Prof. Charles Trautmann has made quite a journey from engineering to studying childhood development and its link to environmental behavior. With a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Cornell, Trautmann spent 26 years directing the Sciencenter, a children’s science museum. His time there sparked a passion for early childhood education and climate awareness.
Trautmann noticed that discussions about climate change were growing. As a child, he loved the outdoors, fueled by his family’s camping trips. This personal background drove his curiosity about how early experiences shape our environmental attitudes as adults. “How do people learn about science and the environment?” he often pondered.
After retiring from the Sciencenter in 2017, he delved deeper into child development at the Rachel Carson Center in Germany. There, he aimed to find out how childhood experiences affect adult environmental behavior. His goal is to identify activities that promote a positive connection between people and nature, hoping to combat climate change.
Trautmann emphasizes the importance of understanding which early interactions with nature can impact adults. “If nature camps or forest preschools really influence people, we need to do more of that,” he explained. The idea is simple: identify and replicate the successful experiences that help shape environmentally conscious adults.
Early in his research, Trautmann found that traditional methods—like longitudinal studies, which track individuals for decades—were impractical for his questions. Similarly, retrospective studies relied on unreliable memories from adults about their childhood. Thus, he developed a new approach: the “Folded Longitudinal” method. This method surveys parents about their children’s early experiences to discover developmental factors influencing adult behaviors.
The method also evaluates each adult’s carbon footprint using a tool called the “Personal Climate Profile” (PCP). This index, created by Trautmann and his undergraduate team, asks simple questions about energy use, transportation, and diet—key contributors to an individual’s carbon emissions.
Research shows that simple tips, like turning off lights, often overshadow more impactful behaviors, like how big your home is or how much energy it uses. RJ Ho, a student working with Trautmann, noted that refining the PCP is challenging but crucial for balancing ease of use with accuracy.
Currently, the research group is working on methods to efficiently gather enough responses to survey parents. Preliminary results from the PCP indicate that many factors influence a person’s environmental impact. Ho’s ongoing study of nearly 600 participants found that a person’s concern for the environment didn’t always correlate with lower carbon emissions, suggesting that political approaches alone may not be enough to drive meaningful change.
Ho stressed the need for behavioral strategies that reward positive actions rather than just urging people to support environmental causes. Trautmann aims to conduct more extensive studies with the PCP over the next year, seeking to better understand what drives carbon footprints in adulthood.
“We could discover insights that might influence climate change,” Trautmann said. “I can’t just sit back. This is my way to make a difference.”
By connecting childhood experiences to environmental behavior, Trautmann is paving the way for new approaches to tackle one of the most pressing issues of our time.
