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Is Sustainability a Breakfast Cereal? Public Program Based Research into Community Understandings of Sustainability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 June 2015

Lynette C. McLoughlin
Lynette C. McLoughlin*
Affiliation:
Department of Environment and Conservation (NSW)
*
†Community Education Section, Sustainability Programs Division, Department of Environment and Conservation (NSW), PO Box 644, Parramatta, NSW 2124, Australia. Email: Lynne.McLoughlin@environment.nsw.gov.au
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Abstract

What meanings and values does the community (the general public) attach to the term “sustainability”? As this complex concept is widely used in academic, political and policy arenas and gradually becomes embedded at institutional level, it is possible that the community does not share the understandings of sustainability that are guiding developments in many spheres which affect their lives. Use of terminology at policy level which is unfamiliar to the community is not unusual, so does it matter in the case of “sustainability”? This paper reviews research, both qualitative and quantitative, undertaken between 2000 and 2004 for the NSW Department of Environment and Conservation in the context of development of a sustainability education program known as Our Environment: It's a Living Thing. This research both explored understanding and concepts of sustainability and developed a community segmentation on the basis of environmental knowledge, attitudes and behaviour. The implications of this research for future research and for programs aimed at developing community understanding of, and commitment to, sustainability are also discussed.

Keywords

Qualitative researchevaluationcommunity segmentationenvironmental sustainabilitysustainability conceptsenvironmental education programs.
Type
Research Article
Information
Australian Journal of Environmental Education , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , 2004 , pp. 115 - 127
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2004

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