Exploring of students’ sustainability awareness on energy management and climate change mitigation in higher education institutions

: The increasing use of energy by humans is affecting the climate change. In light of the pressing nature of this issue, it is imperative that comprehensive and integrated efforts be undertaken with the involvement of multiple stakeholders, including higher education institutions. Universities, as institutions of higher learning, bear the responsibility of fostering greater comprehension and awareness among the younger generation regarding the management of energy and the mitigation of climate change. This study aimed to analyze student sustainability awareness to initiatives establishing a sustainable higher education environment, with a focus on energy management issues and climate change mitigation in campus. A total of 426 respondents from four universities in East Java, Indonesia, participated in this survey research. The data were collected using an online questionnaire that measured several indicators of student sustainability awareness, including environmental knowledge, pro-environmental behavior, environmental attitudes, and environmental behavior intentions. The data analysis technique employed descriptive statistics in conjunction with the statistical software package SPSS version 22 for analyzing the relationship between variables. The findings indicated that the level of student sustainability awareness at the four universities was classified as "very good," with a percentage of 55.35%. The results indicate that male students have a higher score (80.38) than female students (80.2) based on the demographic characteristics of the respondents. The findings of this research are intended to serve as a reference for higher education institutions seeking to enhance students' comprehension and engagement in energy management and climate change mitigations.