Welcome to EcoTypes! Below are some answers to the questions we frequently hear. If others, feel free to fill out the question form. Or, would you like to go deeper with EcoTypes?
I haven’t heard of EcoTypes before; please give me the basics.
EcoTypes is an educational and research initiative launched in 2017 by Prof. Jim Proctor of Lewis & Clark College in Portland, OR (USA). EcoTypes offers a free, anonymous survey, customized survey report, and online learning resources to explore our environmental worldviews, and how engagement over our differing EcoTypes may be a source of creativity vs. conflict. As of 2023, over 10,000 participants have completed the EcoTypes survey.
EcoTypes builds on the possibility that many of us care, just differently, about environmental issues. Our world is full of difference and debate: how might we better navigate this divided world, to work together toward environmental progress while fully honoring these differences? The first step involves exploring our EcoTypes: our differing environmental worldviews. EcoTypes offers resources to better understand our differences, and to engage with people whose EcoTypes may be like or unlike ours.
There are many good initiatives today that address our divided world. EcoTypes is unique in several ways: (a) it explores difference in an environmental context; (b) it offers a systematic, empirically grounded approach to environmental difference; and (c) rather than seek agreement, consensus, or compromise—all noble if unreachable goals—EcoTypes seeks to build on difference as a resource toward environmental progress.
Can you give me information about the EcoTypes survey before I complete it?
The anonymous EcoTypes survey, available in English and major European languages, is quite detailed, so please allow about 30 minutes to take it. You will mark your level of agreement or disagreement with 24 environmental statements, complete a global priorities page based on U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, and optionally provide anonymous background information to help us understand patterns in responses.
The wording of many of the environmental statements in the survey is intentionally strong, to suggest differing approaches to environmental issues. There are no right or wrong answers!
If you are taking the survey as part of a group or a course, you will select a group code toward the end. You also have an opportunity to enter your email address if you wish to participate in a confidential followup interview.
A few moments after you submit the survey, you’ll receive a customized report, including an overview to help you understand your axis, theme, and EcoType results. The report has a code you can enter if you wish to retrieve it any time in future.
I’m an instructor. Where can I get more information?
See the Instructor FAQ for basic information on using EcoTypes in your course, and feel free to submit a question at any time.
Tell me more about the _____ on this website!
The EcoTypes website is a WordPress site, with most graphics and site content/layout/programming by Jim Proctor. Summary information on axes, themes, and EcoTypes was constructed using the Toolset suite of CPT plugins. The EcoTypes survey was constructed using Formidable Forms, with background numerical calculations following a simplified methodology based on statistical analysis of thousands of responses to date.
The colors used on the EcoTypes site are a combination of the green that was used extensively on the original EcoTypes site, and the orange and blue that have been used in past on the Lewis & Clark College website. They are also used to signify the three EcoTypes themes of place (green), knowledge (blue), and action (orange).
There is some capitalization that deviates from standard usage. In general, each axis, theme, or EcoType is capitalized (e.g., Aesthetics, Place, or Traditional Ways) to denote its particular meaning on the EcoTypes site.
The EcoTypes site, survey, and other resources are available in English and other European languages, with more languages possible depending on international interest. The automatic translations use Google Neural Machine technology, via the GTranslate plugin.
The EcoTypes site and translations are fully GDPR compatible, using only a minimal number of cookies and following data privacy regulations. Visitors to the site are presented with a CookieYes popup asking them to review/accept site cookies, per GDPR requirements.
The front page image, and the image used on Going Deeper sections, were developed from publicly-available Ansel Adams photographs, including “The Tetons and the Snake River” (1942), and “McDonald Lake, Glacier National Park” (1942).