Research Guides: ENSP 400: Capstone in Environmental Science and Policy: Reworking Green Terp

Reworking Green Terp

Assignment:

To reimagine and rework the existing Green Terp Program to make it more effective and aligned with the changing landscape of sustainability.

Problems to be Solved:

UMD’s Office of Sustainability and Department of Residential Life seek recommendations on how the Green Terp program could be modernized and made more effective at supporting students in identifying their individual role in achieving progress towards sustainability goals.
Students should begin with a review of the current Green Terp program and recommend the changes needed to align the program with student needs, UMD’s sustainability goals, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and current sustainability concepts of interest including
environmental and social justice.
Research should include a review of programs at other universities as well as current literature on the concept of behavior change related to achieving sustainability goals. Students should also consider conducting interviews and/or a survey of
current students to gauge attitudes about sustainability on campus and interest in undergraduate student programs like Green Terp.

Questions to Answer:

What are some changes to the concept of sustainability that have occurred over time?
How can the Green Terp Program best capture this evolving understanding, including
aspects of social and environmental justice?

How do UMD students currently engage with sustainability on campus, and in what
ways are students interested in engaging with sustainability?

What do similar programs look like at other universities? What could Green Terp learn
from these other programs?

How should the program measure success?

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
"The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries - developed and developing - in a global partnership. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests."
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals In Action
"The SDGs in Action app has been developed to highlight the Sustainable Development Goals - the world’s to-do list to end poverty, reduce inequalities and tackle climate change. It is brought to you by the GSMA, which represents the interests of nearly 800 mobile operators worldwide, and Project Everyone, a non-profit global campaign to spread the messaging of the SDGs"
Intersectional Environmentalist
Impact Report. Intersectional Environmentalist is a "new 501c3, committed to developing and improving transparency and reciprocity with our community and partners in an effort to co-create meaningful impact for people + planet. Our commitment to shifting the narrative of environmental storytelling to center diversity and joy will continue to be rooted in the values of the environmental justice movement and our community."
UMD Sustainability Council Goals
"The University of Maryland became a charter signatory of the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment in 2007 and put itself on the path of greater environmental stewardship and sustainability. Since that time, the university adopted a Strategic Plan in 2008, a Climate Action Plan in 2009, a Facilities Master Plan in 2011, a Sustainable Water Use and Watershed Report in 2014, and several other guiding documents that together paint a vivid picture of a SustainableUMD.
This website consolidates goals and strategies published in various documents to make it clear to see the University of Maryland’s trajectory related to sustainability."

Fostering Sustainable Behavior by Doug McKenzie-Mohr
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2011-02-01
The highly acclaimed manual for changing everyday habits-now in an all-newthird edition! We are consuming resources and polluting our environment at a rate that is outstripping our planet's ability to support us. To create a sustainable future, we must not only change our own actions, we must educate and encourage those around us to change theirs. If one individual recycles his plastic containers, the impact is minimal. But if an entire community recycles, enormous amounts of resources are saved. How then do we go about transforming people's good intentions into action? Fostering Sustainable Behavior explains how the field of community-based social marketing has emerged as an effective tool for encouraging positive social change.
The Intersectional Environmentalist by Leah Thomas
Call Number: McK STKS GE220 .T53 2022
Publication Date: 2022-03-08
examines the inextricable link between environmentalism, racism, and privilege, and promotes awareness of the fundamental truth that we cannot save the planet without uplifting the voices of its people -- especially those most often unheard...Simultaneously a call to action, a guide to instigating change for all, and a pledge to work toward the empowerment of all people and the betterment of the planet.

It is so important to follow up on references you find in relevant documents. And for journal articles, in addition to using the references, be sure to look forward and go to google scholar to see who has cited the article. See the tab: Citation Chasing.

Use your project scope document to create a list of searchable keywords. Add keywords listed in relevant articles to this list.
Keep track of your searches and what databases you are using so you do not duplicate your work

A couple of articles to get you started.
White, S. S. (2014). Campus sustainability plans in the united states: where, what, and how to evaluate? International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 15(2), 228–241
Read it on ResearchGate
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Stacey-White/publication/263372978_Campus_sustainability_plans_in_the_United_States_Where_what_and_how_to_evaluate/links/559c0f5308aee2c16df03a6a/Campus-sustainability-plans-in-the-United-States-Where-what-and-how-to-evaluate.pdf
THEN
Go Google Scholar and type in the title, you will see it has been cited 88 times since 2014!
Your research will be greatly expanded if you take a look at the citing documents. Build your bibliography.

We do not own that journal article, and if yo do not want to access it via Research Gate, someone in your group can request it via Interlibrary Loan (and then share with the others) by following the link into WorldCat and then using the red Request Item Through Interlibrary Loan
https://umaryland.on.worldcat.org/oclc/5562379765
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Wright, J. M. (2008). Web-Based Versus In-Class: An Exploration of How Instructional Methods Influence Postsecondary Students’ Environmental Literacy. Journal of Environmental Education, 39(2), 33–46.
Google Scholar = cited by 54
Get the fulltext by:
going to worlcat
google scholar
google and the reload button

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Another title we do not own but it is in ResearchGate
Godfrey, D. M., & Feng, P. (2017). Communicating sustainability: student perceptions of a behavior change campaign. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 18(1), 2–22
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/D-Matthew-Godfrey/publication/312099727_Communicating_sustainability_student_perceptions_of_a_behavior_change_campaign/links/5a8bab00458515b8af965c01/Communicating-sustainability-student-perceptions-of-a-behavior-change-campaign.pdf

Google Scholar = cited by 48
Want a scanned copy - request via Interlibrary Loan
https://umaryland.on.worldcat.org/oclc/7132225559

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Some sample searches and databases: (databases linked below)
Use a variety of keywords from your Questions to Answer and Problems to be Solved

environment* or sustainabil*
and
college* or universit*
and
student*
and
program* or plans or strateg*

(The * is for truncation so environment* = environment or environmental or environments) see the Tab - Search (Strategies, Databases. Books...)

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sustainabil* or environment*
and
college* or universit*
and
student*
and
"behavior* change"

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EbscoHost Databases:
Academic Search Ultimate
Business Source Complete
Education Source
Add the Psychology databases for the motivation / behavior change aspects:
APA PsycArticles
APA PsycInfo
Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection

Remember to get into one database and then add the others to search the databases together. See the tab - Searching Multiple Databases

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Use Nexis Uni and the University Wire publication to find programs at other colleges and universities
steps:
1. A Publication (change from News - under Guided Search - What are you interested in?
2. type in keywords such as:
sustainabil* w/5 program*
the w/5 means there can only be 5 words between sustainabil* and program* - if you use - and - you will retrieve too many results
3. In the box labeled - Find a Publication - start typing university wire and then click on the entry
4. Search

Google Scholar
Google Scholar searches academic publishers, professional societies, pre-print archives, and university institutional repositories.
Web of Science Core Collection
The Web of Science Core Collection provides comprehensive coverage of the sciences, social sciences, and arts, and humanities across journals, books and conference proceedings. It indexes more than 5,700 major journals across 164 scientific disciplines. The best database for finding what papers have cited other papers. Cited references can be traced forward in time. Web of Science Training Materials available here: http://wokinfo.com/training_support/training/web-of-science
Academic Search Ultimate
Multi-disciplinary database providing information for nearly every area of academic study. Includes an enormous collection of the most valuable peer-reviewed full text journals, as well as additional journals, magazines, newspapers and books. Multidisciplinary subjects including: social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, physics, chemistry, language & linguistics, arts & literature, medicine, ethnic studies. 1965- present.
Nexis Uni
Nexis Uni (formerly LexisNexis Academic) provides fulltext to news, business and legal information. Newspapers date back to the 1970's. Please Note: The Washington Post is no longer included in Nexis Uni.The National Newspapers Core database includes the Washington Post.