This paper was presented at the annual conference of the Eastern Communication Association, 2018, in Pittsburgh, PA. Please do not use without permission of the authors, and proper citation.

1. COMMUNICATIVE WORK TO
ENACT ENVIRONMENTAL
SUSTAINABILITY AT AN URBAN
UNIVERSITY
Erika Thrubis • Ariel Achatz
Kevin Hardges • Jason Revoir
Rahul Mitra
ECA
April 26,
2018

2. RATIONALE
Organizational communication researchers
have examined the implementation of
environmental sustainability, in terms of
decision-making, stakeholder engagement, and
meaning-making. (Allen, 2016; Allen et al., 2012; Ganesh & Zoller,
2014; Ihlen, 2009; O’Connor & Gronewold, 2013; Mitra, 2013; 2016; Mitra &
Buzzanell, 2015, 2017; 2018; Smith & Norton, 2013)
Communication does more than transfer
information or connect people; it also “does”
work, through communicative labor. (Donovan-
Kicken et al., 2011; Fyke & Buzzanell, 2013; Healey, 1993; Rennstam & Ashcraft,
2014)
Despite their key role shaping the community,
universities have rarely been examined by
organizational communication or management
scholars.
 Community engagement; access to cutting-edge
technology; ties with policymakers; role educating
future generations

3. RESEARCH QUESTION
How does an urban university
communicatively enact sustainability
on the ground?
recycling food waste
energy
conservation
transportation

4. METHOD
Research Site
 Urban university in the U.S.
Midwest, located in city of
700,000 residents
 20,000 students, 15 colleges
 Engaged by Campus
Sustainability
Data Collection
 25 interviews with students,
faculty, staff, and partner
representatives
 Interviews lasted 22 min. on
average; 157 pages (single-
spaced) in total
 Supplementary texts:
Manuals, white papers,
strategic plans, brochures, &
flyers
Data Analysis
 Qualitative content analysis
(Mayring, 2000), utilizing
diverse scrutiny techniques
and sorting to identify and
rearrange themes (Ryan &
Bernard, 2003)
 Repetition, recurrence,
forcefulness, data-driven
categories, theory-related
categories
 15 primary codes in two
broad categories: action
tactics, and communicative
practices

5. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
Participants described the university’s
sustainability work in terms of 8 Action
Tactics and 7 Communicative Practices. The
action tactics were not unique to any one
area of work (viz., recycling, food waste,
energy, transportation).
Action Tactics were foregrounded more than
Communicative Practices, which came up in
the background or as a related theme.
Nevertheless, they were closely connected, so
that action tactics depended crucially on the
communicative practices.

6. Sustainability is managing resources, so that you’ll be
able to maintain them into the future. [University] looks
at economics, and how it affects the bottom-line.
Another driver is that some folks are concerned with
social justice, to make sure that the campus is a good
corporate citizen, good educational institution, and
steward of the environment… There’s a few different
perspectives on campus. Because my job is under
Facilities, it’s important for me to look at the economics
[not just environmental issues], energy to waste
production to alternative transportation -- looking at our
processes to make sure we’re operating in the most
efficient and effective way possible.
INTERSECTING ACTION AND
COMMUNICATION
Peter, Campus Sustainability Director

7. Planning
Target low-hanging
fruit
Pilot testing
Customization
Training
Adopt advanced
technologies
Community
service
Curbing waste
Compensating for lost resources
Reusing resources“Smart”
consumption
ActionTactics

8. EXAMPLE OF “PILOT-TESTING”
 Pilot testing necessary to gauge the chances of
success and potential obstacles.
 Reporting and listening are crucial for pilot-testing
here.
Timothy, Director of Business Operations and
Auxiliary Facilities
“[The plan is to] put in all new
floor structures, shower heads,
faucet heads, and CPL light bulbs
throughout one whole building,
to do a test on that and see how
well it works. Then, if it turns out
the way we expect it to, I'm going
to roll that out to all housing
buildings.”

9. CommunicativePractices
Reporting
Listening
Designing
FAQs
Campaigning
Expanding network
Guiding
stakeholders
Empowering
stakeholders

10. “[We need] for both the community directors and
upper-level administration to become clearer on
what is available in the building, in terms of
monitoring consumption use. So, if we're trying
to do a hall competition, that's something that
can be tracked and monitored. Students can
actively see what their footprint is.”
EXAMPLE OF “REPORTING”
 Reporting key for planning and pilot-testing here,
but widely recognized to be inadequate; Needed to
be more than one-way communication
Ron, Campus Housing Community
Director

11. DISCUSSION
Examination of sustainability efforts by
organizations in the higher education sector,
from an organizational communication
perspective attuned to diverse internal and
external stakeholders.
Concept of communicative labor helps
unpack how sustainability work is actually
“done” through intersecting action tactics
and communicative practices.
Suggests layered meaning-making,
depending on stakeholders interacting and
context of work, since the tactics were not

12. THANK YOU
erika.thrubis@wayne.edu |
rahul.mitra@wayne.edu