University Science graduates' environmental perceptions regarding industry

Throughout the last decade, the issue of sustainable development has become a major public debate topic. University science graduates have the potential of playing an important mediatory role in this debate. This is because their scientific vocation not only provides them with scientific knowledge about the core issues involved, but also puts them in the position of occupying key managerial and leadership positions in the industrial community. This study examines whether environmental knowledge plays a part in university science graduates' thinking about industry on an intuitive level and also in their mode of responding to concrete environmental problems. Our findings indicate that most of the graduates do not demonstrate an awareness of the relevance of environmental knowledge to questions connected to industry; furthermore, they do not apply their scientific knowledge-base in contexts related explicitly to environmental aspects of the industrial process.