2011a).
The last edition of this report, made available in 2011, analysed 322 institutions
(http://www.greenreportcard.org/report-card-2011/schools.html). This material was
chosen to serve as a basis, since the document provides a detailed profile of each
institution considering 52 indicators related to good sustainability practices in relation
to campus operations and the policies adopted by the institutions. In addition to
discovering the actions promoted by other institutions, the research in the Green
Report Card contributed to the identification of good practices that can be adapted
to UPF to improve the use of the green areas in its campus.
4 Results and Discussions
4.1 Perception of Survey Participants in Relation to Campus
Green Areas
The first question of the questionnaire characterized the profile of the respondent,
which could be: student, professor and employee. Most of the respondents were
students (63.7%), counting 489 answers, followed by employees (22.5%) with 173
answers, and lastly by professors (13.8%) with 106 answers. The greater participation of students, when compared to the other two groups, is justified by the greater
proportion of individuals in the total sample (15,990).
The next question (according to the participant’s profile) requested identification of the academic course (for students) and academic unit (for professors and
employees). Figure 3 illustrates the description of the courses, in which the students participated with the greatest number of answers (Appendix 1 describes all
the academic courses that participated in the research and Appendix 2 describes the
academic units).
According to data from Fig. 3, the courses that participated in the survey with the
highest number of respondents were: first, the Civil Engineering course (12.9%); then
the Architecture and Urbanism course (7.4%) and, thirdly, the Postgraduate courses
(6.5%). There was a low rate of participation of academics in other courses. It is
noted that the students have not yet understood the importance of their engagement
to achieve the goals and actions that involve sustainability, confirming the lack of
empowerment and awareness in most of the young people in the world when it
L. L. Brandli et al.
3.3 The College Sustainability Report Card, 2011
On the third step, based on the latest available version of The College Sustainability
Report Card, best practices applied in American and Canadian universities were
searched. The College Sustainability Report Card was a comparative guide/report
card to sustainable practices in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) on the United
States and Canada. It was developed by the Sustainable Endowments Institute, and
generated the Green Report Card, a report that analyses these HEIs at the perspective
of sustainability (Sustainable Endowments Institute 2011a).
The last edition of this report, made available in 2011, analysed 322 institutions
(http://www.greenreportcard.org/report-card-2011/schools.html). This material was
chosen to serve as a basis, since the document provides a detailed profile of each
institution considering 52 indicators related to good sustainability practices in relation
to campus operations and the policies adopted by the institutions. In addition to
discovering the actions promoted by other institutions, the research in the Green
Report Card contributed to the identification of good practices that can be adapted
to UPF to improve the use of the green areas in its campus.
4 Results and Discussions
4.1 Perception of Survey Participants in Relation to Campus
Green Areas
The first question of the questionnaire characterized the profile of the respondent,
which could be: student, professor and employee. Most of the respondents were
students (63.7%), counting 489 answers, followed by employees (22.5%) with 173
answers, and lastly by professors (13.8%) with 106 answers. The greater participation of students, when compared to the other two groups, is justified by the greater
proportion of individuals in the total sample (15,990).
The next question (according to the participant’s profile) requested identification of the academic course (for students) and academic unit (for professors and
employees). Figure 3 illustrates the description of the courses, in which the students participated with the greatest number of answers (Appendix 1 describes all
the academic courses that participated in the research and Appendix 2 describes the
academic units).
According to data from Fig. 3, the courses that participated in the survey with the
highest number of respondents were: first, the Civil Engineering course (12.9%); then
the Architecture and Urbanism course (7.4%) and, thirdly, the Postgraduate courses
(6.5%). There was a low rate of participation of academics in other courses. It is
noted that the students have not yet understood the importance of their engagement
to achieve the goals and actions that involve sustainability, confirming the lack of
empowerment and awareness in most of the young people in the world when it