Environmental Conscious Behaviour Research Articles

Examining the impact of media use during the COVID-19 pandemic on environmental engagement

The COVID-19 pandemic led to global public health campaigns enacting strict orders to slow the spread of the disease. The public health initiatives were communicated broadly through diverse news sources and social media channels, spreading both factual information and misinformation about the environmental benefits related to the shelter-in-place orders. This quantitative study of United States residents (N = 1,048), guided by selective exposure theory, examined if demographics, news and/or social media source use, and public knowledge of environmental changes that took place as a result of COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders predicted intent to engage in environmentally-conscious behavior. Results indicated demographics and social media used predicted intent to engage in environmentally-conscious behaviors. Intent to engage in environmental behaviors is critical for environmental sustainability and the media may provide one avenue for engaging the public in environmental behaviors. Discussion points include environmental communication strategies and understanding messaging strategies within the politicization process of communicating about environmental issues during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Are air travellers willing to pay for reducing or offsetting carbon emissions? Evidence from Italy

The aviation industry is one of the fastest-growing sectors in producing carbon emissions. In order to reduce its carbon footprint and to respond to the increasing number of people concerned about the impact caused by air transport on climate change, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has recently passed the “carbon neutral growth from 2020” resolution requiring that the global net CO2 emissions from international aviation do not exceed the 2019–2020 levels. Airlines, however, can act beyond their obligations under the ICAO resolution investing in projects aimed at reducing or offsetting all the emissions produced not only by their international flights but also by their domestic flights. The aim of this paper is to test whether Italian air travellers would be willing to donate a contribution to finance these projects and whether the willingness to pay depends on the projects’ type and on the projects’ effectiveness. To this aim we performed a stated-choice experiment involving a sample of 1228 Italians who travelled by plane at least once in the last 3 years. We find that their willingness to pay ranges from €12 to €38 per ton and from €14 to €66 per flight. The description of the project type to be financed via the passengers’ donations is one of the most important factors influencing their willingness to pay. Other key factors are the quantity of CO2 reduced or offset via the project and the respondents’ gender, education degree, occupational status, environmental consciousness and travel habits. Our results are useful for airlines to design the donation proposals and improve the corporate image and for policy makers to support air travellers’ environmental conscious behaviour and airlines’ environmental sustainable strategies.

Az alternatív étrendet követők helyi termékek vásárlásához kapcsolódó attitűdjei

A legtöbb alternatív étrendet követő személy önmagát egészség- és környezettudatosnak tartja, különösen igaz ez a vegetáriánus, a ve­gán, a glutén-, a laktóz-, a tejfehérjementes, va­lamint a fehérjegazdag módon táplálkozókra. A vegyesen táplálkozók körében alacsony a tuda­tosság mértéke. A cukormentes/szénhidrátsze­gény, illetve a paleolit étrendet követőknél nem figyelhető meg szignifikáns eltérés. Az egyes ét­rendek esetében vizsgáltuk a tudatosság mérté­két is. A vegyes étrendűeknél a megkérdezettek percepciója alapján nem jelenik meg az egész­ség- vagy a környezettudatosság, míg az alter­natív étrendűek esetében igen. A helyi termékek vásárlása során környezeti szempontból legin­kább a helyi termelők és kereskedők támoga­tása, valamint az élelmiszer-kilométerek csök­kentése a fő érték. A válaszadók egyéni érdekei szerint a termékek egészséges és természetes, valamint vegyszer- és tartósítószermentes vol­tát emelték ki a megkérdezettek. A speciális ét­rendeket követők között leginkább a vegánok, a fehérjegazdag táplálkozást folytatók, továbbá a tejfehérjementesen étkezők között jelentek meg szignifikáns eltérések a helyi termékek vásárlását illetően. Arányokat tekintve helyi terméket leginkább a laktózmentes, legkevésbé pedig a paleolit étrendet követők vásárolnak. A helyi termékek vásárlásához kapcsolódóan két komponenst különítettünk el; a helyi termékek jellege, valamint a helyi termékek emocionális tényezői. Előbbihez a természetesség, az egész­ségesség, a mentesség, a származás, illetve a gazdák támogatása tartozik, míg az utóbbihoz a vásárlás közbeni nosztalgia, valamint a szó­rakozás sorolható. A bemutatott kutatás feltáró jellegű, amellyel megalapoztunk egy olyan át­fogó piaci elemzést, ami az alternatív étrendet követők helyi termékek vásárlásával kapcsola­tos magatartását vizsgálja. JEL-kódok: C38, D70, I12, M31, Q56

Expansion of renewable energy resources and energyconscious behaviour at the University of Szeged

At the University of Szeged, as the greenest University of Hungary, the sustainability project is built on two pillars. One of them is based on events and communication campaigns held regularly for the University citizens to prompt environmental-conscious behaviour, whereas the other is built on technological developments and on the extensive use of renewable energy resources. Thus the development of built environment and social responsibility both support the adequacy to sustainability requirements. The spreading of the effective solutions to making more and more buildings of the University energy efficient, numerous investments using renewable energy are also responsible for the decrease of the natural energy use of the institution contrary to the fact that the number of the buildings of the University of Szeged is continually increasing. It can be stated that the University of Szeged is committed to using renewable energy which is taken into consideration of each investment planning. The following examples confirm it: using geothermal cascade system for heating and cooling of five university bulidings, solar panels on 24 builidings and a unique technology of using the heat of wastewater to cool and heat one of the main bulidings of the university, namely the Study and Information Centre.

The Effects of Attitude Toward Eco-friendly Shopping Bags on Environmentally Conscious Behavior

The Effects of Attitude Toward Eco-friendly Shopping Bags on Environmentally Conscious Behavior

Consumers' environmental and ethical consciousness and the use of the related food products information: The role of perceived consumer effectiveness

Consumers can be important active contributors to a sustainable society by selecting food choices that are both healthy and produced respecting environmental and socially ethical standards. The current study investigates five consumer behavioural factors – namely, perceived consumer effectiveness (PCE); environmental conscious behaviour; concerns for ethical food production; health conscious lifestyle; and healthy dietary patterns. The key interest of the study lies in exploring the moderating role of PCE - the extent to which the consumer believes that his/her own efforts can make a difference - in these interrelationships. The empirical analysis was conducted through an online survey of food consumers implemented in three markets - the US, the UK and Germany. Findings indicate that for individuals with higher levels of PCE, who are environmental conscious and ethically concerned, information on food labels relating to environmental and social issues represents value by itself. Interestingly, health and nutrition information on food labels was not perceived valuable by consumers with high PCE. The predictive effects of various socio-demographic variables on PCE, consumer environmental and health consciousness are discussed. Cross-cultural differences are also outlined. The results of this research may contribute to the development of environmental policies and communication strategies of the food industry to enhance perceived consumer effectiveness among consumers. Improved PCE, in turn, may catalyze consumers’ environmental behaviour and ethical concerns in relation to consumption of food products with environmental and social information.

Eco-Islam: Beyond the Principles of Why and Into the Principles of How

The focus on human actions to address the deteriorating state of the environment has increased in urgency, calling for novel approaches at improving individuals’ environmental ethics. Religions have put forth views on the individual’s responsibility towards the environment, resulting in a growing literature exploring the relationship between religions and the environment, with new concepts, such as Eco-Islam and Green Bible, gaining literary attention. Such concepts posit a question: how can one’s religious teachings encourage environmental conscious behaviour? Based on a thorough multi-phase content analysis of the Qur’anic text, this paper attempts to combine and advance the existing literature on the relationship between Islam and the environmental responsibility to present a comprehensive framework of Eco-Islam. This framework defines the underlying relation between God, human, and the environment, bringing together foundational principles (whys) and the application principles (hows) of Eco-Islam. Pol...

Smart Mediterranean Neighbourhood: the adaptation of a contextualized strategy

The smart approach to the built environment transformation is probably the most innovative strategy to join the technological solutions and the environmental conscious behaviour by developing effective and efficient actions. The smart neighbourhood actions are different from framed top-down policies but they are mostly characterized by dynamism, in terms of time and space variables. The research shows how, through this smart strategy, is possible to develop several human sized actions able to fit properly in the way they are structured to grow.

The mechanical transformation and environmentally conscious behavior

AbstractThe aim of this work is to explore the relationship between products that mechanically transform and individual environmentally conscious behavior (ECB). Our qualitative study led to observations on how each of the three transformation principles, expand/collapse, expose/cover, and fuse/divide, specifically supports ECBs. As expected, expand/collapse enables better portability of products. Increased portability of reusable products (e.g., travel mugs and shopping bags) reduces reliance on their disposable counterparts. A less expected observation is that increased portability also increases the spontaneity by which ECBs could be carried out. While there are fewer ECB supporting products that incorporate the expose/cover principle, we believe that it enables one to include, yet hide potentially unaesthetic, features that support ECB in often-used or worn items. Finally, we found fuse/divide to enable portability beyond what is possible with expand/collapse alone. Fuse/divide may also make possible other product transport and reuse strategies. We conclude that mechanically transformable products support and enable ECBs, especially when existing infrastructure presents obstacles. Such products may increase the rate of participation in ECB, which then justifies improvements to the shortfalls in infrastructure for which they compensate.

Do-it-yourselfers as Lead users for Environmentally Conscious Behavior

Much engineering effort has focused on developing more resource-efficient products. However, use behavior is clearly relevant to resource conservation. Wasteful behavior offsets at least part of the anticipated gains in resource efficiency intended by resource-saving modes and technologies. Therefore, in addition to creating more efficient products, designers should also develop products that encourage and enable users to behave in more resource-efficient ways. We identified do-it-yourselfers as lead users to gain insights on product design to support Environmentally Conscious Behavior (ECB). Specifically, we studied do-it-yourselfers who repurpose rather than replace furniture items when their original functions are no longer required.

Affordances and Product Design to Support Environmentally Conscious Behavior

We developed an affordance-based methodology to support environmentally conscious behavior (ECB) that conserves resources such as materials, energy, etc. While studying concepts that aim to support ECB, we noted that characteristics of products that enable ECB tend to be more accurately described as affordances than functions. Therefore, we became interested in affordances, and specifically how affordances can be used to design products that support ECB. Affordances have been described as possible ways of interacting with products, or context-dependent relations between artifacts and users. Other researchers have explored affordances in lieu of functions as a basis for design, and developed detailed deductive methods of discovering affordances in products. We abstracted desired affordances from patterns and principles we observed to support ECB, and generated concepts based on those affordances. As a possible shortcut to identifying and implementing relevant affordances, we introduced the affordance-transfer method. This method involves altering a product's affordances to add desired features from related products. Promising sources of affordances include lead-user and other products that support resource conservation. We performed initial validation of the affordance-transfer method and observed that it can improve the usefulness of the concepts that novice designers generate to support ECB.

Change in Environmentally Conscious Behavior of Students in Junior High Schools with PV systems

Change in Environmentally Conscious Behavior of Students in Junior High Schools with PV systems

Effects of community identity and topophilia on environmentally-conscious behavior

This study classified environmentally-conscious behaviors of residents (n = 335) along Lake Biwa as a common goods into personal and group behavioral intentions, and examined the determinants of these intentions. Identification with the community was a social identity, and differed from attachment to Lake Biwa, which was defined as topophilia. The results indicated that group behavior was affected by topophilia, while personal behavior was influenced by general attitudes about the environmental problems of the lake and evaluations of the cost for the behavior. Community identity had a significant effect on both personal and group behavior. Rational or emotional decision making processes resulted in two different types of environmentally-conscious behaviors.

What is a Tree Worth? Green-City Strategies and Housing Prices

We investigate the correlation between curb-side tree plantings and housing price movements in Philadelphia from 1998 to 2003, comparing two programs, one by the Philadelphia Horticultural Society that requires block-group effort that focuses on low-income neighbourhoods and the other by the Fairmount Park Commission that is individual-based without specific target areas. A 7 to 11 percent price differential is identified within 4000 ft of the Fairmount tree plantings. We argue that this is largely driven by either social capital creation or a signaling mechanism, on the top of an intrinsic tree value (around 2 percent). Findings using the PHS tree program suggest that development of social capital or environmentally-conscious behavior might be a less important channel. Any positive changes brought by the PHS tree plantings were not detected with sufficient statistical power.