Project Mentor: Professor Eric Obeysekare, Computer Science and Engineering
2024 Impact Fellows:
Trang Tran '27
Sunny Wang '27
Ali Feinblatt '27
Project Description:
How do we motivate Lehigh's campus community to live more sustainably?
Climate change and its related challenges have illuminated the inability of individuals, communities, institutions, and societies to significantly alter their behaviors and practices, despite evidence suggesting that aggregated individual behavior changes can lead to positive impacts on the environment. This new CSIF project will begin by developing and pilot-testing different methods of influencing changes in attitudes and behaviors among Lehigh students. Some possible innovations might include competitions, incentive-reward programs, information dissemination, and others developed by the team. The goal of the project is to apply the entrepreneurial mindset to fostering sustainable behavior change on our campus, creating methods and practices that could be adopted by other institutions in higher education, government, and the private sector. The team in year one will focus on one or two specific areas where behavioral change could have measurable effects. Possibilities include recycling stream decontamination, dining choices, energy and water consumption, and more. All majors are welcome to apply - the project will be of particular relevance to students interested in psychology, sociology, marketing, and environmental sciences.