Design and validation of an evaluation instrument that assesses the pro-environmental behavior of Mexican university students

The purpose of this research was to design and validate a research instrument that delimits the degree of proenvironmental behavior (CPA). For the design and validation, the instrument was subjected to a review with specialists in the area. Subsequently, it was applied to the student community of the Autonomous University of Guerrero (UAGro). To define the adequacy and reliability of the items, along with their comprehension, was applied to a pilot group of 76 students. During the first review, the research instrument was approved by 15 experts, who also made suggestions. The reviewers endorsed the validity of the items’ content, and an optimum reliability score was obtained (Cronbach's alpha: 0.778). It is concluded that the evaluation instrument is valid in content, reliable, and accessible to monitor and evaluate the pro-environmental behavior in students.

The features of proenvironmental behavior of students in the field of energy consumption

The relevance of the study is due to the fact that every year energy problems are becoming more acute. It is associated with limited reserves of energy resources and the need for their rational consumption. To solve the existing energy problems, the joint efforts of specialists in various fields of knowledge are required. Psychological science, possessing extensive empirical data in the field of human interaction with the environment, can offer its own options for solving energy problems. The purpose of our study was to identify the features of proenvironmental behavior of students in the field of energy consumption. The results obtained can make a significant contribution to the development of specific practical steps for the formation and development of proenvironmental behavior among students. Materials and methods. The study involved 197 university students of the State University of Humanities and Social Studies (Kolomna), 59 males and 138 females (M = 18.4, SD = 1.3). The study was carried out using the Big Five Questionnaire-2-R (as adapted by E. Osin et al.), the Portrait Values Questionnaire-Revised-2R S. Schwartz, the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI) (as adapted by A. Syrtsova, E. Sokolova and O. Mitina). To highlight the levels of formation of proenvironmental behavior of university students in the field of energy consumption, it was used the designer’s questionnaire aimed at determining the features of energy saving behavior in young men and women the level of its “proenvironmentalism”. As a result, it was found that for the successful implementation of proenvironmental behavior, it is significant that the student is focused more on the interests of other people than on his own; it is important not only the presence of proenvironmental values, but also their combination with the personality traits “empathy” (0,668), “amiability” (0,596), “pedantry” (0,590). Proenvironmental actions require the student to be active, to strive to achieve the set goal, to show perseverance.

Methodological Bricolage and COVID-19: An Illustration From Innovative, Novel, and Adaptive Environmental Behavior Change Research

This article explores innovative and novel research methods and adaptive approaches during the COVID-19 pandemic to examine visitor learning and proenvironmental behavior. We present a mixed methods study that used a methodological bricolage approach to field-based data collection. The pandemic limited our ability to carry out the original study design. Quickly pivoting, the study was adapted to an explanatory sequential design with a survey, an interpretive video, naturalistic observations, personal meaning maps, interviews and a new method: comprehension assessments. This resulted in data collection that maintained trustworthiness and rigor, while remaining flexible to changing protocols. This article contributes to the field of mixed methods research by demonstrating the application of methodological bricolage in visitor research during catastrophic social change.

Linking Perceived Policy Effectiveness and Proenvironmental Behavior: The Influence of Attitude, Implementation Intention, and Knowledge

Residents’ behavior is the result of the combined effect of external environment factors and internal psychological factors. Based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the attitude–behavior–condition (ABC) theory, this study aims to explore the impact of policy support on residents’ psychological factors and proenvironmental behavior. This study developed an extended TPB and ABC model and replaced the behavioral intention in the TPB model with implementation intentions to enhance the ability of the variables to explain and predict proenvironmental behavior. The longitudinal research method was adopted to collect data through a two-stage questionnaire survey of 1145 Shanghai residents. Results demonstrated that perceived policy effectiveness has a significant and positive impact on attitude, implementation intention, and proenvironmental behavior. This means that proenvironmental behavior tends to appear in people with a high perception of policy effectiveness, positive attitude, and strong implementation intention. Moreover, this study points out for the first time that high waste management knowledge weakens the relationship between perceived policy effectiveness and attitude. For residents with high waste management knowledge, the effect of simple policy publicity is limited. The findings suggest that the government should increase the breadth and depth of policy support and policy publicity to cover the entire waste management process.

Evaluations of the Roles of Organizational Support, Organizational Norms and Organizational Learning for Adopting Environmentally Friendly Technologies: A Case of Kiwifruit Farmers’ Cooperatives of Meixian, China

Environmentally friendly technologies have long been recognized as a widespread phenomenon working within the functions and performance of farms. Farmer’s cooperative organization might profoundly foster the environmentally friendly technologies (EFT) and availing competitive advantage to the farmer. Illustrated by the natural-resource-based view of the farm (NRBV), this study examined the influence of organizational support, organizational norms, and organizational learning on adopting EFT and proposed a model quantifying the impacts of these approaches towards availing competitive capabilities (i.e., cost, quality, flexibility, and delivery). The framework is empirically endorsed by employing the partial least squares approach to structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with the help of a household survey from a spectrum of 292 farmers of 38 kiwifruit cooperatives of Meixian County, China, from August to September 2020. The findings demonstrate that organizational support, organizational norms, and organizational learning positively influence EFT. Moreover, the study found EFT positively impacts product cost, product quality, product delivery, and production flexibility. Interestingly, the relationship between the adoption of environmentally friendly technologies and the competitive capabilities of kiwifruit farmers of Meixian is positively significant. The study proposes several policy recommendations emphasizing the role of organizations in the form of farmer’s cooperatives in boosting farmers to engage in proenvironmental behavior and, therefore, shifting the trends of future research directions on the adoption of environmentally friendly technologies.

CSR as a Potential Motivator to Shape Employees’ View towards Nature for a Sustainable Workplace Environment

Prior studies in the contemporary literature have largely ignored the important role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in shaping employees’ views of self and nature. Although researchers have recently started to pay considerable attention to explore the link between CSR and environmental sustainability, determining how CSR can be effective in shaping the proenvironmental behavior of employees that is missing in the existing literature. The objective of the present research study is to test the impact of microlevel CSR activities to induce environmental performance of an organization with a mediating effect of employees’ pro-environmental behaviors. This study argues that CSR activities of an organization motivate the workers to rethink the relationship between self and nature; hence, they are encouraged to participate in activities that are helpful in terms of preserving the environment, such as participating in pro-environmental activities at the workplace. The proposed model of the study was tested in the banking sector of Pakistan and analyzed by using the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique in AMOS software. The results revealed that microlevel CSR activities, using employee proenvironmental behaviors as a mediator, directly and indirectly influence environmental performance of a bank. The results of the present study are helpful for policymakers of different banking institutions to understand how they can reduce the environmental footprint of their bank by using a well-planned CSR program that can induce transcendent emotions in employees to create a sustainable environment.

How Different Are the Nordics? Unravelling the Willingness to Make Economic Sacrifices for the Environment

The Nordic countries are often considered as remarkably exceptional in terms of the proenvironmental behavior of their citizens and also as forerunners in environmental policies. However, very few empirical studies have been done at the aggregated level about how the Nordics compare to other countries. The article addresses this knowledge gap and analyzes the Nordic region in terms of willingness to make economic sacrifices, proenvironmental attitudes and behaviors. Data (N = 5877) from the environment module of the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) are utilized, with nonparametric statistical tests and multinomial logistic regression employed—wherein, emphasis is placed on the regression models for willingness as dependent variables as analysis of the first order, with attitudes, behaviors and sociodemographic variables as part of second order analysis. The findings reveal that the region’s higher levels of willingness, attitudes, and behaviors become more salient when compared to third countries. People in the Nordic region who are ‘neither willing nor unwilling’ to protect the environment can be considered as distinct, and should not be arbitrarily lumped within the categories of the ‘unwilling’ or ‘willing’ respondents. These insights allow for a deeper understanding of peoples’ willingness and the relationships to respective attitudes and behaviors beneficial towards engaging the acceptability of extant environmental policies.

Behavioral Interventions as Policy Instruments to Manage Household Water Use

Water planners and policy analysts need to pay closer attention to the behavioral aspects of water use, including the use of nonprice measures such as norms, public communications, and intrinsic motivations. Empirical research has shown that people are motivated by normative as well as economic incentives when it comes to water. In fact, this research finds that after exposure to feedback about water use, adding an economic incentive (rebate) for reducing water use holds no additional power. In other cases, nonprice measures can be a way to increase the salience, and subsequently, effectiveness of any adopted pricing mechanisms. We review these empirical findings and locate them within more general literature on normative incentives for behavioral change. Given increasing water scarcity and decreasing water security in cities, policy planners need to make more room for normative incentives when designing rules for proenvironmental behavior.