Environmental literacy of undergraduate college students: Development of the environmental literacy instrument (ELI)

As the world population continues to increase and natural resources become limited, environmental education (EE) in universities play an essential role in developing environmentally literate. This study measured the environmental literacy (EL) levels (familiar knowledge, factual knowledge, attitude, behavior) of undergraduate college students. Measuring EL on a scale of 0-100%, undergraduate students scored 52%, indicating that they are not environmentally literate. Students had somewhat high attitudes (63%) but low levels of familiar knowledge (40%), factual knowledge (56%), and behavior (44%). College years are brief and formative; therefore, EE should be infused within university curricula in order to increase EL levels of students, who are future policy makers, voters, business people, and teachers.