Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks: The Effectiveness of Community-Based Social Marketing on Energy Conservation for Sustainable University Campuses

The paper presents a community-based social marketing (CBSM) study that was conducted at Kansas State University (KSU) to determine potential strategies to decrease energy consumption on college campuses. The study was supported by a National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) project, “Earth, Wind, and Fire: Sustainable Energy for the 21st Century.” The ultimate goal of this research is to establish an effective campaign to make KSU a more sustainable community while ensuring that the needs and concerns of individuals-specifically, laboratory scientists-on campus are addressed as well. This approach to sustainability has the capability of motivating and empowering building users and managers to not only make KSU´s campus more sustainable but also to stretch beyond the boundaries of the university in the future.