Attitudes towards sustainable development: Habits, choices and awareness : A field study of Cuban university students’ and professors’ everyday life concerning sustainable development

Sammanfattning: In 2006, Cuba was the only country in the world that met the criteria for sustainable development as defined by World Wildlife Fund. To solve some environmental issues, it is necessary to investigate environmental behaviour and attitudes among the Cuban population. The aim of this thesis was to examine the attitudes towards sustainable development among a selected group in the Cuban society and what individual factors that may have contributed. The selected group that was investigated contained students and professors from the University of Cienfuegos. The study was performed as a fieldwork in Cienfuegos and the collected data was received through a questionnaire and interviews at the University of Cienfuegos. The questionnaire was distributed to students and professors at the university and six individual interviews were held with different professors to get a deeper insight on the subject. The collected data was analysed through a theoretical framework based on factors that influence an individual’s environmental behaviour. There are many external factors that contribute to the sustainable development in Cuba. The investigated group does not make many conscious choices in their everyday life to live sustainably and the extent of conscious choices are low. Economic restrictions are a central factor for both low consumption and small emissions from transportation. The US embargo has had a great influence on the current situation as well.