ReuseNU is a research and design project focused on promoting universal understanding of sustainable lifestyles among Northeastern University Students. Grounded in the urgent need to shift consumption habits due to resource depletion and climate change, the project examines factors influencing students’ knowledge and actions related to sustainability. It integrates on-ground ethnographic research, interviews, and surveys to uncover patterns of irresponsible consumption and waste management on campus. The findings reveal a disposable culture and highlight the gap between awareness and behavior. The proposed design solution involves a systematic intervention integrating reusable container stations, a reward system, and digital signage to incentivize sustainable choices. The multifaceted approach aims to address behavioral change, convenience, and awareness, contributing to fostering a culture of sustainability at NU and providing valuable insights for broader global sustainability efforts.
Skills:
Observational Research
Surveying
Interviewing
Data Analysis & Visualization
Affinity Diagramming
Experience Mapping
Personas
Concept Development
Course:
Research Methods for Design
Team:
Dharini Kamdar
Preet Singh
Shashwat Navandar
Yi-Ting Chen
1. The Problem
Our design research project is dedicated to addressing the “Responsible Consumption and Production” goal outlined in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with a specific focus on Target 12.8: “Promote Universal Understanding of Sustainable Lifestyles.”
According to the United Nations, countries with higher incomes, such as the United States, leave a material footprint that is approximately ten times (per capita) that of low-income countries (United Nations). Our planet is confronted with the imminent reality of resource exhaustion, exacerbated by the continuous rise in population numbers. By the year 2050, it is estimated that we will need three Earths to support our natural resource needs and current lifestyles (One Planet Network). This stark revelation highlights the urgency of our research in identifying and rectifying unsustainable behaviors contributing to resource depletion.
During our initial research, we found the importance of targeting the higher education sector, as it can be responsible for creating “graduates who perpetuate current models of unsustainable behaviors and damaging environmental impacts” (Viqueira). Northeastern University, recognizing its role in leading sustainable practices, has initiated efforts outlined in its Climate Justice Action plan. However, our research seeks to delve into the factors influencing students’ knowledge and actions related to sustainability, specifically ethical consumption and waste management. By examining intricate challenges and obstacles, we seek to develop insights that can guide strategies to amplify the effectiveness of Northeastern’s sustainability initiatives. This endeavor aims to foster a culture of environmental responsibility, not only benefitting the campus community but also contributing to the development of more sustainably conscious decision-makers beyond the university campus.
Central Research Question: What factors in Northeastern students’ lives affect their knowledge and behaviors towards ethical consumption of resources and waste management?
2. The Research
Our research plan began with defining our research objectives, scope, target audience, and timeframe. To ensure a well-informed understanding of sustainable consumption, living, and production, it was essential to conduct a thorough and detailed literature review through articles, papers and references. This entailed an extensive search for existing research and insights, along with critical analysis and documentation of key findings. We followed this with on-ground research through ethnographic observations, online surveys for students, and interviews with sustainability experts and stakeholders.
Observation:
Based on detailed observations at NU’s campus, key patterns and behaviors related to irresponsible consumption and waste management among students emerged. We focused on areas such as Curry Market, Curry Dining Area, Quad areas, and the International Village Dining Hall, revealing unique insights into daily student practices.
A prevalent theme is the widespread use of disposable items like paper and plastic cups, containers, and utensils, contributing significantly to overall waste. Despite efforts in the dining hall to prioritize reusable plates and utensils, nonreusable materials are still commonly used, indicating a lack of university initiative and student complacency.
Improper use of trash bins is a common trend, with observed issues like malfunctioning indicators, and overfilled bins. Despite sustainability signage, student actions suggest a gap between knowledge and behavior, revealing a casual attitude toward discarding items and a lack of awareness of environmental impact.
Observations at the dining hall identified wasteful behavior, including choosing disposable options over reusable ones, discarding large amounts of uneaten food, and contaminating compost bins with paper. Signs promoting sustainable practices were present but not always effective, as evidenced by obscured signs and varying levels of attentiveness among workers.
Despite these observations, it’s crucial to acknowledge that many students demonstrated responsible consumption and waste practices. Nonetheless, the overall findings underscore the need for targeted interventions to align students’ knowledge with their behaviors. The study suggests a disposable culture at Northeastern, emphasizing the importance of increasing awareness about the environmental impact of single-use items, improving waste management, and addressing specific observed behaviors throughout the campus.
Interviews:
We conducted four interviews with sustainability experts from various organizations at NU. Conversations with these stakeholders helped us understand expert perspectives and the challenges faced by different organizations to tackle student challenges and promote sustainable practices all over the campus. It also helped us realize the various initiatives, events and awareness programs undertaken to facilitate ethical practices among the population at NU.
Megan Curtis outlined the university’s sustainability initiatives, emphasizing collaboration with students and practical goals. The Climate Justice and Sustainability Hub focus on a just and regenerative economy, showcasing a holistic approach to sustainability. Curtis discusses challenges in altering student behavior, addressing barriers like cost, convenience, and the transient nature of the student population. She emphasizes education as the primary approach and highlights the practical challenges of waste management on campus, including contamination issues. Curtis also touches on Northeastern’s collaboration with external businesses and initiatives to reduce non-reusable waste, demonstrating ongoing efforts to foster a sustainable campus community.
Meher Khanna, a climate justice fellow, offered a detailed perspective on waste management and sustainable practices at Northeastern University. In her role as the “recycling police,” she emphasizes the need to reduce consumption, expressing concern about the disposable culture on campus. Meher notes student skepticism about the environmental cause’s impact and highlights challenges in effective composting, regional variations in waste habits, and the dual motivations of Northeastern University. She proposes practical solutions, including divestment from fossil fuels and incorporating environmental-related classes into the curriculum, suggesting that Northeastern has the power to enforce more sustainable practices. Pranali Ashara provided insights into CANU’s role in promoting composting and sustainability. The club focuses on dining halls, with established compost bins in several buildings. Pranali acknowledges challenges, including excessive food service practices contributing to waste and misconceptions about food waste biodegradation. Logistical issues with the waste system and budget constraints are recognized as barriers. Pranali suggests expanding the CANU club, increasing student involvement, and finding innovative solutions to enhance composting initiatives. Challenges in engaging residents within residence halls indicate the need for increased outreach and education for fostering a sustainable campus environment.
Orla Molloy draws attention to improper sustainability practices among students, particularly at locations like the International Village and Curry Student Center. She focuses on issues such as food and energy consumption and waste management in dorms and public eating areas. HEAT collaborates with various colleges at Northeastern to raise awareness through educational programs, and Orla is actively involved in integrating sustainability classes with NUPath. She emphasize the negligent behavior of on-campus students living in dorms, noting inefficient energy consumption and widespread food wastage, facilitated by the lack of control and disposal options. She proposes the introduction of more compost bins and effective signage as measures to reduce food wastage. Drawing comparisons with MIT and BU, Orla highlights the convenience of sustainability initiatives at these universities and suggests that Northeastern could improve by implementing similar practices, holding students accountable for their waste, and creating awareness through events and educational programs.
Survey:
We distributed a survey through email, social media, word of mouth, and posters around campus, generating 30 responses, providing initial insights into sustainability practices and perceptions among Northeastern University students. The respondents comprised an almost equal distribution of graduate and undergraduate students, as well as domestic and international students. Over 55% fell within the 21-23 age group, with more than 75% living off-campus. The infographic on the right highlights key insights and statistics related to behaviors and actions of students.
Open-ended responses highlighted diverse actions to reduce material and food consumption, such as mindful eating, creative reuse, and avoiding unnecessary purchases. Challenges included a lack of information, financial constraints, and societal norms, with concerns about recycling system effectiveness. Participation in sustainability events on campus was generally low, with some mentioning engagement in specific activities or organizations. Respondents identified areas for improvement, including better guidance on composting, transparency in fossil fuel investments, and enhanced communication. Recommendations for promoting sustainable choices focused on accessibility, convenience, and aligning initiatives with individual interests. The responses underscore a collective effort to align consumption habits with sustainability, alongside challenges and recommendations for fostering a more eco-friendly campus.
The survey also focused on psychological barriers related to sustainable practices among students. The Dragons of Inaction concept illustrates the complex reasons behind people’s reluctance or inability to address pressing problems like climate change, social injustice, or other significant issues. An important aspect revealed by the survey was the students’ beliefs in the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) versus Dominant Social Paradigm (DSP). People who align with the NEP are more likely to support policies to conserve the environment, whereas the ones who aligned with the DSP reflect the prevailing societal beliefs, values, and norms that often prioritize economic growth, consumerism, and technological progress over environmental concerns.
3. The Analysis and Interpretation
For the analysis and interpretation of our data, we conducted group working sessions to document and identify patterns, themes, and insights, including affinity maps, personas, and user journeys.
Affinity Diagramming:
Each team member contributed by individually noting insights from specific interviews, observations, and survey results on sticky notes. These insights were then organized into themes and categories, resulting in the identification of six main categories: (1) Student Behaviors and Attitudes, (2) Awareness and Education, (3) Bins and Contamination, (4) Challenges for Organizations, (5) Change Needed/Best Practices, and (6) Current Practices. Connections were drawn between these clusters, revealing significant insights. 
Full Affinity Diagram
Highlights
Key takeaways include recognizing cost, convenience, and lack of accountability as primary barriers influencing student behaviors, leading to casual attitudes and a heavy reliance on single-use materials. Despite existing initiatives, there is a notable lack of awareness, education, and information about best practices among students. Issues with contamination in compost and trash bins call for new solutions such as more bins, improved signage, and better functionality. Organizations face the challenge of engaging all students innovatively, not just those already environmentally mindful.
Current university initiatives to encourage sustainability are often ineffective and not universally adopted, with students generally unaware of these practices. To address these challenges, reducing unsustainable practices necessitates solutions like repercussions for irresponsible behavior, increased accessibility of better resources, and strategies for changing student attitudes. The connections drawn highlight the intricate relationship between awareness, student behavior, bin usage, organizational challenges, and the need for effective sustainability practices on campus.
Personas:
To help us understand and empathize with the target audience, our group created 3 user personas informed heavily by the qualitative data that we collected during our interviews, surveys, and observational studies. From this data emerged patterns and trends, which we utilized to identify fictional personas with detailed characterizations complete with names, demographics, memorable quotes, goals and needs, lifestyles, behavior traits and personal themes, as well as various pain points. For our personas, we set a goal to create archetypes that are not only representative of the diversity within the Northeastern student population but also vivid and relatable. We utilized Figma to create the following personas:
Sahil is an international student at Northeastern University. He is environmentally conscious, but he often finds himself navigating confusion due to differences in sustainable practices between his home country and the United States. His goal is to live sustainably, but he faces challenges that arise from a lack of awareness and balancing other responsibilities.
Alex is a domestic student from Massachusetts who prioritizes convenience over sustainable habits, lacking awareness of the environmental impact of choices like improper waste management. With a focus on ease and efficiency, Alex’s persona represents a significant segment of the student population that is not actively engaged in sustainable practices.
Sarah is a domestic undergraduate student deeply involved in sustainability initiatives on campus. She is passionate about environmental causes. Her goals include fostering a culture of sustainability and waste reduction at Northeastern University. Sarah serves as a representation of the environmentally conscious and actively engaged student, offering insights into effective behaviors, attitudes, and strategies for promoting sustainable behaviors on campus.
Experience Journey:
Creating an experience journey map for Alex, the persona who prioritizes convenience over sustainable habits, was a strategic decision aimed at gaining a detailed understanding of a non-environmentally motivated student’s consumption and waste behaviors throughout a typical day. We wanted to uncover pain points, challenges, and opportunities in our target audience’s daily routine, with the goal of informing design decisions that could encourage more sustainable practices. By mapping Alex’s experiences across various stages of a typical day, from morning routines to bedtime, we captured a holistic view of Alex’s interactions with his environment and the choices he makes regarding consumption and waste.
Although formulating actions and touchpoints related to Alex’s unsustainable behaviors was relatively straightforward, understanding his thoughts, emotions, and pain points regarding sustainable practices proved challenging due to his negligence in these aspects. However, this negligence provided unique insights. The team went beyond Alex’s struggles to identify persistent problems affecting many students with similar attitudes, revealing areas of challenges, unmet needs, and potential opportunities for improvement
Full Experience Journey
Highlights
4. The Proposed Solution
How Might We Questions & Ideation:
To begin our ideation session, we formulated “How Might We” questions aimed at framing problem statements and inspiring creative solutions. Carefully keeping these questions open-ended and solution-oriented, we covered topics like increasing awareness, reducing consumption, addressing financial concerns, and seamlessly integrating sustainable choices.
(1) How might we empower students to believe their behaviors have lasting impacts?
(2) How might we reduce/replace single-use material consumption on campus?
These questions target shifting perspectives on sustainability and seek tangible impacts on campus consumption and waste generation.
Because we wanted to address both topics mentioned in our HMW questions, we decided to generate ideas for each question, creating two boards to organize our ideas. After writing down several ideas for each question, we organize them into distinct categories to help identify common themes and help us prioritize them. For our first question about empowering students to feel as though their behaviors and attitudes have long-lasting impact, we had several ideas around more prominent and effective signage, rewards and incentives for sustainable actions, and system/service designs to promote engagement.
For our second question around reducing the consumption of single-use materials on campus, we generated ideas around accessible reusable containers and utensils, system designs and on-campus programs that encourage environmental consciousness, and awareness campaigns.
After organizing these categories, we had a long conversation about which ideas we wanted to move forward with, acknowledging that our solution didn’t have to be an isolated product but could exist as a service utilizing various approaches we identified. We starred ideas that stood out to us which included the following: a large scale intervention (like a screen) showing the impact and weekly evolution of sustainability on campus, discounts for students bringing reusable items, a program that tracks every time a student brings reusable containers to a dining location, and a borrowing system for reusable items.
Below are visualizations we created when trying to formulate our final idea for feedback. It shows the basic structure of our solution, which involves (1) students scanning their husky cards every time they visit a food vendor or store and recording whether they used reusable materials or not; (2) a digital hub that awards each student points for sustainable choices and shows rewards that students can earn by accumulating these points; (3) an installation that showcases collective student efforts and facilitates more engagement. We also observed opportunities for merging these ideas with existing initiatives, such as leveraging the reusable OZZI containers that Northeastern already has and placing them in more accessible stations, as well as utilizing husky card scanners and the existing Sharepoint Student Hub for tracking and rewards.
Feedback:
To collect feedback on our prototype, we presented our lowfidelity models and pamphlet to students at Northeastern. We sought input on strengths, weaknesses, confusions, and ideas. Seven individuals, including 3 undergraduates and 4 graduates, provided feedback. Most found the idea promising, appreciating its sustainability and incentives. Concerns included added wait times and inconvenience of reusable containers, along with questions about sanitization and returns. One student suggested mandating reusable containers, but we explained our gradual approach to raise awareness and acclimate students. Financial constraints also limit providing reusable items to every student currently. Some suggested improvements included clearer processes for obtaining reusable containers, a unified brand for Reuse NU locations, and incentivizing usage by rewarding points upon return. Students generally expressed willingness to participate, except for an off-campus student who doesn’t use on-campus food vendors.
Final Solution:
For our final prototype, we created a concept poster that was higher-fidelity, easier to read, and provided a more thorough explanation of our service. In our original lo-fi, we had several ideas but not many concrete prototypes/visualizations. For this prototype, we focused a lot on defining specific features and how students would interact with them. Based on our feedback, the major improvement trigger we focused on was “Modify.” We adjusted and strengthened many elements of our work, including the selection and point system (i.e. adding the return feature and adjusting points for specific choices), the structure of our rewards system (i.e. creating badges, levels, and specific rewards), and the graphics and components of our digital signage.
The proposed design solution aims to transform the student experience with on-campus vendors by implementing a systemic intervention. This involves integrating a step where students scan their husky cards and indicate their choice to use reusable containers, providing an alternative to the typical single-use materials. Reusable container stations, strategically placed in high-waste on-campus locations, enhance accessibility and address the perceived inconvenience associated with reusable options. The solution builds upon Northeastern University’s existing OZZI container program, extending it to new locations and introducing additional incentives to encourage participation.
The reward system is designed to align with students’ frugal mindset, offering discounts and free items as incentives. To avoid promoting irresponsible consumption, the rewards are structured to require multiple purchases, limiting food and material consumption. Free rewards include items that contribute to reducing single-use waste, such as reusable bags, utensils, and containers. The digital signage component plays a crucial role in informing students about the impact of their choices and fostering environmentally conscious attitudes.
Using infographics to display statistics on reusable versus non-reusable materials creates a sense of contention, encouraging students to support sustainable choices. The signage also transparently communicates the university’s sustainability impact and promotes awareness of the ReuseNU program, particularly targeting unfamiliar students through the bottom section of the signage. Overall, the multifaceted solution addresses behavioral change, convenience, and awareness in promoting sustainable practices on campus.
5. The Conclusion
Although our design solution was formed on considerations most relevant to the current challenges we identified, there is much to consider around how our solution could be modified in the future. One critical question revolves around the necessity of a single-use option, prompting consideration of a complete transition to reusable alternatives. As mentioned in our feedback session, the stages we identified in our solution are for preliminary implementation to get students used to using reusable containers.
The specifics of the design, including the locations of reusable stations, scanners, signage, and sanitation stations, need careful planning. Factors such as accessibility, convenience, and minimal disruption to existing processes are crucial. Design considerations extend to the features of reusable items, borrowing and return processes, reward distribution logistics, and the content of digital signage statistics. Continuous adaptation and refinement are emphasized, with an acknowledgment that the initial implementation will uncover potential flaws and areas for improvement, guiding further adjustments to resonate with students.
Our project stands as a stepping stone for ongoing investigations that seek to deepen our understanding, refine interventions, and collectively contribute to a more sustainable and resilient future. By addressing the intricate challenges associated with responsible consumption and waste management, we have outlined a systematic intervention that not only aims to transform the student experience but also offers insights applicable to broader sustainability efforts. As we navigate the complex landscape of environmental stewardship, the lessons learned from our design solution, obstacles identified, and strategic enhancements proposed can guide future initiatives in fostering a culture of sustainability. Furthermore, the dynamic nature of sustainability challenges necessitates continuous research to adapt strategies, uncover evolving obstacles, and ensure long-term effectiveness.