Users' perceptions of the contribution of a University green roof to sustainable development

Hoai-Anh Nguyen Dang, Rupert Legg, Aila Khan, Sara Wilkinson, Nicole Ibbett, Anh-Tuan Doan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Universities are well placed to adopt and use the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on their campuses to educate and showcase how the SDGs can be delivered in the built environment. Green infrastructure, such as green roofs, green walls, or green parks, are highly visual implementations with environmental and social benefits that contribute to several SDGs, such as 3 (good health and wellbeing), 10 (reduced inequalities), 11 (sustainable cities and communities), 13 (climate action) and 15 (life on land). These features may be referenced in sustainability teaching and learning, which may raise and heighten awareness of the social, economic, and environmental benefits of green infrastructure. In this study, we explored users’ perceptions of the extent to which a university campus green roof contributes to the SDGs and whether users focussed more on its social or environmental benefits. Statistical analyses, namely independent samples t-tests and analysis of variance, were conducted to determine what influenced users’ perceptions of the green roof. The analyses revealed that users’ perceptions did not differ largely by sociodemographic characteristics, though students perceived the social benefits as greater than university staff. Those with greater knowledge of green roofs perceived its environmental benefits as greater, but not the social benefits. The findings demonstrate the importance of green infrastructure on university campuses for encouraging engagement with the SDGs, whilst indicating that knowledge of such infrastructure increases appreciation of their environmental credentials.
Original languageEnglish
Article number6772
Number of pages11
JournalSustainability
Volume15
Issue number8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 by the authors.

Open Access - Access Right Statement

© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Keywords

  • green roofs
  • environmental benefits
  • sustainable development goals
  • social benefits
  • user perceptions
  • green infrastructure

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