Abstract
This study examined the prevalence and clustering patterns of pro-environmental behaviors that are conducive to socially and environmentally sustainable living among Canadians. Cross-sectional data from the 2015 Households and the Environment Survey (HES) were used. Prevalence was calculated by province and each pro-environmental behavior. Observed/expected prevalence ratios were computed to assess clustering patterns and logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the pairwise associations. Among 8816 Canadian households, prevalence of engaging in pro-environmental behaviors ranked as the following: engaging in green consumer behavior (88%), composting food/yard waste (84%), being active outdoors (82%), gardening (72%), and recycling electronics (45%). While only 14% engaged in ≤2 pro-environmental behaviors, 25.1% of Canadians engaged in all pro-environmental behaviors. By province, British Columbia was the greenest province (81%), followed by Ontario (77%) and Nova Scotia (76.9%) while the least green provinces were Newfoundland and Labrador (62.9%), Saskatchewan (69.2%), and New Brunswick (68%). The most apparent clustering of behaviors was found between recycling electronics and gardening (Observed/Expected: 3.65, 95% CI: 1.98–5.32). Pairwise associations between any two pro-environmental behaviors were statistically significant for all possible combinations (Odds ratios ranged 1.23–2.24). Prevalence of engaging in different sets of pro-environmental behaviors varied greatly by province. Sub-optimal clustering of pro-environmental behaviors and varying pairwise synergetic associations were observed in Canadian households. To promote more holistic, sustainable lifestyles and create sociocultural environments that are conducive to the environment in the era of climate change, future work should investigate barriers and opportunities in adopting more pro-environmental behaviors in Canadian households.
Highlights
Canada is one of the largest producers of greenhouse gases (GHG) pollution per capita in the world [1]
With anthropogenic climate change becoming a more pressing issue, recent climate assessment reports such as the IPCC [3] and scholarly work have begun to use the term “climate change adaptive behavior” [10,11,12], which is defined as any behavior individuals can engage in to buffer the hazardous impacts of climate change [10] that leads to dual benefits of climate change mitigation and sustainability [3]
Among 14,939 households that participated in the interview, 8816 households provided complete information on the key variables, and formed the analytical sample for the analyses
Summary
Canada is one of the largest producers of greenhouse gases (GHG) pollution per capita in the world [1]. There are upstream drivers that led to climate change such as the capitalist economic model and industry activities [2], as well as household-generated GHG [3]. While much emphasis is put on the upstream efforts in reducing GHG emissions such as developing renewable energy and rethinking about the capitalist economic model [3,6,7], radically transforming the dominant consumption-oriented societies is simultaneously needed to avoid serious social and environmental upheaval. PEBs include responsibly engaging with outdoors or recycling household waste and recycling and can be adaptive responses to the impact of climate change such as purchasing sustainable products (e.g., local food, green cleaning products), conserving water or energy, or changing travel modes (e.g., from driving to walking or cycling) to buying an electric vehicle or building an off-grid home [8,9,10,11]. Previous literature suggested that PEBs, as part of climate change adaptive behavior, may positively contribute to environmental sustainability [13]
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