Environmental Behavior and Environmental Learning: Researching Individuals and Communities Working Toward Sustainability

In light of today's pressing environmental issues, the need to engage individuals and communities in positive environmental behaviors is more critical than ever. Yet questions persist around how best to motivate environmental behavior, both individually and collectively. Through mixed-methods studies at a range of geographical scales, Woods Center Fellow Nicole Ardoin (Education) and her research group have found that human behavior and sustainability outcomes are influenced by the social landscape of environmental learning including the role of the community context, urbanization, collaboration across large geographic scales, and people's sense of place, among other variables. Professor Ardoin's research tools have included interviews, surveys, community listening sessions, mapping, and ethnography. Ardoin will share insights from some recent and ongoing studies, with an emphasis on the interdisciplinary collaborations and perspectives that are essential to her research efforts.