The Use of Social Media as an Enabler to Create Environmental Awareness of Staff in Higher Education

This paper examines the environmental awareness of staff members in a higher education institution through the use of social media and an environmental awareness campaign. The key question raised is whether the use of social media is an effective tool to run an environmental campaign to raise awareness and evaluate knowledge of the green initiatives that are happening with in the organisation as well as in popular media. The sample used for the campaign consists of academic, professional and support staff at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University which boasts an environmentally-friendly core value and has driven a significant amount of research in renewable energy, environmental management, estuarine protection and biodiversity protection, amongst other fields. The campaign was conducted through a centralised website which provided information about environmental management and challenges. The content was provided three times a week with the goal of raising awareness between the start of the campaign and the end, where knowledge interventions were performed to determine a difference in knowledge and social media usage for environmental awareness. The qualitative findings of the campaign through surveys and questionnaires indicate that, despite typical time restrictions, Facebook is the most effective social media platform used use to spread information and initiate “green practices”. Participants indicated an increase of knowledge which was validated through assessment. Coupled with increased knowledge, participants indicated a positive attitude to the subject matter in encouraging them to play a role in the environment. This attitude is thus beneficial in a tertiary learning environment as educators can encourage students to be responsible custodians for the next generation.