The study questioned a total 3,750 individuals, gauging behavior on waste, sustainability efforts, shopping habits, transportation and reusing items. The results were weighted to give more credit to behaviors that had immediate and significant impact on the planet (such as using reducing driving, recycling or reducing trash) to small habits that are more indicative of a mindset and non-wasteful approach to life (reusing containers, limiting shower time or saving wrapping paper and ribbons.)
Sample
The survey was conducted through independent research firm Greenfield Online, (formerly Nasdaq:SRVY) and a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft®. The sample of 3,750 respondents was comprised of approximately 150 respondents from each of the 25 largest cities in the U.S., using standard DMA rankings.
Index
The America’s Least Wasteful City index was developed through a scoring system based on respondents’ answers to 23 questions that gauged wasteful or non-wasteful behaviors and actions. Each question was answered using a scale of 1 to 10, where 1= never and 10 = always (as it related to each behavior or action).
The answers for each question was calculated with a point-value giving to each answer based on the same 10-point scale. To derive the average answer for each question for a particular city, the number of respondents for each response was multiplied by the corresponding value (1-10), and then divided by the number of total respondents for that city. The result is the “unweighted” score for each question:
The average of all 23 questions was then used to derive the overall unweighted score for each city.
Weighted Scores
To provide a better gauge of wastefulness or non-wastefulness, questions were then weighted, reasoning that some actions are have a higher influence on waste or overall impact on the environment. Each question was assigned a value of 1, 5, 10 or 25 by which the unweighted score was multiplied, providing the final, weighted score:
| 1 |
Minimal impact behavior |
(e.g. Reusing wrapping paper) |
| 5 |
Low impact |
(e.g. Turning water off when brushing teeth) |
| 10 |
Moderate impact |
(e.g. Energy efficient light bulbs, reusable bottles) |
| 15 |
High impact |
(e.g. Recycling) |
| 25 |
Extremely high impact |
(e.g. Taking public transportation) |
Scoring Range
The ALWC Index is based on a scoring system with a potential individual high score of 2120 (all answers value “10” x weighting multipliers) and a low individual score of 212 (all answers value “1” x weighting multipliers).
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