HIGH POINT, N.C., April 16, 2012 – With Earth Week being honored across the country this week, the HPU Poll has found that the environment and increasing sustainable practices are on the minds of North Carolina residents. According to the most recent poll, North Carolinians are increasing their efforts to recycle and make their homes more energy efficient at a time when only three percent of residents say the environment is currently in “excellent” condition.
How would you rate the condition of the natural environment in the world today?
Excellent – 3 percent
Good – 24 percent
Fair – 43 percent
Poor – 19 percent
Very Poor – 8 percent
Don’t know/refused – 3 percent
Have you, personally, taken any steps this year to make your home more energy efficient, or not?
Yes – 72 percent
No – 26 percent
Don’t know/refused – 3 percent
Thinking generally about your recycling behavior, would you say that you recycle more or less this year than you did last year?
More – 58 percent
Less – 11 percent
About the same as last year – 30 percent
Don’t know/refused – 2 percent
Some conservation methods being taken by North Carolinians aren’t only due to environmental concerns, but also rising gas prices, the HPU Poll found. Not only did 55 percent say they had cut back on household spending due to a spike in oil prices, but 64 percent said they were seriously considering buying a more fuel efficient vehicle, and 61 percent said they had cut back significantly on driving.
“Majorities of North Carolinians say they are working to conserve resources at a time when they are both concerned about the environment for its own sake and squeezed by an economy that makes reducing costs even more important,” says Sadie Leder, assistant director of the HPU Poll. “The Earth Week message is that North Carolinians are focused on these issues.”
The High Point University Survey Research Center fielded the survey from March 19-22 and March 24-29. The responses came from 507 adults with landline and cellular telephones in North Carolina selected by a Random Digit Dial (RDD) method giving the survey a margin of sampling error of approximately 4.4 percentage points. For smaller subsamples the margin of sampling error is larger. In addition to sampling error, factors such as question wording and other methodological choices in conducting survey research can introduce additional error into the findings of opinion polls.
Further results and methodological details from the survey and can be found at the Survey Research Center website, http://src.highpoint.edu/ or from Dr. Martin Kifer, the center’s director, at [email protected] or 336-841-9333.
You can follow the HPU Poll on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/SurveyResearchCenter and Twitter at http://twitter.com/HPUSurveyCenter.
At High Point University, every student receives an extraordinary education in an inspiring environment with caring people.℠ HPU, located in the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina, is a liberal arts institution with over 4,200 undergraduate and graduate students at campuses in High Point and Winston-Salem. It is ranked by US News and World Report at No. 3 among Regional Colleges in the South. Parade Magazine lists HPU in the top 25 private schools in the nation. HPU was selected in the 2010-2011 list of “Colleges of Distinction,” as well as one of the top green schools in the country by the Sierra Club. The university offers 44 undergraduate majors, 40 undergraduate minors and 10 graduate degree programs. It is a member of the NCAA, Division I and the Big South Conference. Visit High Point University on the Web at highpoint.edu.
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Pam Haynes
Communication Specialist
336-841-9055
[email protected]