Gauging Affective Environmental Sustainability Attributes for Calibrating Green Consumer Behaviour among Students: A Consumer Focused Approach to Sustainability in Higher Education

Abstract

Multifaceted solutions have been identified in several fields and sectors for confronting the sustainability issues. The integration of sustainability in Higher Education (HE) has always aimed at creating dynamic responsible citizens capacitated to analyse, develop and act with high degree of autonomy and determination for addressing the issues of sustainability. In a purely consumerist state like Kerala, a southernmost state in India, education for green consumerism can be considered as one of the important panacea for addressing environmental sustainability issues. Therefore, this paper intends to examine how far the Affective Environmental Sustainability Attributes (Attitudes, Values and Dispositions) have influenced in adopting sustainable lifestyles among undergraduate students of Kerala. For comprehending this, a survey was conducted by administering questionnaires to a representative sample of 250 undergraduate students of colleges in Kerala. Stepwise Multiple Regression Analysis was carried out to analyse the data statistically to derive at valid and generalisable conclusions. The analysis revealed that Affective Environmental Sustainability Attributes significantly predicted the Green Consumer Behaviour of undergraduate students. Hence, it is imperative to embed the principles of learning for sustainability with a consumer focused approach in the curriculum for fostering Green Consumer Behaviour among the students of Higher Education. This should encompass all the domains of learning with specific emphasis on the aspects of affective environmental sustainability attributes across the disciplines paving way for a sustainable community.