Sustainable school design promotes students' pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors

The purpose of this study was to determine if the environmental attitudes and behaviors of children attending schools designed or adapted for sustainability are different from those of children attending conventionally-designed schools (that is, schools without the sustainability focus). The study was based, in part, on the understanding that “we learn from buildings, not just in them.” The study was also based on research addressing five relationships: (1) childhood development and environment, (2) school design and learning, (3) school design and children's attitudes and behaviors, (4) environmental education, and (5) school architecture as a pedagogic tool for environmental education.

Seven primary schools in Victoria, Australia participated in this study – three designed or adapted for sustainability; four conventionally-designed. The sustainable schools were randomly selected from a list of schools meeting rigorous criteria relating to sustainability design. Random selection was also used for conventional schools participating in the study. All participating schools were public schools and used the same national curriculum. Adaptations of two surveys were used to measure children's environmental attitudes and behaviors: the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) to measure attitude; the General Ecological Behavior (GEB) scale to measure behavior. Items on the NEP addressed children's (a) environmental attitudes towards human intervention, (b) environmental attitudes related to environmental sustainability design (ESD) at school, and (c) eco-rights. Items on the GEB addressed children's (a) pro-active eco-behaviors and (b) environmental behaviors towards resource and energy conservation. Survey responses from 275 children (age 10-12) were analyzed for this study.

Results indicated that children attending schools designed for sustainability had significantly more pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors than children attending the conventionally-designed schools. The only exception was in attitudes towards Eco-rights, which included attitudes about equal rights between people and animals and about people's right to rule over the rest of nature. The largest difference between the students' scores for the two types of schools was for children's environmental attitudes towards ESD at school, with students from the sustainable schools scoring much higher than the other students.

These findings are consistent with other studies recognizing the role of sustainable school buildings in raising environmental education (EE) efficacy. Related implications for EE include directly engaging children with sustainable design features, such as solar panels, gardens, natural daylighting, the use of recycled water, and outdoor classrooms. For this to occur, the authors recommend collaboration between school designers and educators in the design of schools that facilitate learning through engagement with ESD. Such design should include sustainability features which, among other things, improve children's bonds with nature.