University Students’ Ecological Footprint and Lifestyle Changes: Awareness vs. Action

A land-grant university in the Southeastern U.S. has integrated sustainability into an environmental science course (ES100, Introduction to Environmental Science). Two assignments—calculating ecological footprints (EF) and designing a Lifestyle Change Project (LCP)—ask students to consider their environmental impact (EF) and make a lifestyle change to reduce their ecological footprints (LCP). However, these two aspects have been evaluated separately, and assessing their connectivity is less explored. Here, we utilized data from the course to (1) assess the size of students’ EFs; (2) identify Lifestyle Change Projects; and (3) evaluate the relationship between EF and their lifestyle changes. Results showed that the average EF was 7.3 global hectares (gha), which is three times higher than the global average of 2.6 gha. Students performed lifestyle changes focusing on shelter (26%), food (15%), mobility (13%), and goods (46%). Generally, students planned to focus their LCP on their highest calculated category for their EF (R2 = 0.88, p < 0.05). Surprisingly, this alignment shifted once students put their LCPs into practice (R2 = 0.44, p < 0.05). Our findings suggest that attitudes toward EF results do not always translate into actual behavioral changes in students’ lifestyles. Our study highlighted the effectiveness of the EF calculator as a tool for potentially influencing students’ lifestyle behavior in reducing their ecological footprints, thus enhancing their ecological literacy.