19. A Social Media Environmental Awareness Campaign to Promote Sustainable Practices in Educational Environments

This paper examines the impact of a social media campaign on the environmental awareness of staff members in a Higher Education Institution (HEI). The campaign was designed based on a theoretical model and implemented in a case study of a South African HEI. A centralised website together with selected social media formed the technological foundation of the campaign. Throughout the campaign information about environmental management was distributed by means of these technologies to selected staff members in the case study. Issues related to environmental management as well as suggested strategies to deal with them was also communicated to the staff members. In order to determine the growth of knowledge related to environmental issues and to get feedback on the campaign benefits and problems, surveys and interviews were conducted at regular periods throughout the campaign. The findings revealed that the campaign had many positive benefits, particularly for promoting environmental awareness. The limitations of the study are the small sample size which could be addressed by future research.