A study of environmentally relevant behavior in university residence halls

This paper aims to report on a study promoting energy conservation on Virginia Tech's campus. It explores whether the behavior of students living in university residence halls would change when various electricity conservation strategies are introduced.

Intervention strategies, including educational media, information, and voluntary resource‐conservation activities, were applied at varying levels of intensity across five study groups over two semesters in 2009. Additional questions explore whether one particular strategy would produce higher consumption reductions, and whether combining strategies would produce more consumption reductions than individual techniques.

The findings revealed that on a campus where environmentally sustainability is foremost in the minds of students and administration, asking students to take action to reduce their consumption resulted in positive consumption reductions, even in the control group. Additive strategies did not produce higher reductions.

Reducing natural resource consumption in the USA is essential to promote worldwide sustainability. This study shows that, even when people see no financial incentive to reduce consumption, consumption reductions can be achieved.

Numerous studies have been completed since the 1970s in households across the world to promote environmentally relevant behavior (ERB). Sustainability action plans are being implemented on university campuses, but literature on promoting ERB in students residing on university campuses is sparse. This study provides information and a format for colleges/universities worldwide to promote ERB on their campuses.