The Accessibility of Sustainability; How Two Universities Have Incorporated Social Media Into Student and Community Life

What role does social media play in the accessibility of sustainable practice?

When I first became involved with sustainability on campus, I had no idea what sustainability meant. I felt like “sustainability” was so broad, that it seemed impossible to comprehend what it exactly was. I describe sustainable practice as protecting tomorrow, by assessing and making appropriate changes to what we are doing socially, economically and environmentally today. Learning how to make sustainable choices is relatively easy but not everyone knows this nor does everyone have the means to practice this. So what is one solution? Where would we find over 750 million people in one place? Jeff Bullas (2011) tells us that “1 in every 13 people on Earth is on Facebook” and that “in March 2011 there were an estimated 225 million [Twitter] users”.My fellow classmate Lauren states that "communication in general is crucial in all aspects of life. Both professionally and personally. Learning how to communicate through social media and other online resources is something that I believe is becoming increasingly important as our world continues to become more technologically oriented". This statement reminds me of how imperative it is for an organization to be utilizing social media to increase awareness and inform their community. In class Dr. Lacetti spoke about how Twitter can be used effectively for business in Lecture 6, so I will assess the institutions use of Twitter. In Lecture 13, Lacetti also highlighted the importance of proper presentation, so I will be looking at how the institutions present themselves on their webpages. (Lacetti, 2012) I want to take a look at two different Universities and the social media platforms they use (Facebook, webpage, and Twitter) and see what they do that makes them successful. This will also give me the opportunity to see good ideas and implement them in the organization I volunteer for.

Trend List on Twitter. From L Hegberg (Personal Collection, March 2012)

Office of Campus Sustainability at the University of Ottawa, Canada

Founded in 2006,The Office of Campus Sustainability collaborates with the Sustainable Development Committee to find ways to make knowledge and ways to act sustainability accessible to students and the university community. The Office of Sustainability (2011) states that “as Canada’s university, we believe we have a leadership role to play in the education, research and policy setting necessary to ensure the sustainable development of our planet, our nation, and our community.” I first came upon them through their Twitter account,@uOttawaSustain which: keeps followers informed about sustainable acts on campus, recognizes campus sustainability ambassadors, educates with good links, and most importantly engages their followers by replying to tweets and mentioning other users. Moving on from Twitter, I clicked on the link provided in their Twitter bio, which I would have liked to see take me to the website. It took me to their “follow me” account, so I had to do some of my own digging to find their webpage. Would someone normally take an extra step to find out more,or move on? Regardless, the website I found was great. In my ALES 204 class I learned about how presentation greatly affects a viewer’s choice to continue enjoying content or to leave. When I reached this, I was excited to navigate the website with ease,and be linked quickly to their other social media platforms. As you can see below, tabs indicate a host of possibilities to explore their sustainability efforts, under the tab “Get Involved” I clicked a link which told me about “Green Reps” and “EcoNetworks”, which work to involve students on campus and students in their respective workplace environments. On Facebook all their posts are vibrant and eye-catching,which may be the reason 461 people like it. It is important that posts be brief and easy to read. The idea of the initial post is to attract attention and encourage people to read more. I deemed their attempts successful upon seeing comments and “likes” are scattered generously across the page.

Homepage for UOttawa's Office of Campus Sustainability, Screenshot. L Hegberg. (Personal Collection, April 2012)

The Office of Sustainability at American University, Washington, DC

The welcoming messages states that “American University is committed to acting on our values through social responsibility,service, and an active pursuit of sustainability. Our work at the Office of Sustainability celebrates the abundance of nature by building a campus community of leaders who work to clean our air and water, cool our atmosphere, and produce fertile land and habitat. We invite you to use this Website to learn how you can get involved and join our journey to sustainability” (2012). I think their invitation to get involved was well received. I first found them through Twitter, @GreenAU, where I found one idea I loved: #FollowFriday, they give “shout-outs” to a few of their latest followers.I liked it so much that I incorporated it into my own campuses sustainability Twitter account (@uasusustain) as #WelcomeWednesday. I found their webpage easy to navigate. I can click on a small link and it leads to bigger and more informative places, encouraging me to explore until my eyes are too sore to see clearly. The only problem I could find was the placement of their social media links, which was at the bottom of the webpage. When I found their Facebook page, I found a great technique to engage people, they incorporated current events to connect with peoples interests and help them think about these things in terms of sustainability. I was excited to implement this for Sustain SU, and have done so with things like elections all the way to the Grammy's.



Screenshot of American University's Office of Sustainability Webpage. L Hegberg. (Personal Collection, March 2012)

Screenshot of American University's Office of Sustainability Webpage. L Hegberg. (Personal Collection, March 2012)

My assessment: have they done their part in making sustainability accessible?

ALES 204 taught me how to properly present information: using good color contrast, quality pictures, proper citations, and making information easy to find and navigate. ALES 204 also taught me how to find institutions with similar values by searching on Twitter, and I was able to look at different organizations and critically analyze their ideas and strategies for reaching out to their community. I only looked at two institutions but was happy to have done so, the ideas that these institutions have incorporated into their pursuit of accessible sustainability have encouraged me to further integrate similar things into my work. I was happy to find a host of information scattered across a variety of social media platforms. I was able to find information about what sustainability means to them, their future plans, current projects they’re working on and how I could get involved. Both institutions have done a good job making knowledge about sustainability accessible and as a result have increased awareness, interest and participation. With the collaborative work universities are doing, they are making sustainability a tangible object that their community can work with and see results. This makes me think a sustainable future is absolutely possible. Through my Community Service Learning volunteer position at Sustain SU and my time in ALES 204 I was able to take the knowledge from class and experiences outside of class and apply them to my social media account. This made me a stronger communicater and a better student.

Social Media Landscape. From fredcavazza (2008). Retrieved April 2, 2012 from Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fredcavazza/2564571564/

Extra Things to Think About:

Is the implementation of social media (and all the technology required) sustainable?

What would the world look like right now if social media was non-existent?

Has social media made us more productive?

What opportunity costs are associated with social media use?

References:

J Bullas. (2011) 50 Fascinating Facebook Facts and Figures.Retrieved from Jeff Bullas Webpage.
J Bullas. (2011) 30 Terrific Twitter Facts and Figures. Retrieved from Jeff Bullas Webpage.
University of Ottawa (2011). Resources - Sustainability 101. Retrieved from Office of Campus Sustainability Webpage.
University of Ottawa (2011). About Us, General Section. Retrieved from Office of Campus Sustainability Webpage.
American University (2012). Sustainability Home. Retrieved from The Office of Sustainability at American University Webpage.

By: Lina Hegberg
TA: Shannon Clarke
Lab: H8