Towards Sustainable Minds and Workplaces: Linking Environmental Knowledge to Employee Well‐Being Through Attitude, Awareness, Consciousness and Employee Ecological Behaviour

Purpose – The primary aim of this quantitative survey research is to explore the connection between environmental education, participation in environ-mental programs or actions, and the enhancement of pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors in individuals. In light of global challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation, under-standing how education and active engagement can promote sustainability is increasingly crucial. This study aims to determine whether exposure to environmental education and participation in environmental actions can influence individuals’ environmental consciousness and encourage more sustainable practices. Design/Methodology/Approach – The study sample consisted of 2,687 Greek consumers, aged 18 to 29 years. This age group was specifically chosen to capture insights from young adults, who are key to future sustainability efforts. The Mann-Whitney non-parametric test was used to analyze potential differences in environmental awareness among participants who had received environmental education and those who had participated in environmental programs. The survey gathered responses related to specific actions, dailyhabits, and individual choices to assess the level of environmental consciousness among the participants. The research method focused on determining how environmental education and participation in programs impacted behaviors related to sustainability.Findings – The findings of this survey indicate that individuals who received environmental education in school are more likely to consider the environmental consequences of their purchasing decisions. Furthermore, those who have participated in environmental programs or actions were more inclined to adopt pro-environmental behaviors, such as reducing waste, conserving energy, and opting for sustainable products. Additionally, the analysis revealed that participants aged 26–29 demonstrated higher environmentalconsciousness than their younger counterparts aged 18–21, suggesting that environmental awareness increases with age and experience. Originality – This study contributes to the body of research on environmental education and sustainability by highlighting the significant role that both education and active participation in environmental initiatives play in fostering environmental awareness. It emphasizes the importance of these factors in encouraging sustainable behaviors and helping create a more sustainable andeco-conscious society. Design/Methodology/Approach – The sample involved 2,687 Greek consumers aged 18 to 29 years. The non-parametric Mann–Whitney test was used to explore possible differences in the environmental consciousness of the research participants in relation to whether they have been taught environmental education at school and/or they have participated in an environmental program or action in the past. The survey participants were asked to respond regarding the frequency of specific actions and daily habits, which frame their environmental consciousness and awareness. The questionnaire included behaviors such as recycling, reducing water and energy use, and choosing eco-friendly products. A multiple linear regression analysis was also conducted to assess the effect of age and other factors on environmental attitudes and actions. Findings – The results of this survey showed that the people who have been taught about environmental education at school are more likely to consider the environmental impact of the products they buy, while those who have participated in environmental programs or actions adopt more consistent pro-environmental behaviors. These include limiting single-use plastics and supporting sustainability-related initiatives. Furthermore, through the multiple linear regression analysis, it was found that the participants aged 26–29 have an increased environmental consciousness compared to the participants aged 18–21, possibly due to increased maturity, life experience, and exposure to sustainability-related information. Originality – This survey adds to the existing literature on environmental education and sustainability by highlighting the importance of environmental education and participation in environmental programs or actions towards increasing environmental consciousness and awareness and building a sustainable society. It underscores the necessity of incorporating structured environmental education within formal curricula and promoting active participation through community-based programs.

Background and Purpose: A growing body of evidence confirms that employee ecological behaviour (EEB) is the most critical factor indicating organisational competitive advantage and environmental performance. The present study identifies and explores the green competencies required at the workplace to perform ecological behaviour. No prior study has explored the required green competencies from employees at the workplace in higher education institutions to the researchers’ knowledge. Design/Methodology/Approach: The research utilises the data generated from eighteen comprehensive interviews with the top five Malaysian green universities’ employees. The study adopted the content analysis approach to explore contextually relevant competencies required for EEB in the workplace. Results: Six main green competencies, namely environmental awareness, environmental attitude, environmental knowledge, environmental consciousness, green mindfulness, and green ability, were generated from the analysis supporting ecological behaviour at the workplace. Conclusion: This research explored the required green competencies of employees to be environmental-friendly in the workplace by investigating the previously neglected domain required in the workplace. The research offers practical implications to universities and human resources (HR) to adopt accountabilities for an organisation to be environmentally sustainable. The recruitment committee and top management of higher education institutions should accentuate an environmental stance and green competencies in job descriptions to entice applicants with an environment-friendly mentality.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to find out how much influence nursing students’ environmental consciousness and knowledge of medical waste have on their attitudes toward medical waste. Methods: The subjects were 211 nursing students recruited from 2 universities. Data were collected with a structured self-report questionnaire comprising measures of environmental consciousness, and knowledge of and attitude toward medical waste. Data analysis was conducted with the SPSS/WIN 25.0 program. Results: A total of 211 copies of the questionnaire were used for the final analysis, except for 9 untrusted responses out of 220 that included missing values. Those subjects’ environmental consciousness who received environmental education in middle and high schools was higher (t=3.15, p=.002). The higher their grades, the better their knowledge of medical waste (F=3.40, p=.035). Those subjects’ knowledge of medical waste who received medical waste education was relatively high (t=3.14, p=.002). Those subjects with clinical practice experience had more sensitive attitudes toward medical waste (t=2.06, p=.041). Those subjects’ attitudes toward Medical waste who received medical waste education at the universities were relatively high (t=2.04, p=.043). The subjects’ environmental consciousness was positively correlated with their attitudes toward medical waste (r=.44, p<.001). The most influential factor in their attitudes toward medical waste is their environmental attitudes and medical waste education. Conclusion: The higher the nursing students’ environmental consciousness, the higher their attitudes toward medical waste. It is necessary to provide environment and medical waste education for nursing students in order to strengthen their environmental consciousness and attitude toward medical waste.

Objective – This research aimed to investigate potential disparities between genders in Croatia regarding their pro-environmental attitudes and mindsets, focusing on understanding how gender influences individuals' environmental consciousness and support for sustainable practices. This paper presents an empirical study utilizing survey data to examine gender differences in environmental attitudes and behaviors. Methodology – It contributes to the field of environmental sociology by exploring the role of gender in shaping individuals' responses to environmental challenges, with implications for policy development and sustainability initiatives. By employing an online survey via snowball sampling, a total of 263 adult participants from Croatia were recruited for the study. Closed-ended questions on a Likert scale measured respondents' attitudes towards recycling, waste sorting, environmental protection urgency, and health impacts of environmental issues. Findings – The findings in this research indicate that gender plays a role in influencing individuals' environmental attitudes and behaviors, with significant gender-based variations in environmental consciousness. Women exhibit higher levels of concern for environmental issues, stronger support for recycling policies, and a more positive outlook on the health implications of ecological problems. This study provides valuable insights into the connection between gender and environmentalism in Croatia, making significant contributions to existing literature. Moreover, it offers implications for the development of policies targeting environmental management and recognizing the need to influence the environmental behavior of each gender. By focusing on gender disparities in pro-environmental behaviors, the study offers new insights into the connection between gender and environmentalism, emphasizing the need for gender-sensitive approaches to environmental policymaking and intervention. Novelty – The research aims to deepen our understanding of the intersection between gender and environmental attitudes, highlighting the importance of incorporating gender-specific perspectives into efforts to promote sustainable behaviors, address environmental challenges, and foster more environmentally conscious societies in Croatia and beyond. Type of Paper: Empirical JEL Classification: F64, J16, Q54, Q56 Keywords: environmental attitudes, sustainability, eco-awareness, environmental behavior Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Mandarić, D; Hunjet, S.A. (2024). Gender Disparities in Pro-Environmental Attitudes: Implications for Sustainable Business Practices in Croatia, J. Bus. Econ. Review, 9(1), 73–84. https://doi.org/10.35609/jber.2024.9.1(4)

This study examines the reasons why Generation Z chooses to engage in green travel behavior (GTB). It investigates the role of environmental consciousness, environmental attitude, and green self‐efficacy in influencing GTB, using self‐determination theory (SDT) as a framework. The study uses survey data from a diverse group of Generation Z individuals to reveal insights into the factors that influence sustainable travel decisions. The findings emphasize the importance of key factors in driving GTB among Generation Z. Environmental consciousness is a key predictor of GTB, and it influences GTB through its mediating effect on environmental attitude. Green self‐efficacy also plays a significant moderating role, strengthening the relationship between environmental consciousness and GTB. By shedding light on the interplay of these motivational factors, the study makes theoretical contributions to the literature on sustainable travel behavior and SDT. These insights can help policymakers develop interventions that promote intrinsic motivation; nurture environmental values and empower Generation Z to be leaders in sustainable travel, shaping a greener and more responsible future of travel.

The strong growth in air travel raises the question of environmental awareness among air travellers. This article focuses on the exclusion of serious environmental problems of international air travel from the air travellers’ environmental consciousness. It approaches this question, in particular, by exploring international work‐related air travel in two Danish knowledge organizations. The article identifies that the knowledge workers, in general, consider themselves as environmentally aware. However, there is no connection between their environmental attitude and their actual travel behaviour. The article shows that a number of other rationalities seem to affect the travel behaviour more strongly than environmental attitude. Subsequently by reviewing other studies, the article describes how the exclusion of air travel from the environmental consciousness is not only the case among knowledge workers but also seems to be a general problem in relation to flying in modern societies. In the discussion and conclusion, the article therefore focuses on the possibility of creating a stronger link between air travel behaviour and environmental attitude.

This study examines the influence of sustainable architectural design on promoting environmental consciousness inside higher education institutions via education, behavior, and organizational frameworks. This research utilizes a quantitative methodology to examine the influence of sustainable architecture design on environmental consciousness among students, teachers, and staff in higher education institutions. The research used a standardized questionnaire sent via Google Forms, with closed-ended questions centered on environmental awareness and attitudes towards sustainability. The study's results disclose some critical insights about the correlation between sustainable design methods and environmental consciousness. The findings indicate that sustainable architectural designs might enhance environmental consciousness in higher education institutions. The research emphasizes the need to integrate sustainable materials, energy-efficient technology, and green areas into architectural design to enhance environmental consciousness and well-being.

This study examines the relationship between environmental consciousness (constituents of environmental awareness, environmental concern, and environmental attitude), perceived value, and purchasing behaviour for green personal care products among employees working in the petroleum industry in Malaysia. This study adopted a quantitative research design, and 94 respondents provided the data through structured questionnaires that were administered to executive-level employees in three major petroleum companies in Malaysia. The findings showed definite relationships exist between purchasing behaviour and environmental awareness, concern, and attitude. However, the proposed mediating role of value was not substantiated. This finding suggests that while employees with an environmentally conscious inclination do purchase green personal care products, the perceived value does not at all impact or qualitatively explain this behaviour.&lt;p&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt; Article visualizations:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/-counters-/soc/0423/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

The present investigation is essentially a descriptive study on Attitude and Awareness about Environment and Attitude towards Environmental Education of High and Higher School students in India. The study is conducted with the following purpose. To study the levels and to compare the Environmental Attitude, Environmental Awareness and Attitude towards Environmental Education of high and higher school students in India. To study the difference in Environmental Attitude and Environmental Awareness and Attitude towards Environmental Education among high and higher school students in India separately and together with respect to their background variables like, gender, academic qualification, length of experience and area of specialization. To study the main effect and interaction effect of Environmental Attitude and environmental Awareness on Attitude towards Environmental Education of the high and higher school students in India. In the present study, Environmental Attitude and Environmental Awareness and Attitude towards Environmental Education are considered as dependent variables and country, gender, academic qualification, length of experience and area of specialization are considered as independent variables. In the case of last objective, Attitude towards Environmental Education is considered as a dependent variable vi whereas environmental Attitude and Environmental Awareness are considered as independent variables.

To this day, there is a dearth of published research on environmental awareness, attitudes and behaviour in the Arabian Gulf, and there is no systematic data regarding the value people place on the environment. Understanding the operating social and political context, community values, and potential incentives in the face of environmental change is crucial for designing appropriate intervention measures and informing environmental policy of the region (Moran, 2010; Schultz &amp; Kaiser, 2012). By narrowing the focus down to university-educated youth in Qatar, this paper aims to bridge the gap between reported environmental attitudes and actual behaviour by evaluating different factors that could motivate the younger generation to become more involved in Qatar's environmental conservation efforts and lead to a more sustainable social and economic growth. Ajzen's (1991) Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) is employed as the main conceptual framework, hypothesising attitudes, perceived behavioural control and social norms as predictive of pro-environmental behaviour. For the purposes of this study, the model was expanded to consider childhood activities in nature, education, and proximity to an environmental issue as additional factors that are deemed relevant for predicting pro-environmental behaviour. To test the hypothesised correlation between the different factors and environmental behaviour, a close-ended questionnaire was administered to 299 Qatar University undergraduate students in May 2016, with series of questions regarding their time spent in nature, environmental attitudes, social pressure to behave pro-environmentally and whether they feel in control over their actions. Statistical analyses of the gathered data revealed partial applicability of the theoretical model for understanding environmental behaviour, with several factors of the original TPB model (namely attitudes, positive social norms and internal locus of control) as well as supplementary factors (childhood time in nature and university-level education) emerging as significant predictors of pro-environmental behaviour. In addition, analysis of open-ended questions revealed religion and governmental incentives as additional factors that have the potential to motivate students into more pro-environmental behaviour. A general lack of awareness was reported by the respondents, who often blamed ignorance for people's unwillingness to act more pro-environmentally in their daily lives. Although the respondents held overwhelmingly pro-environmental attitudes, their willingness to engage in pro-environmental behaviour was not as evident, due to several factors at play. The paper concludes by suggesting ways how those factors can be utilised to help shape the environmental behaviour of younger generations; however, it also warns that only by bridging the gulf between academic research and policy-making can the gulf between stated environmental values and actual behaviour be truly overpassed.

According to World Health Organization a diet high in vegetables may reduce the risk of coronary heart diseases, stroke, and certain types of cancer. In addition, vegetables have lower carbon footprints than most other foods. But what is the most important motivation to consume vegetables? Is it health or is it climate and the environment? The main objective in this paper is to find drivers behind vegetable consumption, with emphasis on health and environmental motivation. To analyze the connection between individual's attitudes towards the climate, environment and health and the frequency of vegetable consumption we used survey data from 2015. The individual attitudes are hidden but through questions regarding perceptions and behavior the attitudes may be retrieved. We constructed latent variables to represent measures of environment and health attitudes. These latent variables were included in an econometric model linking attitudes with frequency of vegetable consumption. We applied the model to test for differences in frequencies of vegetable consumption for individuals with little and high degree of environmental and health consciousness. The main results show that health is a stronger motivator for vegetable consumption than environmental consciousness.

This study aim is to examine and evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on education systems, which is the implementation of online learning (OL) during Movement Control Order (MCO) to higher learning education institution in Malaysia.A questionnaire was developed, and a random sampling of data was performed.Three hundred and fifty-two samples were collected using the Smart PLS-Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique to analyze the results.The study shows that acceptance, usability, satisfaction, and technical skills play a pivotal role in inspiring online learning effectiveness for the institution of higher education.Such consideration allows the entire higher education institution in Malaysia to recognize the importance of online learning in education in a consistent way.All the factors influence the sustained positive efficacy except acceptance of online learning.The present study covers only the institutions of higher learning.Entire elementary and secondary school students also participate in online learning, so this group can also be included for further studies.The research would continue to develop the online learning environment, and the study of higher education organizations is gradually embracing learning as an alternative to conventional classroom learning for current students and as a means to extend its scope to new students.Adopting online learning and its technologies requires significant investment in the staff, resources, energy, and space that administrators and those in educational leadership need to be justifiable.Just a few have explored the effect of COVID-19 on the education system and how online learning are conducted during MCO and using Smart PLS is a novel concept and it is a research of its kind from first hand.

This research Project consists of two parts. In Part I, the effect of environmental threat perceptions and environmental consciousness on environment-oriented behaviors of civic citizens that are the members of non-govermental organizations (NGO’s) were analysed through structural equation modelling (SEM). The data set was obtained by a questionnaire form from 437 citizens who are the members of NGO’s those performing in Canakkale city center. SEM findings revealed that environmental threat perception of civic citizens have impact on both environmental consciousness level and environmental behavior. It was found that environmental threat perception explains 39 percent of environmental consciousness level, whereas environmental threat perception and environmental consciousness, together explain 56 percent of changes in environment-oriented behavior. Due to SEM analysis, all the variables included in SEM modelling have positive relations and eah of the variables have impact on environment-oriented behavior. In Part II, the effect of environmental consciousness and environmental attitudes on environment-oriented behavior of civic citizens was analysed by the mentioned analysis. Data obtained from 436 participants were used. It was found that environmental consciousness of civic citizens influenced both environmental attitudes and environmental behavior. Environmental consciousness explains 63 percent of changes in environmental attitudes, and both environmental consciousness and environmental attitudes, together, explain 72 percent of changes in environment-oriented behavior. Similar to the findings of Part I, all variables have positive relations and all the variables have positive impact on environment-oriented behavior.

This paper explores the intersection between three processes associated with globalisation. First, the rise of emerging economies like China, Brazil and India, the so-called ‘Rising Powers’, and their potential to define the contours of globalisation, global production arrangements and global governance in the twenty-first century. Second, the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) goals in the shaping of global trade rules and industrial practices. Third, the significance of small firm clusters as critical sites of industrial competitiveness. Some of the most significant examples of successful, innovative and internationally competitive small firm clusters from the developing world are located in the ‘Rising Powers’ and cluster promotion is a core element of national industrial policy in some of these countries. There is also evidence of engagement by clustered actors with corporate social responsibility goals around labour and environmental impacts. While these three processes have been separately studied there has been no attempt to explore their intersections. This paper addresses this gap through a comparative analysis of secondary data, and a detailed reading of the literature, on CSR and clusters in Brazil, China and India. It assesses the evidence on small firm clusters in the Rising Power economies and considers how these Rising Power clusters engage with CSR goals pertaining to labour, social and environmental standards. It argues for a greater focus on the formal and informal institutional context, termed the ‘social contract’, in explaining divergent experiences and practices observed across these countries. This raises important questions for future academic and policy research on clusters, CSR and the Rising Powers. The paper concludes by outlining a research agenda to explore the local and global consequences of the relationship between Rising Power clusters and international labour and environmental standards.

The current study was conducted to find the correlation between the variablesenvironmental awareness, environmental attitude and consumer attitude.The study was done on 600 respondents. The area of study was Dehradun, Haridwar and Roorkee, three cities in Uttarakhand, India. The objective of the study was to find the respondent’s level of environmental awareness, to measure their level of environmental attitude and consumer attitude and to find out if a relationship existed between environmental awareness and environment attitude and its dimensions. Further the relationship between environmental awareness and consumer attitude was also found. Factorial design was used and levels of awareness were matched with levels of occupation and gender.Stratified random sampling, a probability sampling technique, was used to choose the sample.Environmental Awareness Test (EAWT) by Dr. K. Yeshodhara was used to assess the environmental awareness of the subjects. Taj Environmental Attitude Scale (TEAS) by Dr. Haseen Taj was used to measure the environmental attitude of the respondents and Consumer Attitude Scale (CAS) was designed by author to measure the consumer attitude of the respondents.&#x0D; Correlation was calculated to analyse the data and to test the proposed hypothesis. The findings revealed a significant correlation among the variables.