I am asking you to participate in a research study titled “Cost Benefit Analysis of Composting on Small Liberal Arts College Campuses”. I will describe this study to you and answer any of your questions. This study is being led by Jacqueline Britton, an economics student at Lafayette College. The Faculty Advisor for this study is Dr. Hongxing Liu, Department of Economics at Lafayette College This study is being funded by a student research grant from Lafayette College.

The purpose of this research is to calculate a cost-benefit analysis of the composting programs at Lafayette College. If successful, this research can be used to demonstrate that composting programs can be financially sustainable and beneficial over time as a strategy for waste reduction and environmental stewardship. This study could also serve as a model for similar institutions seeking to enhance their sustainability efforts through compost, fostering a culture of sustainability in higher education.

I will ask you to answer questions about these programs and your engagement with them. This survey will take approximately 5 minutes to complete.

I anticipate that your participation in this survey presents no greater risk than everyday use of the Internet.

As a reward for entering this survey you will have an opportunity to enter a lottery for $50 equivalent in gifts. 7 eligible participants will be selected. Email is required for entry. Emails will be stored separately from data collected through the survey and deleted once the gifts have been distributed. Data collected from this study will be de-identified.

Data is stored securely on a personal computer and within a personal account only accessible to the primary researcher. Your confidentiality will be kept to the degree permitted by the technology being used. We cannot guarantee against interception of data sent via the internet by third parties.

We will do our best to keep your participation in this research study confidential to the extent permitted by law; however, it is possible that other people may need to review the research records and may find out about your participation in this study. For example, the following people/groups may check and copy records about this research:
· The Office for Human Research Protections in the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services
· The research study sponsor, Lafayette College
· Lafayette College’s Institutional Review Board (a committee that reviews and approves research studies) and the Office for Research Integrity and Assurance

Please note that email communication is neither private nor secure. Though I am taking precautions to protect your privacy, you should be aware that information sent through e-mail could be read by a third party.

De-identified data from this study may be shared with the research community at large to advance the fields of economics and environmental sciences. We will remove or code any personal information that could identify you before files are shared with other researchers to ensure that, by current scientific standards and known methods, no one will be able to identify you from the information we share. Despite these measures, we cannot guarantee anonymity of your personal data. Identifiers might be removed and the de-identified information used for future research without additional consent.

Your involvement is voluntary. You may refuse to participate before the study begins, discontinue at any time, or skip any questions/procedures that may make you feel uncomfortable.

The main researcher conducting this study is Jacqueline Britton, a student at Lafayette College. If you have questions, you may contact Jacqueline at brittonj@lafayette.edu. If you have any questions or concerns regarding your rights as a subject in this study, you may contact the Institutional Review Board (IRB) for Human Participants at irb@lafayette.edu or access their website at https://irb.lafayette.edu/.