Higher Education Students’ Necessity to Be Educated About the Concept of Water Footprint

Abstract

AbstractThis research is part of a larger study and focuses on university students’ perceptions of five behaviors (conserving water at home, conserving water outdoors, using a gasoline-powered car, conserving electricity, and purchasing new clothes) in the context of their generated individual water footprint (WF). Using an online questionnaire and data collection with a non-probability sampling method, a total of 694 university students were recruited and their responses were analyzed. Data analysis included frequencies, percentages, mean scores (MS), hierarchical, and K-means cluster analyses, for a first-level segmentation approach. The results of this study are preliminary results of a larger study. They show that university students (on a 7-point Likert-type scale), perceive that all five actions neither increase nor decrease their WF.  Students perceive that using a gasoline-powered car leads to the highest personal WF (MS = 4.44). The segmentation analysis resulted in a two-group solution, the “Overly sensitive” (N = 313), and the “Somewhat knowledgeable” (N = 381). Results suggest that most participants are unaware of the impact of basic behaviors on a person’s WF. These findings propose that sustainability education for university students and younger generations needs to be improved and that policymakers need to fully incorporate sustainability and environmental education issues into university and school curricula. In addition, there is a need for intensive social marketing campaigns through various channels involving university students.