Environmental attitudes and recycling behaviour of architects in New Zealand

Abstract

The use of reclaimed and recycled building materials is considered a pro-environmental behaviour and studying the factors that influence this is a first step towards establishing such behaviour. It is therefore essential to understand how pro-environmental behaviours develop. This article investigates the relationships between the influential factors on behaviours that help reduce waste in the construction industry, focussing on New Zealand architects. The study utilizes an online questionnaire based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), which is made up of attitude, subjective norm, intention, and perceived behavioural control. The study reveals that the attitudes, intentions and perceived behavioural control of architects are strong predictors of pro-environmental behaviour while the subjective norm is a weak predictor. Knowledge of architects about regulations and certificates related to recycled materials will influence the pro-environmental practices. One of the obstacles in this way is the attitude of people and architects can play an important role in changing it. These findings show that architects need to be informed about related regulations and educated about different ways of integrating these materials.