Survey

REP Co-Captain gives a thumbs up next to the In Spring 2003, more than a third of the 6,400 Harvard College undergraduates took the environmental habits and preferences survey run by the Harvard Green Campus Initiative and Green Living Program (GLP). Given the many desirable prizes offered as incentives for taking the survey and the fact that the survey was presented as an opportunity to share views about a range of comfort and convenience issues such as heating, plumbing and lighting, we are confident that the sample was representative.

Click below to review the four different versions of the Environmental Habits and Preferences Survey, each of which focuses on two distinct topics regarding student environmental habits:

Running Your Own Survey

Here are the steps to think through if you would like to run a survey for your campus.

Funding

  • Secure funding or grants to help with survey creation.
  • Secure funds for staff time, publicity, website design and analysis.
  • Find donations for raffle prizes to encourage more people to take the survey.

Writing

  • Brainstorm ideas for the survey.
  • Draft survey questions.
  • Edit survey questions.
  • Consider how to ensure that results are statistically significant in advance.

Support

  • Get support and approval from college or university to administer the survey.
  • Work with a webmaster to get the survey online.
  • Decide the time period during which the survey will be administered.

Publicity

  • Create publicity materials for the survey.
  • Prepare GLP reps to help publicize the survey.
  • Publicize the survey.

Administer

  • Figure out how to get a random sample of students to take the survey, if necessary.
  • Administer the survey.
  • Follow up with the random sample of selected students to ensure they take the survey.
  • Close down the survey with a last publicity push to get students to take it.
  • Administer raffle and give out prizes to the winning students.

Follow Up

  • Follow up with thanking survey helpers, including reps, donors, survey administrators, the webmaster and anyone else who helped out.
  • Figure out who will analyze the survey, how and with what funding. Ideally, this will be figured out before the survey period begins.
  • Analyze survey.
  • Decide how to present the analysis. For example, will it be by residence, by college or as a whole?
  • Decide who should be given survey results. Will residence superintendents, campus newspapers, deans or other college administrators receive a copy?
  • Publicize survey results on your website and in other ways.
  • Most importantly, act upon what you learned in the survey!