Encouraging Sustainable Behavior Research Articles

Outdoor Recreation and Environmental Conservation

Purpose: The general objective of this study was to examine different types of outdoor recreation activities and their impact on environmental conservation efforts.
 Methodology: The study adopted a desktop research methodology. Desk research refers to secondary data or that which can be collected without fieldwork. Desk research is basically involved in collecting data from existing resources hence it is often considered a low cost technique as compared to field research, as the main cost is involved in executive’s time, telephone charges and directories. Thus, the study relied on already published studies, reports and statistics. This secondary data was easily accessed through the online journals and library.
 Findings: The findings reveal that there exists a contextual and methodological gap relating to technology and traditional arts in modern sporting events. The study provided a comprehensive analysis of the complex relationship between outdoor recreation and conservation efforts. It concluded that while outdoor recreation offered various benefits, including economic contributions and fostering a connection to nature, it also posed challenges such as habitat degradation and natural resource depletion. Collaborative efforts among stakeholders, including policymakers and the public, were highlighted as crucial for achieving a balance between recreational use and conservation objectives. Additionally, education and outreach played a vital role in promoting environmental awareness and encouraging sustainable behaviors among outdoor recreationists. Overall, the study underscored the importance of integrating principles of sustainability and stewardship into outdoor recreation practices to ensure the long-term health of natural landscapes.
 Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Social-Ecological Systems theory, Environmental Psychology model and Ecological Modernization theory may be used to anchor future studies on outdoor recreation and environmental conservation contributed significantly to theory, practice, and policy by elucidating the complex interactions between outdoor recreation and conservation. It provided insights into theoretical frameworks such as Social-Ecological Systems theory and Environmental Psychology, informing evidence-based management strategies and policy interventions. Recommendations included integrating outdoor recreation into policy agendas, prioritizing stakeholder collaboration, and investing in educational initiatives. Research priorities emphasized longitudinal studies, interdisciplinary collaborations, and comparative research to address complex socio-ecological challenges. These contributions aimed to promote the sustainable coexistence of outdoor recreation and environmental conservation, fostering a culture of stewardship and ensuring the long-term well-being of natural landscapes and communities.

Greening university practices: empowering eco-conscious behavior, transforming sustainable culture, and shaping greener institutional awareness through strategic green HRM initiatives

Green human resource management practices are widely accepted and are essential for encouraging sustainable behavior in organizations. We aimed to ascertain the relationship between employees' eco-friendly behavior and Green HRM practices by employing environmental awareness as a mediator. we analyzed and tested the suggested model Employing the PLS-SEM method through SmartPLS 4. The current study employed a quantitative research approach to collect data from 346 actual respondents. From six major public universities in Afghanistan, these participants were selected randomly. Based on the investigation, it was shown that green recruitment and selection, green training and development, green performance management, and green reward and compensation possessed a positive impact on employees' eco-friendly behavior. Additionally, environmental awareness promotes eco-friendly conduct among the staff. The research provides updated outcomes showing that, through the partially moderating impacts of environmental awareness, green HRM practices in Afghanistan's public universities both directly and indirectly influence employees' eco-friendly behavior. The current study is noteworthy since it provides fresh insights into green HRM. Additionally, by examining these relationships and assessing the mediation effects, this work adds to the amount of literature already accessible on environmentally friendly behaviors. Furthermore, current research makes a practical contribution to public universities by suggesting guidelines on how to increase academicians' awareness of green HRM practices, enhance eco-friendly behavior at work, and develop environmentally friendly behavior.

Carbon footprint of Nepalese healthcare system: A study of Dhulikhel Hospital

Background Though direct greenhouse gas emissions cannot be observed in health care sectors, there can exist indirect emissions contributing to global climate change. This study addresses the concept of the carbon footprint and its significance in understanding the environmental impact of human activities, with a specific emphasis on the healthcare sector through gate-to-gate (GtoG) life cycle assessment. Transportation, energy consumption, and solid waste generated by hospitals are the primary sources of carbon emissions. Methods Different standards, guidelines and parameters were used to estimate emissions from both the primary and secondary data. All steps and sub-steps involved in GtoG were accessed and analyzed within the standard ISO 14040:44 guideline. An extensive review of existing literature was carried out for the evaluation and verification of secondary data. Results The total carbon footprint of generators, electricity consumption, transportation activities, LPG cylinders, PV systems was found to be 58,780 kg-CO2-eq/yr, 519,794 kg-CO2-eq/yr, 272,375 kg-CO2-eq/yr, 44,494 kg-CO2-eq/yr, 35,283 kg-CO2-eq/yr respectively and the emissions from non-biodegradable solid waste was found to be 489,835 kg-CO2/yr. Local air pollutants such as PM10, CO, SO2, NOX, and VOCs generated by generators and transportation were also estimated. The CH4 emissions from liquid waste were 1177.344 kg CH4/BOD yr, and those from biodegradables were 3821.6954 kg CH4/yr. Conclusions Healthcare professionals and policymakers can take action to reduce the sector's carbon footprint by implementing best practices and encouraging sustainable behavior. This study can be taken as foundation for further exploration of indirect emissions from healthcare sectors not only in Nepal but also in south Asian scenario.

The Role of Social Media Campaigns in Raising Awareness about Smog (Climate Change) and Encouraging Sustainable Behaviors

Climate is undergoing a constant deterioration at a very alarming rate. Masud et al. (2016) observe that despite very little contribution to climate degradation, poorer countries are more affected by climate change than developed countries. Pakistan is placed at number six among the most affected countries by climate change. IPI Global Observatory reported in its recent findings that Pakistan is a contributor of 0.3% of emissions and yet disproportionality far more affected by climate adversities in the form of annual floods, heat waves, extreme weather conditions, and smog. The worst form of air pollution, called smog, has been haunting Pakistan’s major cities for years. Lahore, a provisional capital of Punjab, has topped the list of most polluted cities in the world consistently in years 2021, 2022, and 2023 due to the worst situation of smog. The role of media is integral in this regard. This study explores the role of social media campaigns in creating awareness about smog and encouraging sustainable behaviors. The survey method has been used to collect data from 150 university students. The findings of the study reveal that social media can be best harnessed to cope with smog or other climate-related issues through a well-structured and target-oriented strategy of climate communication.

Carbon footprint of Nepalese healthcare system: A study of Dhulikhel Hospital.

Though direct greenhouse gas emissions cannot be observed in health care sectors, there can exist indirect emissions contributing to global climate change. This study addresses the concept of the carbon footprint and its significance in understanding the environmental impact of human activities, with a specific emphasis on the healthcare sector through gate-to-gate (GtoG) life cycle assessment. Transportation, energy consumption, and solid waste generated by hospitals are the primary sources of carbon emissions. Different standards, guidelines and parameters were used to estimate emissions from both the primary and secondary data. All steps and sub-steps involved in GtoG were accessed and analyzed within the standard ISO 14040:44 guideline. An extensive review of existing literature was carried out for the evaluation and verification of secondary data. The total carbon footprint of generators, electricity consumption, transportation activities, LPG cylinders, PV systems was found to be 58,780 kg-CO2-eq/yr, 519,794 kg-CO2-eq/yr, 272,375 kg-CO2-eq/yr, 44,494 kg-CO2-eq/yr, 35,283 kg-CO2-eq/yr respectively and the emissions from non-biodegradable solid waste was found to be 489,835 kg-CO2/yr. Local air pollutants such as PM 10, CO, SO 2, NO X, and VOCs generated by generators and transportation were also estimated. The CH 4 emissions from liquid waste were 1177.344 kg CH 4/BOD yr, and those from biodegradables were 3821.6954 kg CH4/yr. Healthcare professionals and policymakers can take action to reduce the sector's carbon footprint by implementing best practices and encouraging sustainable behavior. This study can be taken as foundation for further exploration of indirect emissions from healthcare sectors not only in Nepal but also in south Asian scenario.

Testing the effectiveness of increased frequency of norm-nudges in encouraging sustainable tourist behaviour: a field experiment using actual and self-reported behavioural data

Norm-nudges are effective in encouraging sustainable consumer behaviour in various settings, by raising the salience of the target behaviour via social norms. Tourism presents a highly hedonic context, in which behaviour is primarily framed by self-oriented goals as opposed to normative ones related to the good of the environment and society. While the existing literature provides insights on the appropriate content of norm-nudges to raise the salience of normative goals, less is known about an appropriate frequency of nudges. It is important to address this gap in tourism because tourists need to be aware of desired sustainable behaviours, while overly obtrusive nudges may backfire. A field experiment was conducted to test the extent to which an increased frequency of norm-nudges has a backfiring effect on sustainable tourist behaviour, using donations for mountain-biking trails as the target behaviour. Results show that increasing the frequency of norm-nudges does not diminish their positive uptake, which suggests that they can be used more to encourage sustainable behaviour and enhance tourists’ experiences. Using actual and self-reported behavioural data, this study provides new empirical evidence on the effectiveness of increased frequency of norm-nudges in a real tourism setting, contributing to knowledge on norm-nudges and backfiring effects.

Exploring the X-Minute City by Travel Purpose in Montréal, Canada

To achieve the x-minute city, we need to understand which destinations are currently reachable or can be reached by sustainable modes within a defined travel time threshold. We find that concentrating on a set of destinations (Leisure and Shopping) and disregarding work trips from the definition of x-minute city can potentially make this concept a more attainable one for 15- and 30-minute city concepts in the North American context. For shopping trips, near half of the current car trips can be replaced by sustainable modes and still be carried out in less than 15 minutes, whilst around 70% of car trips can be replaced by sustainable modes and conducted in less than 30 minutes. Incorporating public transport as a sustainable mode in the x-minute city definition will make it a more achievable one for a specific set of destinations and encouraging sustainable travel behavior requires attention to the importance of local accessibility.

The importance of personal norms and situational expectancies to sustainable behaviors: The norm activation and situational expectancy-value theories

The turn towards sustainability is becoming more critical in every sector, but consumers' lifestyles and behaviors have been slow to transform. Therefore, based on the norm activation model and situational expectancy-value theory, this study investigated the importance of personal norms and the influences of situational factors on sustainable behaviors. A total of 1050 responses obtained through an online survey method were analyzed using SPSS and LISREL. The results revealed that situational factors, such as acceptability of policies, accessibility of facilities, sacrificeability of prices, and environmental activism, can either facilitate or hinder recycling practices and responsible consumption behaviors. Personal norms are a determinant for sustainable behavior. Future research can extend the findings of this study to compare the most and least sustainable states or countries to determine effective interventions for encouraging sustainable behaviors.

From green advertising to sustainable behavior: a systematic literature review through the lens of value-belief-norm framework

In the current ecological context, advertising and communication emerge as valuable tools for raising awareness and encouraging sustainable behavior. For this communication to be effective, it is necessary to understand the process through which a green message translates into sustainable decisions and how it interacts with individuals’ pro-environmental predispositions and intrinsic motivations. From this perspective, we conducted a systematic review of the literature linking two bodies of research related to the effectiveness of green advertising, on the one hand, and the determinants of pro-environmental behavior, on the other. The main contribution of this article is the development of a conceptual framework that is specific to green advertising. This framework combines the stages of cognitive processing of persuasive messages and the value-belief-norm theory of environmentalism, as well as other internal and external factors (e.g. personal capabilities, contextual factors, and affective variables). Based on our results, we identify gaps and opportunities for future research.

Climate Education Policy in New York: Preparing Students for a Climate-Altered World

New York’s lack of comprehensive, interdisciplinary and standardized K-12 climate education curricula highlights a gap in the state’s climate action plan. Education plays a key role in building climate literacy and encouraging sustainable behaviors. The climate crisis is complex and requires engaging students in systems thinking to gain a holistic understanding of its root causes, global impacts, and solutions, including preparing students to enter the growing green jobs sector. Existing learning standards and proposed legislation do not address these needs. Compulsory climate education across New York is necessary to prepare students for a climate-altered society, engage youth in climate discussions, model state leadership and support economic competitiveness. Teachers, students, and parents want climate education, but gaps in New York’s education policies have left educators without the resources or bandwidth to teach it. Analysis of gaps in New York state policy, existing literature, and model programs, suggests that to increase student climate literacy, the state legislature should amend its education laws and create a K-12 climate education mandate with the following key components:

Storytelling for Behavior Change: Use of Folktales for Promoting Sustainable Behaviors

Our Earth has been entangled in different adverse effects resulting from the excessive human interference into the territory of nature. The habit of extracting and consuming indiscriminately is moving them to a situation, where their own future generation would not be able receive benefits of the natural resources. It has also been recognized that human action is perhaps the most significant contributor to this. And therefore, a proper equilibrium, i.e., sustainable development, could only be achieved by bringing about a change in human behavior in general. We explore the possibility of using indigenous knowledge for encouraging sustainable behaviors. We propose a model for behavior change through storytelling by using folktales. We argue that folktales serve three functions – epistemic, motivational, and ethical – which make them potent tools for promoting sustainable behavior. We conclude by pointing out limitations and suggestion for future research.

MaaS platform features: An exploration of their relationship and importance from supply and demand perspective

Mobility as a Service (MaaS) aims to offer travelers easy and convenient access to transportation modes via a joint digital channel, often in a mobile application. MaaS has the potential to fundamentally change the way we commute as it encourages a more sustainable travel behavior. MaaS, as a business model, is an innovative concept that integrates a variety of these solutions and can significantly change the mobility environment by encouraging sustainable travel behavior. Despite the existing initiatives and efforts toward MaaS solutions, there is still no consensus on the essential features of MaaS platforms for actors from the supply and demand sides. This study explores the critical features of MaaS platforms from the perspective of mobility service providers - MSP (i.e., supply-side) and travelers (i.e., demand-side). We collected data via interviews with mobility experts for the supply side and a survey for the users' side. Based on a Gaussian Graphical Model, our results show that optimizing the number and use of the vehicles and appropriate data handling are the essential features of a MaaS platform for the MSPs. For the travelers, although retrieval of personal information and enhancing services, such as suggestions on local events and concert tickets, are expected, they are considered less significant. Our study provides insights into the features of MaaS platforms through synthesized and prioritized features -including their relationships-which would be helpful both for research and practice.

Addressing climate anxiety among young people in the Philippines

Addressing climate anxiety among young people in the Philippines

Ecocentric leadership and voluntary environmental behavior for promoting sustainability strategy: The role of psychological green climate

AbstractSustainability is not just a “buzzword” but refers to the ideal business strategy for encouraging sustainable behavior for remaining relevant and competitive. Managers of organizations are increasingly expected to duly consider and demonstrate the desired social and environmental intentions of translating leadership strategies into sustainable practices. Studies on employees' voluntary environmental behavior (VEB) are increasing in number, in that it is believed that behavior can contribute to achieving organizational sustainability strategy. However, despite the studies being published on this emerging field, leadership is a missing link regarding the psychological mechanism through which VEB can be defined and refined. Drawing on the theories of social learning and social exchange, this study seeks to establish the impact of ecocentric leadership (EL) on VEB and the mediating role of psychological green climate (PGC) in this nexus. Data were collected from wide‐ranging business organizations in Bangladesh through a self‐administered survey questionnaire. The results indicate that EL wields a significant direct influence on VEB. Moreover, EL through the mediating effect of PGC indirectly shapes VEB. The study contributes original insights to the discussions and debates on strategic leadership and climate accountability. Implications of ecocentric strategic leadership and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Investigating Predictors of Public- and Private-Sphere Sustainable Behaviors in the Context of Agritourism

Encouraging sustainable behaviors regarding food choices among the public is crucial to ensure food systems’ sustainability. We expand the understanding of sustainable behavioral change by assessing engagement in local food systems (LFSs) in the context of agritourism experiences. Using theory of planned behavior (TPB) and personal norms, we conducted pre–post-surveys at agritourism farms to measure the impact of changes in the TPB behavioral antecedents as predictors of the following behavioral intentions regarding LFS engagement: (1) purchasing local food (private-sphere behavior), (2) increasing monthly budget to purchase local food (private-sphere behavior) and (3) advocating for local food (public-sphere behavior). Our findings indicate that strategies to encourage LFS engagement should seek to activate moral considerations that can motivate action across private and public behaviors, which applies to various demographic groups. To stimulate collective action, strategies should target subjective norms specifically (e.g., encouraging social interaction around local food), while strategies encouraging private behaviors should focus on easing perceived barriers to buying local food (e.g., promoting local food outlets). As agritourism experiences effectively modify the three above-mentioned behavioral antecedents, we advocate for holistic experiences that provide opportunities for deeper engagement with local food, stimulate the senses, and facilitate social interaction around LFSs.

Green identity labeling, environmental information, and pro-environmental food choices

This study examines the effectiveness of green identity labeling and environmental information in nudging consumers toward pro-environmental food choices, using an online discrete choice experiment conducted on US respondents. Results reveal that the green identity labeling in itself is ineffective at increasing consumer valuation for sustainable labels. Nevertheless, the environmental information intervention and its joint use with green identity labels can enhance consumer valuation for already existing pro-environmental foods instead of the novel food products. The policy implications for encouraging sustainable behaviors are discussed in the paper.

Eliciting user preference for quantitative vs. emotional information display in eco-feedback designs

Eco-feedback is a design strategy that reminds users of their resource consumption as they use a product. The ultimate goal is to promote pro-environmental behaviors in users by making them aware of the environmental impact of their consumption. The way these designs present resource usage information can significantly impact user perceptions. This paper investigates two aspects of resource usage presentation, quantitative feedback and emotional evocativeness, by evaluating 32 designs spanning electricity, materials, transportation, and water via surveys of 619 university students in the US and Saudi Arabia. Both these aspects are positively correlated with perceived product appeal and perceived effectiveness in encouraging sustainable behavior. It was found that presenting quantitative resource usage information was more helpful to respondents who could better estimate resource consumption, while the emotional evocativeness of a design aided respondents with lower and higher resource consumption knowledge to a similar degree. In addition, we found that images of living creatures and strong visual cues evoked strong emotions in users. Female participants, in general, responded more strongly than males to this emotional evocativeness. These experimental findings cast light on how to better design eco-feedback products to be more widely accepted.

Friend-Invitation Promotion Scheme Used in Electric Carsharing: Empirical Analysis and Policy Implications

The combination of electric vehicle (EV) and carsharing is expected to provide social and environmental benefits, like encouraging sustainable travel behaviors (reducing car ownership and vehicle kilometres of travel) and improving the accessibility and flexibility of urban transport. Thus, electric carsharing is encouraged to be adopted for daily trips, and the operators propose the friend-invitation promotion scheme for the membership expansion. This study explores the effectiveness of this scheme and the characteristics of the scheme participants and their invited friends (e.g., age, friend-invitation pattern, and EV rental pattern). The analysis found that 28.4% of these invited friends would make at least one EV rental after registration, whereas 30.4% of the other members who registered in the same period would do so, indicating that these invited friends were less active. Therefore, suggestions are given based on the EV rental pattern of these invited friends (preferring a longer journey using a smaller but cheaper EV) to enhance the effectiveness of the friend-invitation promotion scheme.

A Research Agenda to Better Understand the Human Dimensions of Energy Transitions.

The Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) have a key role to play in understanding which factors and policies would motivate, encourage and enable different actors to adopt a wide range of sustainable energy behaviours and support the required system changes and policies. The SSH can provide critical insights into how consumers could be empowered to consistently engage in sustainable energy behaviour, support and adopt new technologies, and support policies and changes in energy systems. Furthermore, they can increase our understanding of how organisations such as private and public institutions, and groups and associations of people can play a key role in the sustainable energy transition. We identify key questions to be addressed that have been identified by the Platform for Energy Research in the Socio-economic Nexus (PERSON, see person.eu), including SSH scholars who have been studying energy issues for many years. We identify three main research themes. The first research theme involves understanding which factors encourage different actors to engage in sustainable energy behaviour. The second research theme focuses on understanding which interventions can be effective in encouraging sustainable energy behaviour of different actors, and which factors enhance their effects. The third research theme concerns understanding which factors affect public and policy support for energy policy and changes in energy systems, and how important public concerns can best be addressed as to reduce or prevent resistance.

Residential relocation and travel behavior change: Investigating the effects of changes in the built environment, activity space dispersion, car and bike ownership, and travel attitudes

The influence of residential relocation, as a life event, on travel behavior has become the focus of research on determinants of travel behavior in recent years. Although several studies have investigated the influence of changes in the built environment of the residential environment, the complex relationships between the built environment, travel attitudes and travel behavior has remained controversial. One crucial research gap in this area is the paucity of longitudinal and semi-longitudinal research designs that could capture the influence of changes in the built environment, activity space dispersion, car and bike ownership, latent attitudes towards travel, as well as travel behavior, and the interrelationships between these factors. This study attempts to fill this gap by collecting retrospective travel behavior and attitudinal data in Helsinki Metropolitan Area using an online map-based survey tool. In total, 1321 residents who had relocated to a new residential location between three to eleven months prior to the survey date participated in the study. The study collected data related to common home-based trips during a typical week in September 2017 and September 2018, stated change in the use of different modes of transport after the move, as well as socio-demographic, and attitudinal data before and after the move. Based on residential location and the visited destinations during a typical week, respondents’ activity space dispersion was measured. Structural equation modelling was then used to investigate the interrelationships between changes in the built environment, activity space dispersion, car and bike ownership, travel attitudes, and travel behavior. Results indicate the existence of reciprocal influences between changes in car and bike ownership, travel attitudes, and travel behavior. It is also found that the built environment can modify and change travel related attitudes and influence activity space dispersion, which in turn affects travel behavior. The results of this study support the effectiveness of nudging approaches rather than marketing activities in changing travel attitudes and encouraging sustainable travel behavior.