Intentional Sustainability Community Benchmarking
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Date
2021-12
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Abstract
Our project responds to the Exploratory Research Group (ERG) at OSU that is looking to create an intentional sustainability community on campus. With the motivation of building such a community at OSU, the focus of our project is to do preliminary benchmarking of similar communities at other universities, examine the niche for such a community at OSU, and explore the level of interest among OSU undergraduates. We set up three research objectives to explore the possibility of establishing this type of community. Objective One was to identify best practices from similar communities and how each community had been created. We focused on four case studies of Denison Homestead, the Oregon Extension Program, Gould Farm, and Yale Divinity Living Village. We gained additional information about the Oregon Extension through an interview with Jamie Skillen and interviewed Brian Snyder to learn additional details about Gould Farm. Objective Two was to explore how communities at OSU function and uncover any likely challenges that might arise in developing a community at OSU. We conducted case studies and key informant interviews with ERG members and learned about two similar communities already at OSU: SUSTAINS and ENR Scholars, to learn more about the opportunities and challenges that might be present at OSU regarding creating and developing a new community. Objective Three was to examine the level of interest of OSU undergraduates in an intentional community. We conducted a survey of undergraduates and conducted statistical analysis on the data of all respondents to understand their majors, their interest level in such a community, and what elements encourage or discourage them to join this community. Based on all of our information and data analysis, we summarized some desirable and avoidable aspects from other communities and suggested some feasible recommendations for building an intentional sustainability community at OSU. Based on our various case studies, we believe that achieving this community requires setting common goals and community activities to help people achieve their personal values and work towards a common goal. Based on our interviews and as a way to portray what might work at OSU, we also propose three options for where OSU could locate such a community, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. To sum up, this report describes our research objectives and findings and provides constructive recommendations for creating this community. Our results are the first phase study of the opportunities at OSU to develop an intentional community, and it is designed to allow subsequent researchers to build on our recommendations and data.
Description
Course Code: ENRAEDE 4567
Keywords
Sustainability, Community, Benchmarking, Survey, learning