Green School Survey

In early 2010, the Green School Steering Committee carried out a survey that was distributed to HSC parents, alumni, faculty, staff and students. The purpose of the survey was to gather information from various members of the College community about the things they would like to see emphasized by the College in terms of environmental programs, as well as feedback about the current state of sustainability programs and initiatives at HSC.  Over 200 people responded with a majority providing clear feedback that environmental sustainability considerations should be part of every decision-making process at HSC.

The survey included questions about four major components of our organization: Facilities, Operations, Education (programs and initiatives) and Community.  The level of importance and current efforts were evaluated for a number of attributes within each stated component.  User comments and considerations were encouraged.

The data has been generalized for ease of comparison as well as to provide a sense of the collective results across all respondent groups.

Observations from the Data:
All attributes across each major component were identified as ‘important’ or ‘extremely important’.  The following reflects the relative perspectives from the respondent data;

1. Facilities and Operations had the highest response rate of important or extremely important
2. ‘Greening’ the grounds and the reduction of waste were identified as the ‘most’ important attributes within the Facilities and Operations components
3. ‘Greening’ the curriculum and local community service were identified as the most important attributes within the Education and Community components
4. Reducing waste and paperless communications (both within Operations) were identified as the ‘most’ progressive and demonstrated attributes across our organization
5. Respondents were clearly of mixed opinion or unsure that they would consider HSC a green school; 38.0% agree (or strongly agree), 20.5%     don’t know, 37.1% disagree (or strongly disagree)

Observations from the Comments
We received many comments and valuable feedback.  The following statements are paraphrased and/or represent common themes from respondent comments:

1. A number of respondents are not aware of ‘green’ activities at HSC while many believe we are active yet can do more
2. Provide more awareness and communication of activities/initiatives
3. Economics/costs must be considered when addressing sustainable initiatives
4. Recycling and composting is a must and achievable
5. Look for ‘green’ opportunities in food services
6. Transportation (bus service) is clearly an area of focus
1. Vehicle and route efficiency
2. Effective student use of route service
7. More opportunities in outdoor education and extracurricular activities

The responses are ranked below in order of their total percentage of combined ‘important’ or ‘extremely important’ responses:

* This question was not answered by all respondents – out of the 145 that did answer, the ‘extremely important’ response was chosen: 64.8%.